Your homework for week 4 is to continue to build your exercises, but you will be starting to add in distractions from a distance.

Settle Progression: Continue to build the settle at your own pace. Start to venue to more public spaces if you can (but this is not necessary).

Doorways: Work through your doorways exercise. Start with a boring door in your home that does not lead to anything exciting for your dog. Then progress to more exciting doors, such as the back door that leads into a garden, or front door. This exercise is also useful when entering public spaces such as the vets, a café or pet store, by asking your dog to sit and you stepping through the door, it allows you to assess the situation inside before your dog comes in. It also helps them to enter the public space in a calm and controlled manner. Try it next week when coming into class!

Loose Lead Walking Progression: Continue to build your loose lead walking using the guides each week at your pace. Try to blend in other exercises. In class we used recall during our loose lead walking, this helps to build focus from exciting exercises, back to calm exercises of walking on a lead. Mix the two together so your dog gets used to being able to regulate their emotions from calm to excited and back to calm. Start to slowly build your walking around distractions at a distance, or using family, friends and well-mannered dogs you know as a controlled distraction.

Recall: Continue to build you distance in recall as well as at a distance from distractions. Keep building your reward toolbox as you reward you dog each time. Practice the treat chase recall game to build engagement and fun during the recall training.

Leave it: When you are ready, progress to an open hand and begin to progress to being able to leave the paper on the floor or dropping from small heights.

Remember, keep your training fun! Avoid becoming too frustrated, if it’s becoming too hard, it’s time to take a break. Always end of a high note, even if that means making it easier for a successful win.

Do not train every day, train little and often for 5-6 days of the week and make sure you all get a day off to rest. Training is work for our dogs, so make sure they get a day off too!

The doorways exercise is a progression of the sit as well as a great tool for teaching impulse control. Doorways can teach calmness around a door for when you have visitors as well as setting you both up for success for a calmer, and a more focused start to a walk. If your dog wants to run out the door and becomes excitable, which means they are already on an elevated level if they come across any distractions or dogs, therefore more likely to react. Instead, they will learn to stay calm and focused on you until you are ready to start the walk together. Then if a distraction is outside your house as you step out, they are already in the right focused frame of mind to be able to remain calm and make the right choices.

What you’ll need:

A door, treats, marker word, your dog to be able to hold their sit and with distance.

Doorways exercise step by step:

Step 1: Choose a ‘boring doorway’ that doesn’t leave anywhere exciting indoors. Ask your dog to sit by the closed door, when they sit, mark and reward.

Step 2: Ask your dog to sit by a closed door and step to the door/touch the handle, go back to your dog, reward and praise. Do not ask them to sit too far away from the door.

Step 3: Ask for a sit, go to the door, pull the handle down, go back to your dog, mark and reward. The next stage is to slightly open the door, then close it and go back to your dog.

Step 4: Repeat step 3 by opening the door more each time until you can fully open the door, then continue to close and go back to your dog to reward for staying seated.

Step 5: Ask for a sit, fully open the door, step through the door, go back to your dog and reward.

Step 6: Repeat step 5 until you can fully go through the door with your dog staying seated.

Step 7: Ask for the sit, open the door, walk through the door, then call your dog to you. Reward.

Step 8: Ask for the sit, open the door, walk through the door, then call your dog to you and then progress to ask them to sit beside you whilst on the other side of the door. Reward and praise.

Step 9: Repeat this process starting from step 1 on a more difficult door.

Tip: remember to take regular breaks so it doesn’t become too boring or too hard. If your dog breaks the sit and follows you, go back a stage. Repeat each stage successfully at least 3 times before progressing to make sure they get it. After 3 perfect goes, move onto the next stage. Always end the session on a success and positive.

Training plan:

Stage 1: Teach your dog the doorways exercise on an easy door that isn’t too exciting. Make it as easy and as successful as possible so your dog understands what they need to do and will make him work harder when the doors become more difficult.

Stage 2: Repeat the doorways exercise on a more challenging door.

Stage 3: Repeat the doorways exercise at the front door. Do not just do this when going for a walk, practice it when you aren’t going for a walk so that you have more patience to slowly progress through the stages and not feel rushed because you need to go on the walk. You can also practice step 4 to promote your dog waiting by the door when its open without wanting to go out, this can be used as a building block for visitor training.

Stage 4: Start to use doorways before every walk to promote a calmer dog with more focus to set you both up for success on your walks.

This week we built on our recall around bigger distractions, blended with loose lead walking and building the distance. We also introduced a new recall game that you can use to continue to build a strong recall and to gain focus.

Start to practice your recall on a walk, either on a quiet field, or at a large distance from other dogs. When working at a distance from other dogs, start your recall at a small distance, then build the distance between you and your dog, before getting close to the other dogs/ distractions. Continue to build on the 3 D’s!

Remember to make use of equipment such as a long line to ensure success and lack of failure. If your dog doesn’t return to you and is able to get to the distraction, this will damage your recall as they will learn to self-reward. Always set them up for success and if you think they will not respond, do not damage your recall, simply manage the situation.

Use your reward toolbox! Make sure you are mixing up the rewards and building a play with your dog, whether that’s with toys or a game, such as the recall game we practiced in class using treats. As you know when your dog is distracted, one small treat isn’t enough when there’s big distractions around, set your dog’s up for success and reward with what they really enjoy, not what you think they should work for.

Recall Game: Treat Chase

Take some tasty treats and pop one on your dog’s nose (or close to them so they can smell it and become engaged). Similar to when we were become toys salespeople, make that treat seems very exciting, use your voice and actions to engage them to want to follow the treat. Then at a short distance, throw the treat to the left whilst your dog follows it. One your dog has eaten the treat, show them you have another one and guide them back to you, then as they follow the treat guide them to you, then past you to the right and throw the treat. Once they’ve eaten the treat, repeat, encourage them back to you, then throw a treat to the left, encourage them back to you then throw to the right. Allowing them to eat the treat you’ve thrown. You can then build the distance when you throw the treat.

This encourages your dog to come back to you every time in order for you to throw the next treat. Chasing the treat allows a natural behaviour for our dogs, so adding movement to the treats makes it more interesting and exciting. Therefore it builds the fun and excitement to want to chase the treat and to come back to you for another, making it an engaging game between you.

You will now be building your loose lead walking at yours and your dog’s own pace, you may be building this more out on your walks at a distance from dogs.

Tips for building your loose lead walking around distractions:

• Remember your check ins, build a strong response to their name to focus on you

• If needed add more treats to step ratio when it’s difficult or add more space away from the distraction

• Change the direction, keep your dog engaged by mixing up which way you are walking

• Add in other exercises, during loose lead, add a sit, down, wait etc. Not only will this build on the other exercises, but it adds more engagement and focus to your walk

• Use your environment, teach your dog to climb onto things, weave in and out of bollards or large stones at the park, get them to jump over things, or walk across large logs. Use the environment to engage with your dog and have fun! This will build their trust in you and mentally stimulate them.

• Give your dog a break little and often, this is where play, recall, allowing your dog to sniff and using your environment is beneficial.

Remember your body language signs to whether a dog is approachable or whether your dog is comfortable / relaxed to progress your lead walk training around other dogs. Choose the right dogs to practice around when loose lead walking is still being built. If you know any calm, well-mannered dogs you can ask their owners if you can go on a walk to use as a control to build your loose lead walking around.

Once you have been able to reach the floor with a closed fist, you can then progress with an open hand. The exercise process is exactly the same, but this time you will have the ball of paper on top of a flat hand with the hand open. Remember you want your dog to look away to understand that the word ‘leave it’ means look away you will never get it. So, take it slow, so that your dog doesn’t want the item. Now that it is more visible, it adds a level of interest.

Leave It Exercise Progression step by step:

Step 1: Have a treat in one hand and the ball of paper in the other and have both hands behind your back.

Step 2: Say your dogs name, then say ‘leave it’.

Step 3: Present the hand with the paper inside in front of you at shoulder height and display the paper in an open hand.

Step 4: Wait for your dog to look away (this may even be a blink away).

Step 5: As soon as your dog’s eyes leave the hand with the paper say your marker word. If they get frustrated, raise your hand higher to make it easier.

Step 6: Remove your hand and place it behind your back.

Step 7: Bring out the hand with the treat and reward your dog with the treat.

Step 8: Repeat 3-5 times.

Step 9: When your dog is looking away consistently, you can start to lower your hand each time, until you can bring your hand to the floor. If your dog becomes interested, close your fist and just wait for them to look away, then next time go back to the stage they were successful.

Step 10: Once you’ve got the paper down to the floor, ask your dog to ‘leave it’ then place the paper on the floor. Keep your hand close by, just in case you need to cover the paper.

Step 11: The progression is to add small drops with the paper. The movement will make it a lot more interesting to take it slow and gradually build the height of the paper drop. Eventually you will be able to ask your dog to leave it, and throw the paper. When they have looked away/ignored the paper, use your marker word, pick up the paper, then reward.

Step 12: Start from week 3 Leave it guide from the beginning using a more interesting item, such as a sock or TV remote etc and build the leave it again with the interesting item.

Step 13: Build the exercise outdoors or in different rooms.

Description Body language is extremely important as our dogs often show us clear signs when they are uncomfortable, therefore listening to these signs will help you to know when is the right time to progress your training with your dog and around other dogs. By listening to these signs you will not only progress further in your training, but your dog will learn to trust you as you listen to their communication.

If you see any of these body language signs in your dog look around at what’s happening and whether it’s something in the environment you can move away from, or whether its something you are doing (for example brushing). If its something, you or someone else is doing, then stop what you are doing and give yourself and your dog a break. Do not worry, it just means they are just feeling a little overwhelmed in that situation and need a break. Therefore, by listening to them, it stops them from having to escalate to more severe warning signs that can develop into unwanted behaviours. Also by listening to them it means you are communicating with your dog and it will help your dog built trust and confidence in you to be able to try again in the future because nothing bad happened and their boundaries were respected.

Signs might be:

• Lip licking

• Yawning

• Shaking

• Scratching

• Whale eye

• Ears back

• Puffing their chest

• Rolling over

• Still, low wagging tail

• Stiff

• Low to the ground

If these signs are ignored, it could escalate to these behaviours:

• Showing teeth

• Growling

• Lunging

• Barking

• Bite

It has been scientifically proven that dogs are not dominant and there is no such thing as an alpha. The dominance theory is a myth that has been completely debunked. These theories were originally introduced by Rudolph Schenkel in 1930s on a study of unrelated wolves in captivity in difficult conditions. Firstly, the study was even inconsistent and incorrect with wolf behaviour, let alone our pet dogs. Rudolph even said himself that he was wrong and the study wasn’t valid, however the dominance theory unfortunately has circulated the dog training world and is the biggest advocate for aversive training methods, even with the theory being disproven.

Therefore, when seeing any of these signals from our dogs, it is in no way dominance or an attempt to be alpha or ‘pack’ leader. Our dogs are not pack animals, they simply show these signs when they are either uncomfortable, unhappy in a situation, or overwhelmed. Dogs may show other signs of excitement that people may mistake for ‘dominance’. Dogs are very similar to us, with a flight or fight response, but no dog will instinctively go to a fight scenario, if this is the case, it is because it tried the flight responses through these signals and have been ignored or not understood, therefore have felt the pressure to escalate further. Through listening to our dogs, accepting boundaries and growing their confidence, you can build a wonderful bond and understanding with your dogs that will help them to progress and grow more confident.

Handling is an exercise to teach your dog to be calm and comfortably still when needed, for example putting on a harness, being groomed or when at the vets etc.

This exercise helps you to understand how your dog may feel through body language and building their trust in you so that being handled in a certain way is consensual from the dog. This helps to prevent future problems such as your dog’s behaviour escalating because their early warning signs have not been listened to. Your dog may let you do certain things when even if they don’t like it, because they have a tolerance for it when its with someone they trust, however it does not mean they will have the same tolerances if someone else needs to, such as the vet or groomer etc.

Even if your dog is comfortable being handled, this exercise is also great for teaching them to be still, which makes it a lot easier if they do need to be examined, need to be brushed, or if they need eardrops one day for example.

Building the handling exercise allows you to build a stronger bond and trust with your dog, as well as build their confidence being handled or when introducing new equipment.

It is important to respond appropriately to your dog’s body language. For example, if your dog ducks, move’s away or has wide eyes etc (see body language section), then stop what you are doing. Take a break or stop completely, then come back to the exercise another day where your dog was comfortable. This will help your dog to trust you, they will know that you are listening to them, and you will be able to progress them the next time as they build confidence in you and the exercise. If you do not listen to their subtle signals, that is when it may escalate because they feel they have no other option to make what is making them uncomfortable stop.

 Exercise Step By Step:

-Step 1: Stand on lead, hands behind back, treat in one hand, nothing in the other (make sure the treat is out of sight as we don’t want our dogs to feel conflicted by doing something they are uncomfortable with, just because there’s a treat on show).

-Step 2: Do not ask your dog to do anything, we want them to be comfortable, we are only looking for them to be still. Mark the dog for offering still behaviour, reward. Repeat and add duration of stillness.

-Step 3: Add your verbal cue (word) ‘Still’, move hand out to side at shoulder height, mark dog for being still, take away hand & reward with other hand (take away scary object before rewarding, which for now is the hand) x5.

-Step 4: If your dog is remaining still and relaxed, you can start to move the hand down to gradually each go to eventually touch the dog. You can then progress slowly to touch your dog on different places on their body. Remember if you see any signs they are uncomfortable, stop the exercise.