Games Help Distracted & Fearful Dogs

Games Help Distracted Dogs

These 3 dogs (Azul, Roz, & Maverick) are all Service Dogs which means they need to be able to focus on the job no matter what is happening around them. Many dogs are easily distracted in the presence of other dogs. Games such in this picture can help dogs learn to focus around distractions. This is a calming game to help the dogs relax after a play session. Their job is to stay on their station and listen for their name to be called to release them. It may sound simple, but it's not easy for dogs that were just racing around.

Games can be set up differently depending on your overall goal. You can set up something with lots of movement if you want to get your dog responding to cues more rapidly or your can set up something with very little movement if you want your dog to calm down. For dogs that struggle with rebounding after something really exciting or fearful, you can design games that start fast and slowly switch tracks to calmer, slower activities.

Often people get stuck on thinking a dog will rest when they get tired, then give dogs more exercise when bad behaviors start to happen. Sometimes a puppy chewing on your shoes needs a walk or play time, but sometimes that puppy chewing on your shoes really needs a nap but does know yet how to settle. Just like children, dog's do not come pre-installed with an off switch. Thankfully games can be used to help teach a dog calming behaviors that they can do without destroying the house. You wouldn't go on a roller coaster or something really exciting that gets your adrenaline up, then simply lay down for a nap. It's not really fair to expect our dogs to do that on their own either.

As in the picture above, the dogs became really aroused or excited by playing with each other. They played roughly 20 minutes in the Go-Go-Go mindset. When they'd had enough, they came to me for human interaction. All 3 dogs followed me around the Training Center while I gathered the stations. This took them from a running state of adrenaline rush down to a slower but still moving state of mind. Once the stations were set up, they all chose their own station. I started with simply asking them all to come to me for a treat, then get on a station for a treat, having them all move back forth. Then we slowly transitioned to everyone holding their position until their name was called to come get a treat and return to their station. All of this was taught with previous games starting with 1 dog at a time.

This brings me to another point in why we need to use games for training, No matter what game you set up, there is always a way to make it slightly harder, slightly more entertaining, slightly more reinforcing for the dog. Games always start simple and build up! Watch this cone game with Azul to see how we start with a simple Go Around.

In this Movement Puzzle the frisbees represent a start and stop place where reinforcement will be delivered. The cones start out really close together so Azul can learn the basics of going around. Then the cones start to move out further apart to work on the concept of working at greater distances. Azul struggles when I change things to quickly, so I have to change my game set up to make it easier. This meant I had to get another cone to fill the empty space so he didn't take a short cut. Azul already knows the cue to go around but he's never played this game before so he's moving slowly. At the end Azul tells me he is done with this game by going in between my legs. This tells me he wants to play his favorite game of moving together as a team with Azul standing between my legs. We are a bit out of camera range for this game, but I think you can tell what we are doing.

Games Help Fearful Dogs

When Lana first came into the Yooper Paws Training Center she was extremely scared, timid and barky! Like many owners, Lana's person didn't quite know what she was getting into when she agreed to give Lana a home. While Lana's person knew a great deal about training Aussies, she needed help figuring out how to deal with the fearfulness. We spent 6 sessions building up Lana's confidence around other people and dogs, teaching Lana how to process the threats in the environment better and how to communicate her needs to her person. Lana's person learned to read Lana's micro movements to better predict when Lana would feel the need to lash out in a barking frenzy. Helping Lana feel safe, calm, and happy in the environment was our goal.

Lana and her person now join in on the Wednesday morning walks almost every week. She used to bark at the sight of one dog, and now she walks with 3-5 other dogs successfully. On our Distracted & Fearful Dog Walks, we stop to play games throughout the walk. We use games that help dogs learn to walk passed other dogs on the trail, learn about being the leader of the walk and following other dogs, explore the environment, and focus on their person when requested. Lana and her person display awesome teamwork on these walks as they support each other along the trail.

We also introduced Lana to nosework! This one thing of learning how to use her nose to find an object of interest or a specific scent has helped Lana tremendously. Lana went from barking and asking to leave the Training Center to now wanting to run into the training center for some fun. I try to always have some good things for Lana to sniff, lick, and chew when she arrives so that she can have some safe exploration time. Then we set up for our nosework session. Check out this video that shows a simple set up where Lana is trying to find the scent in a box.

Lana sure makes finding the scent look easy! Many times she goes right to the box with the scent without even questioning the other box. Since Lana is still working on confidence building we provide lots of searches where she can easily be successful. The video above is just a short clip of the session, if you want to watch the full video it is over 20 minutes long and available on the Yooper Paws YouTube Channel.

Continue to Post 3 in the Games Serie to learn about Obstacle Courses

Helping Distracted & Fearful Dogs

March Weekend Workshop Replays!

As part of our March Madness: Focus Around Distractions Theme Yooper Paws of Love hosted 2 Workshops to help local and virtual clients by providing the tools to help dog owners better support their dogs. You can register for those workshops on this post. Once you register you will receive payment info and a link to view the Workshop you have registered for.

Helping the Distracted Dog!

This one hour workshop is designed to help dog owners learn skills to help their dog become successful in distracted environments. 

Cost $10 per person!

FREE for current Yooper Paws Clients!

Topics include: 

• Using distance away from the distraction successfully.
• How to start training with distractions that can be controlled.
• How to support your dog around unexpected distractions.
• Determining when to train around a distraction vs use your exit strategy.

This workshop is designed to give you the skills to start your training journey around distractions with the aid of a skilled Canine Coach. 

Dogs who are overly reactive are experiencing HUGE emotions! In this workshop you will learn about helping your dog feel safe, calm & happy using connection based methods. When we develop connection based training with our dogs, we move away from corrective based techniques that were taught decades ago to new science based methods that show a dog what we want them to do.  This is the first step in helping your dog learn to be successful around distractions.

If you are a current Yooper Paws Client or working with a Crazy2Calm Canine Coach, you can receive this workshop for free by placing the name of the group you are with in the registration form!

Helping Fearful Dogs Feel Safe!

Cost $20 per person!

Only $15 for current Yooper Paws Clients!

As dog owners, we often are surprised or caught off balance if/when our dogs start over reacting to changes in the environment. Perhaps it's a car pulling in the driveway, seeing people or other dogs, or hearing sounds such as gun shots but most dogs are fearful of something. When that fear is based on something easily controlled, such as Azul's fear of balloon animals, we can manage the situation quite easily by avoiding the triggering object. But when those fears are based on uncontrollable objects such as other people walking their dogs down the trail or thunder booming in the sky, we need to take a different approach to helping our dogs feel safe. The bottom line is fearful dogs are more prone to barking, lunging, and even biting others. The best way to improve their manners is to help them feel safe. Once they feel safe we can begin training to help them fit better in the family. If you want to learn how to help your fearful dog, this is a great starting place!

Yooper Paws Clients that are currently in a 6 session package or the Service Dog Mentor Program can receive this Workshop at a 25% discount making it only $15 for nearly 2 hours of info!

Also check out this FREE PDF Helping Your Dog Feel Safe!

Register for either of these Weekend Workshops here:

You will receive an email with the links to the Workshops you've selected withing 24 hrs of submitting this form.

PayPal 

Venmo

If you need assistance with paying this fee please contact us via email at yooperpaws@gmail.com.

FAD2 Workshop

Adolescent & young adult dogs often struggle most with distractions that are beyond our control. This can be other people and/or dogs we meet while out on a walk, wild animals or pets that pop up unexpectedly, or any of a million other things that our dogs might react to. However this is NOT the place we want to start with training sessions.

 
If you want to help your dog succeed around distractions, you first have to teach them the skills to succeed in a no or low distraction environment. All training should start at home! There are a ton of games you can play to help teach your dog the skills they need to succeed while increasing your skills as a team. We are going to be going over lots of these games in the FAD2 Mini-workshop! 

The FAD2 Workshop will take place March 22nd - 25th!

An email will go out every morning at 8am for those subscribed to the email list AND a FB Event post will be added to the event every day at the same time for those who prefer the FB Format. 

The info will be the same in both places so you only need to follow one of them.

Discussion on the Topic of the Day can be done on the FAD Discussion Group and we will be hosting a live Q&A each evening. Check out the FB Group to see the time for the Q&A Live each day.

The FAD2 Workshop will build on to last year's workshop, so be sure to go back and watch that before March 22nd to catch up.  Here are links to last year's workshop on the Yooper Paws website.

FAD Day 1 - "What is Focus?"

FAD Day 2 - "Understanding Emotions Better"

FAD Day 3 - "Setting Up the Environment!"

FAD Day 4 -  "Focus Exercises & Games!"

Here is the lineup for FAD2

FAD2 Day 1 - Environmental Processing

FAD2 Day 2 - The Science Around High Arousal

FAD2 Day 3 - Helping Your Dog Feel Safe, Calm, & Happy

FAD2 Day 4 - All About Reinforcement

Please fill out this registration form to be added to the email list for the FAD2 Workshop!

Thank You For Registering for the FAD2 Workshop! You will receive an email confirmation the week before the workshop begins with additional information.

 

FAD Workshop - Day 4

Welcome to Day 4 of the FAD Workshop!

The number 1 distraction among those who registered is other dogs and today's information is focused on that issue!  At almost 2 yrs old, Azul's biggest distraction is new dogs entering into our environment so we practice remaining calm often.  Check out today's video for more information about training exercises you can do with your dog around other dogs. Then check out the games below!

Here is a Google Presentation on Exercises that shows you how to do 2 great exercises with your dog with the help of a friend with their dog.

Magic Hand Game

Food dropping: with your arm bent at a 90° angle allow the dog to move on it’s own and drop a piece of food from between your fingers. 

Don’t worry if they don’t catch it right away. They will learn. 

This teaches the dog to follow your hand.

Whip It or Flirt Pole Fun

You can buy a flirt pole made for dogs or a horse lunge works nice for large dogs.  But you can also make a homemade flirt pole with a rope or old leash.  The idea behind this game is to build value for playing with you, the handler, by extending your reach out further away from your body so that your dog has to chase the toy more enthusiastically.

If I'm teaching this game to a house with older kids, we make a homemade version of attaching a soft tug toy or soft webby ball to about 6ft of rope.  The kids can run dragging the rope behind them and add in some quick turns or gentle swings of the rope toy.  If you are not a runner, or plan to play this game from a chair, you can attach the rope to an old broom handle, rod, or stick to extend your reach farther.

The first thing I do is work on getting that On/Off Switch we discussed previously in this workshop.  Your dog will get amped up with this toy, so don't punish them if they struggle with the drop or stop cue you've previously taught.  Just be patient and wait them out.  If the toy stops moving and you stop tugging, typically the dog will get bored and drop the toy allowing you to play some more.  

Practice this arousal up, arousal down exercise with simple cues until it becomes easy for your dog to follow your cues.  Then you can add in more advanced cues to help your dog focus on you more.

Be careful playing this game!

If you're dog is spinning to fast or making quick direction changes, they could injure themselves.  Be sure to play at a speed and difficulty level safe for your dog!

Also be careful to avoid tangles with the line that could injury your feet or your dog's feet.  The first thing I teach my dog is an "All Stop!" cue so that if a tangle starts we can fix it ASAP and then play some more.

FAD Workshop - Day 3

  

Welcome to Day 3 of the FAD Mini-Workshop!

On Day 3, we take a look at the distractions our dogs get most amped up about and how we can set up training sessions in the environments where are dogs can be most successful then slowly building up to more distracting environments.

A to B/ U-Turns Games 

U-turns are important no just to teach proper heeling/loose leash walking and to avoid unwanted things, dogs, cats, strangers, or even shopping carts in stores. The basic idea is to turn quickly with your dog, in either direction. 

1. The game is simple, with the lead in both hands, slide the hand closest to the dog down the leash, close to the dog. 
2. As you turn, call your dog toward you. 
3. This should be done in both directions and on both sides of the dog.

Again, start in. Low distraction environment and gradually add distractions. 

Pace Games - Quick, Quick, Stop! 

When your dog is slightly distracted by something in the environment, changing your pace can be an awesome way to get them re-focus on you.

1. Since most dogs like to move faster then we do, I tend to make the first pace change a bit more rapid then our typical walking pace.  I use the double cue, Quick, Quick, to build some excitement and encourage Azul to change pace to keep up with me.  This cue also works well if we need to cross a road or move more quickly to avoid an obstacle or distraction.
2. The second pace change I add in is a rapid Stop!  I like this one because if my dog is not focused, they get gentle encouragement to help them be successful.  I will place my hand gently on Azul's back a second before I cue the Stop, then if he doesn't stop he can feel the hand drag slowly down his back. Then after a bit a practice they learn to focus more intently during the Quick pace knowing that I could quickly Stop at any moment.
3. Once your dog has those 2 pace changes down, you can get creative with other changes.  Some of my favorites are Slow Mo mode, left/right turns, a brief wait at an intersection or when something is crossing our path then right back into the previous pace, and so forth.

Here is a link to Nala, a 3 yr Aussie, and her handler playing this game for the first time.

https://youtu.be/Rg65lrtlCIU

Here is a link to Maverick, a 1 yr Husky, and his handler playing for the first time.  Note that Maverick is much more excited and offering a jump every now and then.  This is an important example of being careful to not amp your dog up too much or they will struggle more with the rapid stop.

https://youtu.be/TVFO3lb0RSM

Wrap Up of Day 3

We hope you enjoyed the games and information presented today!  It's important to remember that while we can not control all the distractions in our environment, we can control the environments we put our dogs in.  Start small with less distracting environments and slowly build up to more distracting environments after you've had a chance to build up a history of playing the games in this workshop.

If you have questions, you can post them in our FAD Workshop FB Group here.  We would love to see your videos playing the games and hear your feedback from Day 3 of the FAD Workshop!

Penny Beeman

Owner of Yooper Paws of Love

Professional, Force Free, Dog Trainer

& Animal Behavior Consultant, ILLIS

Visit my website at: www.yooperpaws.com

Find us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/YooperPawsOfLove/

Cindy Campbell

Owner of Cindy Campbell Dog Training

Visit my website at: https://cindycampbelldogtraining.com/

Find us Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/BrienwoodsAmericanFlyerNikolaRN

Training Around Distractions

Adolescent dogs often struggle most with distractions that are beyond our control.  This can be other people and/or dogs we meet while out on a walk, wild animals or pets that pop up unexpectedly, or any of a million other things that our dogs might react to.  However this is NOT the place we want to start with training sessions. 

If you want to help your dog succeed around distractions, you first have to teach them the skills to succeed on a no or low distraction environment.  All training should start at home!  There are a ton of games you can play to help teach your dog the skills they need to succeed while increasing your skills as a team.  We are going to be going over lots of these games in the FAD Mini-workshop that is quickly approaching!  If you haven't registered already, please do so here.

For this post, I'm going to be going over the importance of practicing around distractions you can control or manage more effectively as well as some tips for arranging those training sessions for success.  Since Azul's biggest distraction, as with many others, is other dogs, my examples are going to focus on working with other dogs.  These same tips can be applied to nearly any distraction you can manage.

Reach out to friends and family members with dogs first that are willing to practice with you as your run through various exercises and training.  You can use the same few dogs for multiple training sessions until your dog is catching on to the exercises and is able to respond to your directions around those same dogs.  Then you can repeat the exercises with additional dogs in your neighborhood.  When I was new to a community without knowing lots of people with other dogs, I reached out to local 4-H groups and dog groomers asking for people who wanted to meet up to practice similar skills with their dogs.  And that's how I met the first participants in my Focus Around Distractions Group Class that I now teach twice a year.

If you live in Northern Michigan you can register for this class here!

If you do not live local, you can register for my Crazy Adolescents Classroom to learn about the FAD Exercises I use.  This classroom will be released at the end of March!

Distance from distractions.

When it comes to conducting training sessions around dogs or other distractions, distance is your best friend!  Out an a walk, with an unexpected distraction, it can be hard to work at a safe distance where your dog is finding it easier to follow your cues.  But it practice sessions with other controlled dogs, you can work at whatever distance is needed for success whether that is 20 ft away or 200 ft away from the dog.  The importance of the exercises is to work at a distance that keeps your dog from over-reacting and with time you slowly reduce that distance.  I try to work at exercises until I can have a calm dog at my side with another dog about 6 ft away from us without any extreme reactions or need to interact with that other dog.  

If your dog is fearful or anxious, you might have a larger distance between dogs as your target goal.  That's where I shoot for reducing the distance we start at by half.  When Cam first came to our house he was sent over threshold by a dog at over 200 yards away from us because he was so fearful that other dog was going to attack him.  So my first goal was to help Cam work up to being 100 yards away from another dog.  As you can imagine, this took quite a large field to do this training in!  Along with that, I want my dog to be successful doing 2 skills with the other dog at that distance; sitting calmly to watch the other dog and walking nicely on leash while in sight of the other dog.  We'd switch back and forth from sitting and feeding high value treats for looking towards me and away from the other dog back to walking back and forth in sight of the other dog and rewarding for keeping the leash relaxed.  Once you master these 2 skills, you can start adding in any other cues your dog knows to the training sessions and slowly begin working your way closer.  This same type of training session can be applied to dog that is over-exited wanting to play with the distraction dog however since fear isn't involved you generally can make progress much faster and add in additional cues much faster.

Teamwork skills

With the overall goal of this type of training session being that your dog finds it easier to focus on you more then the distraction, increasing your value as someone your dog wants to be with is super important.  I want my dogs to choose me over distractions in the environment, not be forced to stay with me when they really want to go party somewhere else.  Do you remember being a teenager, not wanting to spend time with your parents because you'd rather go hang with your friends?  Adolescent dogs who are social, often struggle with this because their friends are simply so much more fun.  By using games during your training sessions, you increase your value and help your dog make the easy choice of wanting to be with you.  This again, is based on working at a distance that you make that choice EASY!  And you match your dog's energy level so that you become the most exciting thing in their world.  Dog trainers around the world have developed hundreds of games to help teach this.  I'm going to be demonstrating some of my favorite games in the FAD Mini-Workshop each day, and so will my co-host Cindy Campbell.

Part of my Focus Around Distractions Class is teaching people who to determine which games will work best for their dog.  Since dog's choice what they like best, we can increase their chance of success if we learn what motivates them the most.  For Cam, that's a tennis ball.  For Azul that's typically tug or chase games (not using a ball), especially using his flirt pole. However, we can't just chuck a ball or carry a flirt pole around with us 24/7 for those unexpected distractions.  But we can increase our game base to include games that teach the concepts we will use in our training sessions with controlled distractions.

FAD Mini-Workshop

Have I got you excited about our FAD Mini-Workshop yet?  I hope so, because it's going to be simply amazing!  I hope you plan on attending as it is free.  We've been fielding a few questions about the workshop, so I'm going to answer a few of those here.

Platforms:

First we are using 2 platforms to make it easy for everyone!  The first would be this website where the resources presented will remain available long after the workshop is over.  The second platform we are using is a Facebook event to make it easier for all those social people who prefer that format.  Both formats will have the exact same info, so you only have to follow one each day not both.  You can choose which ever format works best for you.  The FB Event will only be available during the event though so if you participate there, you may also want to bookmark this blog so you can refer back to the materials after the workshop is complete.

Time of day:  

The workshop is scheduled to be at 8AM Central Time.  However this is just the time of day that the training materials will be released.  You are in no way required to participate at that time!  You can watch and read the materials at any time throughout the day.

If you have any additional questions, let us know.  Cindy and I are happy to help make this workshop successful for everyone!

What distracts your dog?

 

Azul & Cam exploring scents in an old barn.

Different dogs find different things distracting and for a whole ton of different reasons!  Before we can work to get our dog's focus on us instead of distractions we have to do a little digging into what distracts our dogs.  This post is designed to help you determine what is distracting to your dog.

Recognizing Common Distractions

It doesn't matter if you live in an urban environment or a rural environment, there are bound to be lots of distractions in your environment that you dog finds fascinating.  Wildlife such as birds, squirrels, deer, moles, and so many others are popular in most outdoor spaces.  Other pets inside your house, out in the neighborhood, and visiting friend's homes are also common distractions.  Just because your dog gets along well with your cat, that doesn't mean they are going to get along with your friend's cat.  People tend to be a huge distraction as well, urging your dog to want to go greet them or bark to create space away from them.  This list could be endless because there are simply way to many possibilities.

No doubt there are some things in your personal list of distractions that mildly effect your dog and other distractions that quickly set your dog in crazy motion at first sight.  Cam absolutely loves to chase tennis balls and this can be an awesome motivator against some distractions, but can also become a distraction of it's own if I'm trying to get him to focus on anything else.  Strange dogs are also a huge distraction of Cam's so if that dog he doesn't trust is also chasing a tennis ball, Cam is over threshold instantly!

Throughout this month, I want you to create a list of 5-10 distractions and try to rate them in order of most distracting, #1 worst, to least distracting, #10 mildly distracting.  You can keep building your list as you encounter things over the next month.  And future posts will refer to this list as we explore March Madness: Distractions together.

The Emotions Behind the Distraction

In February we discussed how emotions impact our dog's behaviors.  Our dog's reacting to any distraction is based on the emotional feeling they get when the first see, smell, or hear that distraction.  Their behavior helps us to determine which emotion they are feeling.  Here are a few of the common emotions that are impacted by distractions.

FEAR - A distraction that causes a fear reaction can cause mild avoidance behaviors or extreme outrage behaviors.  These are some of the hardest distractions to work around as it takes a very long time to change a fear emotion in a dog.  And you may not be able to completely take away that fear, but you can help the dog to learn to trust in you, recall previous training to help them remember the best way to proceed safely, and teach teamwork skills so that you both can avoid these distractions as safely as possible.

JUDGEMENT/EVALUATION - This is a core survival response to a distraction and often what happens when we come across unknown dogs.  With a previous history of meeting the distraction sometimes ending on a happy note and sometimes ending an not so good note, dogs will slide into this emotional state of trying to access the situation.  They are not sure yet if the distraction is a friend or foe and they want to proceed with caution.

ALERT/AWARE - This type of response is more like, "Oh wow, there is a distraction but we are good here and can continue what we were doing before we saw the distraction."  This is what most of us aspire to or what we wish our dog did with distractions!  This is what we train for when we play the Look at That Game.

HAPPY EXCITEMENT - This can often seem like a mild fear reaction with some of the same behaviors presenting such as barking, pulling, or other spaz type reactions.  The big difference is that with a fear reaction the dog's body language is often tense and with excitement the dog's body language is often loose and wiggly.  This can be just as difficult to gain focus from a dog in this emotional state as in a fear state, but it's much easier to help them de-escalate with some practice.

OVER-ENTHUSIASTIC -  This response usually comes from a happy state of mind, but the dog is so amped up that they really can't hear anything their person is asking them to do.  This is where we as owners tend to get into trouble because the dog can easily hurt us or that distraction simply due to their bounciness.

There are many possibilities between those basic emotional reactions, but we are going to try to focus on those for our March Madness posts.  Each one of those basic emotions needs to be addressed in slightly different ways and using different types of reinforcers or motivators to help redirect our dog's attention back on us.  That is why we really need to determine what the emotion behind the distraction is before we can create the training plan around that distraction.  So in making your list, put a negative (-) mark next to distractions with emotional states that are fear/anxiety based and double negative (--) next to the distractions that cause the "create space" behaviors of barking or snapping.  Then put a positive (+) mark next to the distractions that cause excitement based emotions and a double (++) mark if that distraction sends your dog over threshold for ability to even listen to you.

Cam: Strange Dogs --, Balls -+, treats (can be + or ++ depending on the day), squirrels +, deer ++

Azul: Strange Dogs ++, Dog Friends +, Treats -, squirrels +/++, strangers/people +, people friends ++, trail scents start out +, but too many too quickly turn into ++.

Every dog is different!  So do your best to figure it out and if you need help, let me know!  I'm happy to help!