
Attention: Wait for the Questions and Answers
A quick memetic look at the Attention behavior from Ron Watson of Pawsitive Vybe.
A quick memetic look at the Attention behavior from Ron Watson of Pawsitive Vybe.
S2E1 of Pawsitive Vybe, the dog training & lifestyle webseries. This episode focuses on unsolicited eye contact, aka: Attention, and Dismissal.
Slowing down a disc dog’s on field movements is important for safety and performance. It is also important for your dog’s frame of mind as well. Thoughtful and purposeful work is always better than bonkers. Here’s 8 tips to help you slow down your dog:
STARR Protocol for Reactive Dogs Working with reactive or fearful dogs is a specialty of Pawsitive Vybe. The key to dealing with these troubled dogs
Many dogs get very high when working for cookies and clicks. Some go over threshold when working. I think this is fairly common for clicker trainers. It’s part of the reason that some seemingly simple behaviors can take months to create and is responsible for much of the frustration that positive trainers experience.
How do you teach a high drive dog to Wait? Teach him to Bite on cue. This bitework lesson is about creating a wait with a Bite Cue.
One of the things we like to do at Pawsitive Vybe is to use a finger point to mark behaviors. The above video is a
Attention and Targeting are the basis of team based work. Without these skills teams don’t function very effectively. Shaping…
Eye contact in the presence of a disc earns the opportunity to bite the disc. It’s brutally simple and effective for keeping dogs off of the handler and for helping…
Attention as a default behavior leads to an immediate, automagic Wait behavior. Attention can be marked and the Trigger for a behavior employed to keep the dog in position for a significant amount of time. Just a few reps of this can lead to a strong Wait behavior.
Eye contact or Attention is often a question that the dog is asking the handler. Dog touches something and looks up at you? That is a question as to whether you appreciated the touching of the thing. Answer that question and the dog should respond.
Dog is walking around, sees something and looks to you? That is a question. Dog is bored and looks to you while hanging out? Also a question.
Knowing that Attention is often a question and responding to that question or the dog's needs that underly that question is key in dog training.
The dog looking to you can also be thought of as the Answer to the question.
It's the answer when the dog touches the thing and proudly looks at you as if to say, "Right! Got it!"
And it's also the first answer to any question or any situation that the dog encounters. "Ooo! This is new... What do I do?" Dog looks to the handler.
Understanding and cultivating this dialogue is important. Dog and handler passing questions and answers back and forth to each other with Attention and eye contact is a big part of successful cooperative work with a dog.
This dialogue and resolution of questions and answers is what creates a thoughtful dog who is content to wait for the appropriate trigger in this situation or is apt to look first to the handler when there is a distraction.
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