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FF140: Connect and Engage with Games: Build Focus for Sport Dogs

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FF140: Connect and Engage with Games: Build Focus for Sport Dogs

Course Details

Having a dog that’s focused on you is essential not only in dog sports, but in life.  Sometimes it's hard to keep our dogs' attention, though!  In this class, you’ll find out why that happens and what to do about it.

When dogs disconnect, they take focus off of you or the task and turns that attention toward other behaviors or distractions in the environment.  This could look like the dog sniffing on the ground, running to another person, scratching at the collar, getting the zoomies, or other behaviors not related to the task at hand.

Our goal should be to prevent this from happening as much as possible!

In order to prevent it, we need to know what’s causing your dog to disconnect.  This class will help you understand why dogs disengage and what to do about it in the moment.  During this class, you will learn a variety of games to help build connection with your dog. 

You’ll also learn how to make disconnection less likely to happy in the future through games and training.

If your dog is struggling with losing focus or disengaging, join me to connect and engage with your dog!

This class is appropriate for any dog, performance or pet.  Regardless of your goals, you will learn plenty of ideas to keep your dog focused on you in both dog sports environments and out in the real world.

This class will have a Teacher's Assistant (TA) available in the Facebook study group to help the bronze and silver students! Directions for joining that Facebook group will be in the classroom after you register.

Trailer for this class:

Teaching Approach

Lectures will be released weekly on the first day of each week.  Each lecture contains written information with short videos to demonstrate.  Videos do not include captions or voiceovers. 

Although there will be specific activities and games demonstrated to teach your dog, some of the lectures will focus on concepts, such as how to read your dog in different situations.  Students should be able to take these concepts and apply them to their unique situations.

Nicole Wiebusch Instructor: Nicole Wiebusch

Nicole Wiebusch CPDT-KA (she/her) has been competing in dog sports for over 25 years.  Starting in 4-H, Nicole quickly became addicted to the sport of obedience and has been showing in obedience, rally, and agility ever since.  (Click here for full bio and to view Nicole's upcoming courses)

Syllabus

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 (Subject to Change)

1.1 Defining Connection

1.2 The Big Question - WHY Does Your Dog Disconnect?

1.3 Step 1 - Learn to Recognize Disconnection

1.4 The Importance of Offered Foundation Behaviors

1.5 Ask the Questions - Can Your Dog Eat and Respond to Reward Markers?

 

2.1 Processes for Teaching New Behaviors Successfully

2.2 Dog Not Ready to Work - What Does This Look Like?

2.3 Game: Where’s Your Brain?

2.4 Ready to Work and Start Routines



3.1 Why Do Dogs Disconnect After Reinforcement?

3.2 Game: Ready...Treat...Eye Contact!

3.3 Two-Cookie Game

3.4 Why and How to Use Loopy Training

 

4.1 Game: Sit Means Sit...Here there and everywhere

4.2 Game: Breaking Down Distractions

4.3 Recognizing Pressures for Your Dog

4.4 Reducing Reinforcement

 

5.1 Internal Factors - Stress and Anxiety

5.2 Does Your Dog Really Understand?

5.3 Fearful Dogs

 

6.1 Game: I’m Busy...Relax!

6.2 Stations and Down Stays

6.3 Crates, Holding Leash, Peek

6.4 Game: All Done - End of Work Routines

Prerequisites & Supplies

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No special equipment is needed.  Having access to multiple locations will be helpful as your dog learns these games, but the majority of exercises can be done in a small area.

Sample Lecture

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FF140 3.1 Why Do Dogs Disconnect After Reinforcement?

 

Why is it that dogs often disconnect after reinforcement?  Have you ever noticed that your dog checks out after he or she has received a reward?  This is a pretty common problem, and it can be exhausting to keep your dog in the game.  So, why do dogs disconnect after reinforcement?

 

Handler Disconnects After Rewarding the Dog

 

How many times do we hand our dog a treat or toss the dog a toy and turn away, moving to the next rep, to stop the video camera, or to talk to an instructor?  Eventually, your dog will learn that pattern and will not make any effort to stay engaged.  Keeping the dog engaged after the reward and before we start the next rep isn’t always at the top of our list!

 

The Reward Itself Can Distract the Dog From Returning Attention to the Handler

 

Have you ever had a piece of pie that was so good that you closed your eyes and said “mmm, this is so delicious!”  You aren’t thinking of much else at that point, are you?  To some dogs, that piece of kibble you just fed is as delicious as that piece of pie.  The dog’s focus is now on the food and he or she must consciously switch it back to you.  

 

Does your dog ever run around with the toy and show you he or she would rather play with that toy for a while?  Dogs who love toys also can become distracted by the toy reward.  The dog must take his or her attention from that toy and focus on you, which can be hard!  

 

So the handler often disconnects after giving the reinforcement, and the dog often becomes distracted by that reward.  Both of these problems contribute to the dog struggling to reconnect with you after the reward.  What can we do?

 

Planning Training Sessions to Decrease Disconnection

 

To have a more effective and efficient training session, it’s important to manage that time between the treat and the next rep.  It’s inefficient to have to get the dog’s attention back on us after every reward.  It’s hard on you and it’s hard on the dog, especially if your dog is sniffing around the floor looking for more treats or running in large circles with his or her toy.

 

Planning a smart training session is critical to maintaining connection between you and your dog.  To help improve your training, think about your plan. What are you going to work on?  How many reps are you going to do, or how long will your session be?  How will you reward, and how will you set up for the next rep?  What are you going to do if the dog makes a mistake?  How are you going to end the session?

 

Once you have figured out what to work on, your next decision should be the length of your training session.  To do your best training, the session should be short. What is considered “short” will vary depending on what you’re working on.  If I’m practicing a single skill, I will usually set a timer for 1-2 minutes at the most.  If I’m shaping a behavior, my timer is at one minute max.  As you start chaining behaviors and adding endurance to your routines, obviously your sessions will be longer, but have a plan before you jump into a session.

 

If you’d prefer not to use a timer, you can count out the number of rewards you’d like to use in a session.  Say you’re teaching stand to down.  I’ll usually do about 10-12 treats for a session like this.  For each rep, I give a treat in the down position and a reset treat to get the dog standing again.  This means I’ll do 5-6 reps before ending that session and moving onto something else.

 

Planning your training sessions will help keep you from disconnecting from your dog during that session.  If you don’t disconnect after giving the dog each reward, it will be much easier to keep your dog engaged throughout the whole session.  If your criteria involves you and the dog staying connected through the whole session, you will have a much more effective use of your training time.

 

So How Do We Fix It?

 

The good news is, we can do stuff about this!!  We can make it better!  With a little prep and a little training, you can have awesome sessions with lots of rewards and little to no disconnection from your dog!

 

We covered the first step already - plan those sessions!  How will you manage that time between the reinforcement and the beginning of the next rep?  Some trainers call this “loopy training”.  Loopy training involves having a plan for every second of the training session and usually involves using reinforcement in a way that sets the dog up for the next rep without any unwanted behaviors in between (like disconnecting!).  Loopy training is pretty awesome and deserves it’s own lecture, so you’ll read more about that soon!

 

In addition, there are a couple games that I like to teach to my dogs.  The two-cookie or two-toy game teaches my dog to eat or get the reinforcement and come right back to me to get more.  It shows the dog that after the reward, there may be the opportunity for another one!  This also helps the dog with the concept that after the reward, I might ask for another behavior that will lead to another reward.

 

I also teach a simple eye contact game.  After my dog swallows the treat, I will mark and reward eye contact.  I start a clean little loop (there’s that word again!) of treat, eye contact, treat, eye contact.  No disconnection and the dog learns to stay in the game.

 

There will be an additional lecture containing more details about these games.  For now, you should understand why a dog often disconnects after the reward and how to recognize it.  Have a plan for your training sessions to manage that time between reps, and plan to teach your dog some games to make reconnecting with you much easier.

Testimonials & Reviews

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A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...

Nicole is an excellent observer of behaviour- both dog and human and a really strong problem solver. She explains concepts clearly and directly and her videos are very helpful. I will gladly seek out Nicole’s classes and workshops for more!       


Nicole had very clear Instructions given in small increments which meant continuous success!  Also, her videos and comments were excellent.


This course is very well organized in its progression. This makes it easy to measure your own progress. Nicole is perfect, the videos she offers are quite relevant. Thanks !


Great informative course, I really enjoyed this.

Registration

There are no scheduled sessions for this class at this time. We update our schedule frequently, so please subscribe to our mailing list for notifications.

Registration opens at 11:00am Pacific Time.

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Tuition $ 260.00 $ 130.00 $ 65.00
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