Overexcitement Around Other Dogs

[Cosmolo]

I use the cue as soon as they look at the distraction, then immediately reward.

[corvus]

The main use of a cue in my eyes is the ability to warn your dog when a sudden environmental change is about to occur. It's taken us a while to get this working, but I think Erik is finally starting to actively look for what he's meant to be looking at when I tell him out of the blue to Look At That. This is a massive advantage when you have noticed something coming but your dog has not. It means they can be told to prepare themselves for something unexpected and they have a rule structure for how to handle it calmly. Most of the time I don't cue, though. Erik's job is to notice things and tell me he's noticed them by looking at them and then back to me. I reward that A LOT. It's easy to fall into the trap of using this as a management tool and only practising it when there's a problem. Do that with the wrong dog and you can make the problem worse.

In the initial stages, the click is used both as a marker and an interruptor. Therefore, you click when the dog is looking at the stimulus. You're marking the behaviour, but they will turn back to you for their treat, so you are simultaneously interrupting them looking and thus hopefully preventing them from getting fixated. If they get fixated anyway and don't respond to the clicker, then yes, you are too close. Or perhaps you just need more practise. More distance never hurts IMO. If the behaviour you want is looking at you and ignoring the stimulus, that's fine, just keep clicking for looking and the focus on you will probably come on its own. IME once the dog sees LAT as a trick they can offer to get a treat, they often don't care enough about the stimulus anymore to want to look at it. They get into training mode and you have to cue it to get them to look away from you. We have a release cue that tells the dogs the bar is closed and they can go do what they like for a bit. They often try to tell us what they would like to do is more training. I'm a sucker for a dog that wants to train and can't resist rewarding it sometimes.

[Vickie]

OK...tell me where I am going wrong. I thought I would try LAT today in a trial situation. Armed with yummy treats & a clicker, everytime she glanced at a distraction, I clicked & treated, before she had time to react to the distraction. We went on to do two lovely rounds without her getting distracted BUT......people who know better than me, said I should be clicking & treating ONLY when she takes her eyes off the distraction & looks at me I switched to this, & we then did two lousy rounds where she looked at everything else but me So Who is right....do I click & treat when she looks at the distraction OR after she decides to look back at me.

what is she getting distracted by? Is she both distracted outside and inside of the ring? I doubt switching methods in one day had any impact at all on your runs, especially if she's prone to distraction while running.

Sounds like you need some serious work on your reward system.

I know someone in agility who used LAT between runs at trials as her dog was prone to reactivity outside of the ring but was fine in the ring. In the end she gave up on it as the LAT game became more fun for him than the chance to earn a reward in agility & the result WAS distraction both inside & outside of the ring.

[sheena]

OK...tell me where I am going wrong. I thought I would try LAT today in a trial situation. Armed with yummy treats & a clicker, everytime she glanced at a distraction, I clicked & treated, before she had time to react to the distraction. We went on to do two lovely rounds without her getting distracted BUT......people who know better than me, said I should be clicking & treating ONLY when she takes her eyes off the distraction & looks at me I switched to this, & we then did two lousy rounds where she looked at everything else but me So Who is right....do I click & treat when she looks at the distraction OR after she decides to look back at me.

what is she getting distracted by? Is she both distracted outside and inside of the ring? I doubt switching methods in one day had any impact at all on your runs, especially if she's prone to distraction while running.

Sounds like you need some serious work on your reward system.

I know someone in agility who used LAT between runs at trials as her dog was prone to reactivity outside of the ring but was fine in the ring. In the end she gave up on it as the LAT game became more fun for him than the chance to earn a reward in agility & the result WAS distraction both inside & outside of the ring.

She gets distracted in the ring, not a lot, but just enough to put us one or two seconds over time & its mainly dogs running in the other ring that pull her attention away from the job at hand. I did some more LAT today at the trial & she ran well, but still overtime, due to small pauses to look over her shoulder At monday night's training she doesn't get distracted, so I can only really practice this in trial situations. I am going to a seminar with Ashley Roach tomorrow...anyone know about him...he was our judge for the weekend.

[Aidan3]

OK...tell me where I am going wrong. I thought I would try LAT today in a trial situation. Armed with yummy treats & a clicker, everytime she glanced at a distraction, I clicked & treated, before she had time to react to the distraction. We went on to do two lovely rounds without her getting distracted BUT......people who know better than me, said I should be clicking & treating ONLY when she takes her eyes off the distraction & looks at me I switched to this, & we then did two lousy rounds where she looked at everything else but me So Who is right....do I click & treat when she looks at the distraction OR after she decides to look back at me.

what is she getting distracted by? Is she both distracted outside and inside of the ring? I doubt switching methods in one day had any impact at all on your runs, especially if she's prone to distraction while running.

Sounds like you need some serious work on your reward system.

I know someone in agility who used LAT between runs at trials as her dog was prone to reactivity outside of the ring but was fine in the ring. In the end she gave up on it as the LAT game became more fun for him than the chance to earn a reward in agility & the result WAS distraction both inside & outside of the ring.

She gets distracted in the ring, not a lot, but just enough to put us one or two seconds over time & its mainly dogs running in the other ring that pull her attention away from the job at hand. I did some more LAT today at the trial & she ran well, but still overtime, due to small pauses to look over her shoulder At monday night's training she doesn't get distracted, so I can only really practice this in trial situations. I am going to a seminar with Ashley Roach tomorrow...anyone know about him...he was our judge for the weekend.

Given what you've said here I would stick with the "by the book" version of LAT - on cue (under stimulus control), and focus back to you straight away.

[Vickie]

what is she getting distracted by? Is she both distracted outside and inside of the ring? I doubt switching methods in one day had any impact at all on your runs, especially if she's prone to distraction while running.

Sounds like you need some serious work on your reward system..

She gets distracted in the ring, not a lot, but just enough to put us one or two seconds over time & its mainly dogs running in the other ring that pull her attention away from the job at hand. I did some more LAT today at the trial & she ran well, but still overtime, due to small pauses to look over her shoulder At monday night's training she doesn't get distracted, so I can only really practice this in trial situations. I am going to a seminar with Ashley Roach tomorrow...anyone know about him...he was our judge for the weekend.

given what you have said here, I would stop trialling her and aim to increase her enthusiasm & drive to earn a reward by 50% in training. Double your reward rate, reward in the middle of sequences, rather than at the end of them. Introduce a reward marker & use it for commitment to obstacles, rather than completion of obstacles. Crate her between sequences, don't let her play before & after class, insist on (and work hard to get) 100% focus on you & your rewards every second she spends out of her crate at training.

You have a new pup right? What is your plan to make sure he/she doesn't develop the same issues? Agility should be all about a chance to earn a reward for the dog. The more progress you make in this with your older dog, the better your pup will be.

Edited July 17, 2011 by Vickie

[Vickie]

Forgot to say, Ash is awesome! A great handler & trainer as well as being a very good instructor