The Look At That Game

[SammieS]

The CU_Dogs yahoo list is operating at the moment and it's freaking awesome. Leslie herself answers a lot of questions, and there are other very experienced trainers to offer their perspectives. The applications of LAT and other CU games are endless. You have to have read the books and/or watched the DVDs before you're allowed to post, though.

I joined the CU group but I don't understand how to use the group or read or post questions? (and I have almost finished the book - I was going to read it in my lunch hour but got cought up reading too many threads on DOL! )

[sheena]

Did some more LAT training at a trial over the weekend, & again copped ridicule from the same person She just goes on & on about it. I even gave her Leslies's information on the technique but she dismissed it as "rubbish". Maybe I am just too sensitive, but for the rest of the weekend, I tried to do my training away from her, but I could "feel" her eyes on me a lot. The proof is in the pudding though, for my dog has gone from being a Tasmanian Devil on & off the course, & so easily distracted by anything moving, to one which did fabulous runs in ALL jumping events over the weekend, coming away with passes in JDX & GDX...lots of other clear runs, but we just have to learn to run just a little bit faster. By the way, this "person" could not bring herself to compliment us on any runs, she just said it was "luck"

[SammieS]

Did some more LAT training at a trial over the weekend, & again copped ridicule from the same person She just goes on & on about it. I even gave her Leslies's information on the technique but she dismissed it as "rubbish". Maybe I am just too sensitive, but for the rest of the weekend, I tried to do my training away from her, but I could "feel" her eyes on me a lot. The proof is in the pudding though, for my dog has gone from being a Tasmanian Devil on & off the course, & so easily distracted by anything moving, to one which did fabulous runs in ALL jumping events over the weekend, coming away with passes in JDX & GDX...lots of other clear runs, but we just have to learn to run just a little bit faster. By the way, this "person" could not bring herself to compliment us on any runs, she just said it was "luck"

Congratulations for getting such brilliant results! I am still struggling with getting her focus to me instead of my hand because she's a little dog I have to keep bending over to treat her so I know how hard you must have worked to get to this point.

That other woman sounds like a witch! How dare she tell you its rubbish when you can prove to everyone that it works! There's no luck involved - you have worked hard and its paid off! Great job!

Are you able to give more information about how you trained it? where you stood? did you always train it while at the dog trials? Maybe i'm missing something in my training of Asti - she just so damn stubborn!

[sheena]

Hi Sammies, The "other woman" is a friend, but I can tell you the friendship is wearing thin, she is also one of the trainers at our club. IMO even those people who "know everything" should still keep their minds open to something a bit different & learn all about it before they choose to criticise so bluntly.

I find dog trials the best place to train as this is where she gets the most excited & distracted. I start off with her away from the action & work our way closer, till we can do it while waiting in line for our turn, tho I am finding it harder now to get her to "look at" something as she now prefers to keep her focus on me...so I guess that must be the end result. She just loves anything to do with the clicker & I think it is probably helping to get her into the "working with me" mode before a run. On Saturday there were kids soccer matches going on as well, so I was able to play LAT with that distraction. The only other place I could train it is at our weekly training school, but this trainer is there & I don't want to upset anybody, but I find that now, since we have been practicing it at trials, Monday night's training is pretty tame.

I think the key to it is to click as soon as they turn towards the distraction, but before they have time to react, then treat when they turn to you. If you click & they don't turn to you, then you are too close to the distraction & need to move further away. What this woman doesn't understand (& wont let me explain) is that I am not clicking/marking her for looking away from me, I am clicking/marking her for looking away AND not reacting to the distraction. I am telling my dog, it's OK to look, but then turn & tell me ;)

Edited August 8, 2011 by sheena

[SammieS]

Hi Sammies, The "other woman" is a friend, but I can tell you the friendship is wearing thin, she is also one of the trainers at our club. IMO even those people who "know everything" should still keep their minds open to something a bit different & learn all about it before they choose to criticise so bluntly.

I find dog trials the best place to train as this is where she gets the most excited & distracted. I start off with her away from the action & work our way closer, till we can do it while waiting in line for our turn, tho I am finding it harder now to get her to "look at" something as she now prefers to keep her focus on me...so I guess that must be the end result. She just loves anything to do with the clicker & I think it is probably helping to get her into the "working with me" mode before a run. On Saturday there were kids soccer matches going on as well, so I was able to play LAT with that distraction. The only other place I could train it is at our weekly training school, but this trainer is there & I don't want to upset anybody, but I find that now, since we have been practicing it at trials, Monday night's training is pretty tame.

I think the key to it is to click as soon as they turn towards the distraction, but before they have time to react, then treat when they turn to you. If you click & they don't turn to you, then you are too close to the distraction & need to move further away. What this woman doesn't understand (& wont let me explain) is that I am not clicking/marking her for looking away from me, I am clicking/marking her for looking away AND not reacting to the distraction. I am telling my dog, it's OK to look, but then turn & tell me ;)

Congrats again Sheena! I suppose its a strange concept to click when they're doing the opposite of what you want them to do and I think that's why this is so successful because Leslie McDevitt worked out that the dog relaxes more because they've been allowed to look at the distraction first and then know that by looking back you they are rewarded and THEN you turn it into a game - its fabulous! I hope I didn't offend with my comments about your friend but I find it hard to put up with people around me to are determined that they're right even if they can see your success! good on you for continuing and now you have a better/happier/less reactive dog because of it! and you've inspired me to work harder with Asti to hopefully see the same results (although we'll never be doing any sort of dog-sports but to have a calm dog whilst in new places and meeting new dogs would mean the world to me!)

[B-Q]

Congrats on the great runs Sheena!

I'm lucky, all the instructors from both places I train understand Quinn's issues and fully support the LAT game for dealing with her reactivity. They are also sure to make sure her and I have as much downtime as we need and as much time off playing as we need. They're very understanding.

[sheena]

Congrats on the great runs Sheena!

I'm lucky, all the instructors from both places I train understand Quinn's issues and fully support the LAT game for dealing with her reactivity. They are also sure to make sure her and I have as much downtime as we need and as much time off playing as we need. They're very understanding.

I was reading in another of your threads & your dog sounds like a carbon copy of mine when I first started..at one stage we were almost banned from training....so stick with the LAT & I think you will have fun & see lots of improvment. Another thing I have tried, is not to let her run around with other dogs other than our own puppy, & I think this has helped too. I still have to proof my girl against getting distracted with dogs running in the far distance, but I am working on it. Just a silly, question, but Bindi, when she is carrying on like a Tassie Devil, always has a leaf hanging from her mouth like a cigarette paper....does Quinn do this ?

[B-Q]

lol! Nah, Quinn prefers to save the room for her tounge to hang out of the side of her mouth (never out the front)

I'm atleast glad I found out that it is just motion reactivity now, when it first popped up I had never seen anything like it, didn't really knwo what or why she was reacting or anything.

It was surprisingly hard to find info on how to deal with it and I feel so relieved every single time I meet someone that has come across the same issues.

She was good at agility last night but had a huge flip out at the frisbee dog demo they did at the end of the night, couldn't expect her to handle that at this stage though.