Rewarding Away From Distractions
Training Your Dog to Handle Encounters with People, Dogs, and Distractions, Shifting Focus to You Naturally Without Constant Calling
You will need
A leash
What you’ll learn:
Example: Rewarding away from another dog
Rewarding away from distractions
The aim of this exercise is to teach our dogs to choose to pay attention to us even in the face of tempting distractions. But in order to face the problem we must first understand where it stems from.
➜ Why do dogs get distracted?
There are two reasons why dogs get distracted:
1. To get away from the training. To escape the training because it’s boring (not rewarding) or because it’s frustrating (they don’t feel successful, they don’t understand the task at hand).
2. To deal with something in the environment. Because something else in the environment has captivated their emotions (something scary or something exciting) and made them feel something that is more salient in that moment than whatever you want or have to offer.
Now, the rewarding away from distractions exercise is one of our all-time favourites. It forms the basis of much of our training because it helps address and resolve both reasons why our dogs get distracted at the same time. By its nature, the exercise requires a high rate of reinforcement which helps make it fun, dynamic and (of course) rewarding for our dogs. It is also an exercise that starts off with very low expectations so it makes the whole process easy and our expectations attainable for our dogs – eliminating the first reason why they could get distracted. Secondly, this exercise is so powerful because it helps condition scary/exciting stimuli in the environment with a positive consequence therefore reshaping our dog’s subconscious response to a certain stimulus or emotion into something productive like paying attention to us.
So how do we do that? What does this exercise actually look like?
Despite all the benefits, the principle of this exercise is actually very simple. Reward your dog when they choose you over the distractions. The aim is to have your dog turn towards you of their own volition, without you having to call them when they are presented with distractions. We want their attention to be a behaviour which they eventually offer on their own when faced with a distraction in the environment. The rewarding away from distractions exercise is also the first step towards passing people, dogs and other distractions in public! What we are striving towards is that your dog turns to you on their own initiative.
How to teach
Step 1: Click for Engagement with the Stimulus
“Wait what? I thought the goal was to reward our dog for looking away from the distraction, not at it?”
Yes, you are right. We always say that, in dog training, what gets rewarded gets repeated. But…there is one exception when it comes to that rule and it’s that you cannot reward and reinforce emotions. When your dog engages with a distraction in the environment it is because that distraction has made them feel something more salient in that moment than whatever you want or have to offer. By clicking and rewarding your dog every time they look at the distraction you not only soothe the emotion they feel towards that distraction (be it interest, excitement, fear, or anything else) but also program an alternative reaction into your dog’s subconscious through the power of classical conditioning. In other words, if you practise this first step often enough your dog should start to anticipate the arrival of your food the moment they see something distracting, prompting them to automatically turn to you for a reward without you having to cue them to do anything. Keep your rate of reinforcement high – you want to be like a walking treat dispenser at this point of the exercise. Practice this step until you see your dog start to offer you their attention on their own when faced with a distraction.
Note: It is good to make a mental note of all the things that your dog gets distracted by and how distracting they are for your dog from 1 -10 (1 being the least distracting and 10 being the most distracting). If your dog has a lot of trouble disengaging from certain distractions (the ones rated 10 on your scale) increase the distance from the distraction to make disengaging from the stimulus easier for your dog. If you have a dog who is prone to reactivity and falls into bursts of barking or lunging when faced with certain stimuli we suggest you seek the help of a local behaviourist. Alternatively, we also offer private consultations online at Chasing the Tale.
Step 2: Reward better choices!
When your dog consistently makes the right choice (chooses to look at you and disengages from the distraction) you can move closer to the stimulus. You can switch between, being closer and moving further away. But remember, progress slowly.
Click for any attempt at looking away from the distraction, even if your dog is not directly looking up at you. Every decision where they are not focusing and staring at a distraction is a good decision and should be rewarded. If they look up at you completely, have a celebration, offer them more treats or a toy and don’t forget to be excited about that amazing decision they made by themselves! Dogs feed off of our energy too, so showing them that we are the life of the party and that we couldn’t be happier with our dog’s decisions will make them feel like they are on top of the world too. This will teach your dog that their decisions are rewarded. Furthermore, you can guide them towards making better choices in the future by rewarding the decisions you like.
As you practice this more and more, you can give your dog more freedom and see what they decide to do once you give them more time to think. Do they turn to give you their attention? Do they completely ignore the stimulus? Amazing! You can then test them with different distractions and different environments. This is one of those exercises that are always good to return to as a little refresher.
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Thankyou for this great video. Your explanation is wonderful on how it works to help the dog. I am excited to try it with my reactive dog!
I have a German Shepherd and I’m 63 and it’s hard to hold her and she does not like other animals