5 Exercises to Teach Your Agility Dog Self Control

5 exercises to help increase your dog's listening skills self-control and mental stimulation what you will need is a clicker very yummy treats a floppy toy and two people for the last exercise here's a brief view of the exercises that you will learn to do in this articel.

Exercise 1 this is a great exercise for anyone who has not taught their dog I'll leave it starting the behavior retraining the brain to think that acting upon the impulses do not pay off start by offering our hand to the dog with a yummy treat inside let the dog lick and nibble to get the treat as long as the dog is not a hard biter this is what the dog initially wants to do is the impulses are telling the dog go for the treat try to get it out problem-solve but when the dog stops doing what his mind is telling him to do in either a box off and wanders off B gives any space or C offers any other behavior click and reward so when he does the opposite of what he really wants to do which is you just head away from my hand that's when you click to mark some good behavior so instead of trying to hold my hand don't so basically we're trading the brain now that your dog is great with the first exercise we're going to move on.

Exercise 2 is you can look but you can't touch so we're going to start using believe it Q now the dog is getting the idea that not to immediately go for what he wants we're going to extend our hand with the Treat in it while seeing leave it if your dog goes to the tree you're going to retract your hand away extend your hand again once the dog is sitting or laying down if the dog doesn't go for the Treat in your hand click and reward when you extend your hand make sure your hand is at least 12 inches from your dog's nose any closer and it may be too difficult for your dog to not go for it right now once your dog is doing well with that now we're going to play take your eyes away from the prize now I don't want you to look or touch it if the dog doesn't look at your face right away make a little kissy noise to trigger him or her to look up click the moment that they do.

Exercise 3 is all about a free-for-all this exercise is going to challenge your dog in a whole new way from the previous two here we're going to put the Treat on the ground generally when you do this the dog usually assumes that it's a free-for-all that whoever gets there first gets the treat this is really going to start working on their self-control because we're going to put the Treat down we're going to ask for a leave it and we're going to keep our hand close by if the dog goes for it we quickly cover the tree and take it away if the dog doesn't go for it and gives us a little bit of eye contact even we're going to click and reward sometimes you don't have to work right away for that eye contact but just make sure that they don't go for it then put in the eye contact later the reason I'm not clicking here is because Vader has put his head on the floor and he's chosen not to go for it so I'm going to ask a little bit more out of him just because I know he was doing so well with not going for the treat and I'm going to ask for that eye contact.

Exercise 4 is the impulse control game this is one of the most important games to play with your dog if they'll tug there are many myths out there that say that playing tug will increase aggressions and dogs it creates aggression etc it can definitely cause problems if you don't have control out of the game this exercise will teach your dog to a drop something that is in their mouth anything from food to an out of it objects be exercise the brain to become aroused and yet still be able to listen and see calm down faster after becoming excited to start off a game you want to get the dogs tugging and quickly right after you start you want to ask the dog to leave it engulf the toy as much as you can as long as you don't have a strong fighter if this isn't working or if you have too much of a Chomper get a piece of treat and put it just above the dog's nose this should trigger the dog to leave the tug and go for the treat after they let go play the tug game again and repeat once the dog can start releasing the tug I want you to start asking for sit as soon as the dog lets go with the tug this is going to help put the dog in a stationary position and calm them down as soon as they do that you can either click or march with a yes and play the tug game again make sure when you give the talk back your anticipation for the game is going to be extremely exciting so go from very calm to really excited as our chick around that talks of the dog anticipates that you're going to play again.

Exercise 5 is about imitating real distractions how many times have you practiced a cue 100% only to go outside and have your dog ignore you in low distraction environments this exercise will practice what the dog is to do while there are distractions around we set up a scenario where there is the distraction which is going to be me or one of the owners and the handler is not far from me being trying to get the dog away from the distraction it's a game the distraction job is to be slightly distracting and the owners job is to practice the cue and get the dog used to these scenarios that can happen the goal for the game is to teach the dog that even instructing environments the handler is what pays off and will be the highest reinforcement the distraction should not really give the dog anything such as food or anything over there the only reinforcing thing in this environment should be the handler fader here is continuously being rewarded by the handler for not going back over to the distraction it pays off to sit next to the owner and may you leave it leave it hey leave it nice cuz this is later leave it later leave it come on good boy I hope you have found impulse control for dogs in this articel. Thanks and check out more of our.