Twelve Ways to Distraction Proof Your Dog

It's pouring rain and time to walk the dog. Fido has been no problem to walk, until now. Around a corner a man at a bus station quickly activates an umbrella and Fido tries to escape, yelping and pulling at the lead. The problem is called a real life distraction. It was the first time the dog saw an umbrella and even the sound it made as it opened. How can you help your dog acclimate to unexpected distractions?

Common real life distractions for dogs are varied ranging from bunnies, livestock, squirrels, ducks, chickens, cats to unfamiliar objects, such as umbrellas, bicycles, skateboards, joggers, horses and motorcycles. These can become a loud distraction that either the dog wants to chase or to escape. Add to that real life smells and peeing on every lamp post and a simple walk turns into a battle. The twelve steps above provide the education your dog needs to becomes steady around distractions.

Distraction proofing your dog can be accomplished in twelve consistent steps through a process called familiarization for puppies and familiarization plus behavior modification for adult dogs. Everyone is familiar with socializing their dogs, but think less often about familiarization to objects and sounds in the environment. Here are twelve distraction training steps.

Step one is striving for solid basic training cues to help your dog cope as real life unfolds around them.

The basic cues are:

sit,
down,
come,
stand,
stay,
loose leash walking and
attention

The cues sit, down, and stay are considered relaxation cues. They come in handy when stopping to chat in a public environment with a friend. In a relaxed posture your dog is less likely to be worried about the world around them.

Stand is a great cue in rain, on soggy ground, in puddles or snow and loose leash walking keeps you safe from falls.

Your dog's attention to you is a critical basic cue because not only are you an anchor in a scary world, but if your dog is taught to periodically watch you, then they are less likely to focus on scary objects. It is a critical substance cue for distraction training.

Coming when called or recalls can be a life-saver and need to be practiced hundreds of times in different environments and around distractions to become reliable.

Step two is to take the basic cues on-the-road and practice them in many different types of situations and environments, as stated above. Dogs don't generalize learned skills and you can help them by practicing and varying not only the environment, but the weather, the distractions, the time of day.

Start with the basics in low distraction areas and continue incrementally until your dog is comfortable in high distraction situations.

The dog's body language should be eager, eyes soft, body soft and happy, alert but not worried, tail low or slightly wagging, ears up. Body language that is stiff, forward positioned, tense, mouth closed or cheeks puffing, tail held high (NOTE: some breeds may hold their tails high naturally, so know your breed), pulling on lead, inattentive, barking a lot, all show anxious, stressed, tense interaction with the environment.

Tail tucked, hiding behind you, not wanting to move forward or freezing indicate a fear of the environment. This dog will need confidence building exercises and a great deal of patience.

Before starting distraction training with animals make sure you've got solid impulse control responses with food, with multiple balls, with toys and in various configurations and in differing environments.

Step three starts training around animals.

Listening on lead becomes a critical skill when walking your dog downtown, or in a rural setting. Instead of chasing prey or worrying about bicycles going by, the goal is to educate your dog how to act using the basic cues to redirect behavior and attention.

Add live animal training only when steps one and two, the basic cues, are strong. Plan the lessons carefully to set your dog up for success.

Set up practice environments using caged, friendly bunnies, or a pond where ducks swim, or chickens used to people. The job is a double edged sword when training because you want to keep not only the dog below stress threshold, but also the practice animals. The last thing you want to do is to stimulate your dog to over-excitement or over-stimulation resulting in leash lunging or prey chasing. Keep distance far enough away to be able to practice all of the basic cues successfully around the animal.

Warm up exercises could and should include exercising your dog ahead of time to release energy and also doing some basic cues practice in a low distraction area.

The distance will decrease only incrementally depending on the dog's stress tolerance.

Troubleshooting step three. You know you are too close if your dog will not take treats or is taking treats with a hard mouth. If your dog is inattentive, not listening and not performing basic cues the distance is too close . Move further away or end the exercise on a successful note and try again later.

Consistency in training is very important, especially with animals. If you allow chasing at any other time, you are being inconsistent and the dog will be confused. Desensitizing to distractions means the dog is never allowed to chase and learns, as in the case of herding dogs, to chase only on cue as in ffor working purposes. The normal companion dog has no reason to chase prey.

Step four is where you start teaching heeling. An accomplished dog will be able to heel in and around and through distractions.

Teaching your dog to walk close to your side is in and of itself a great public walking strategy. It is critical in teaching your dog to behave around enticing distractions, but it also teaches them you will keep them safe.

Start this training first in low distractions and increase criteria by requiring heeling plus attention to you.

Add distractions slowly. As you do so, increase the use of treats or toys as a reinforcement for the right behavior. Be interactive and praise with your voice. The goal is that your dog is able to walk confidently past and through distractions.

When you can heel with attention through animals of any type, you have mastered this stage. If not, go back to previous levels, spend more time solidifying steps one through three and give your dog additional exercises and challenges. Slowly work back toward step four. Passing step four gives you confidence your dog is well on their way to listening to you, instead of worrying about or focusing on real life distractions.

Take this step on-the-road to a public place, such as a sidewalk, a trail, or pathway. Practice on-lead heeling away from the main walkway.

Wait for a real life distraction such as a jogger, passerby, person walking a dog or bicycler. As soon as you spot a distraction increase your interaction with your dog asking them to heel and walk in different configurations at a comfortable distance from the upcoming distraction.

Heel in varying configurations, such as circles, s-curves and arcs, as well as straight walking. Dogs walk in curves and this action will calm them.

Use the the environment to do circles around a lamppost, tree or shrub, or ask your dog to heel along a raised bench or wall.

The starting point to step four is low distraction, one distraction at a time. When this is solid, increase the distractions.

Then start to decrease your distance by being closer to the actual public walkways and increase the number of distractions, such as several people walking or jogging towards you. Possibly, ducks walking by near a pond or a field of sitting rabbits could be used in distraction practices.

As you increase distractions, increase rewards, high value toys, and lots of praise when the dog is doing the right thing. Do a lot of practice with this before you take it to a city street or busy field filled with animals and people or bicyclers and joggers. Always be highly rewarding so your dog finds you worth listening to.

Step five is all about mastering trust, knowing your dog will make the right decision whether or not you are around.

The two exercises to work on now are heeling off leash and a sit or down-stay with you out of sight. Stay is a relaxation posture and the dog experiences being calm around their distractions whether that is an umbrella snapping open or a cat racing by and this means developing a very clear, trusting and responsive relationship with your dog. Distraction training will fail without it.

The first exercise is heeling off leash.

In preparation for making good choices at a dog park, or when on an off-leash trail walk or even when your dog needs to just stay near you, start to practice nonchalant leash drops or toss a leash over your dog's back as you continue to heel.

Do short sessions and make no big deal about the use or non-use of the leash, but praise highly for walking in heel at your side. Again, practice in low distraction areas and incrementally increase difficulty.

Use a leash drag to begin and then attach a short lead or rope before graduating to no lead at all. You want to avoid the dog darting away from you and getting into bad habits. When this is trustworthy add a distraction, such as a person walking or jogging by and increase distractions incrementally as in step four. The difference is you are now walking in heel together off leash.

The second exercise is teaching your dog to stay while you disappear out of sight.

A down is a good relaxation posture for this exercise. It is useful for stopping to get a cup of coffee or popping quickly into a shop along the walk route. My dog, Kody Bear is able to down-stay outside a coffeehouse quite reliably as people stop to admire him, as dogs walk by on lead with their owners and as people come in and out of the doorway. I've watched him from the window as I order my coffee with a multitude of distractions hard for any dog. Yet, he can handle them and understands he is to wait until I return to release him.

Only calm, focused, relaxed and balanced dogs can complete an exercise such as this, so take your time and make sure your dog is reliable in steps one through four before attempting it. This requires that your dog is not worried if you are not in sight and is really good to teach if you have a dog who is prone to separation anxiety from your person. It can be a great confidence builder.

The starting point for this exercise is to teach stay at increasingly longer distances.

Vary the distances with walking around and disappearing behind the dog.

Also increase incrementally the duration of the stay. This exercise requires distance and duration for reliability.

Next, disappear behind a wall, door or bush and then come back out after just a few seconds. You want to avoid the point your dog becomes stressed and indicates this by moving restlessly. Simply and gradually increase the period of time you stay out of sight, as well as the distance and the environments. Practice indoors, outdoors, in safe public places and your dog should never be left on a stay when you are sight if harm could come to them.

This exercise has also been valuable to me when I am teaching a dog class and my dogs need to demo an exercise. Often I put them on a down stay or a sit stay while I walk around the class filled with people and dogs watching them repeat an exercise we just learned. Over time and with lots of practice it becomes second nature for the dog and they wait patiently for their next task.

Step six combines sit at a distance at first without distractions.

Distance training implies the dog sits or lies down while they are at a distance from you. In obedience the down cue would be given as the dog is recalled back to you. In real life you would use this to stop the dog while they are running toward or away from you. It is a security maneuver and could save your dog's life, such as going to an immediate down should a car be coming and your dog is on the other side of the roadway, or to prevent your dog from running into a jogger or bicycle on a trail.

This can be taught using a voice cue, hand signal, whistle or combination of all three. The goal is that your dog is responsive immediately to the cue for sit no matter where they are in distance from you.

This is an advanced exercise and requires a well-behaved dog who has completed steps one through five. Start practicing distance work close to you at first and then raising the criteria further and further back until your dog can do a sit from any distance, and in many different environments.

Start this training by doing heeling off leash next to you.

Use a hand signal for sit and at the same time, especially if you are going to use this step when your dog is not looking at you, blow a whistle with a specific tone, such as two short whistles or one long whistle. Dogs have the ability to learn many different whistle tones as is evidenced in herding trials. This will become your audible cue to sit. The whistle should mean stop and sit.

This exercise and the coming when called exercise should also always be rewarded highly. Rewarding provides motivation and increases the likelihood the cue will be repeated and become reliable.

The key is to proceed slowly and keep distance short until responsiveness is excellent. Increase distance incrementally but don't hesitate to go backwards if there was any reason for you to believe your dog would not listen or comply.

Step seven means you can practice step six, a distance sit, with distractions.

It requires the same process except you'll provide mock distractions, even objects can be used in this training such as umbrellas, people talking loudly on cell phones and more depending on your dog's sensitivities.

Start with a group of people close by and whistle cue your dog to sit at a distance while the distraction is present. Your dog should be closer to you than to the distraction. Incrementally decrease the distance between distractions and add new distractions, such as animals, bikes, or skateboards. You are helping your dog acclimate to any real life situation on or off lead.

The result is the development of a confident dog, who sees you keeping them safe, who knows exactly what to do in any situation and to whom distractions become irrelevant. All of the steps are a form of impulse control.

Step eight requires the dog to come to you throughstatic and moving distractions.

Distractions could be milling people, milling dogs, a field of mice, or bunnies, or through treats scattered on the ground.

A great starting exercise is to put your dog on a sit or down stay.

Place a bowl of food or a toy behind them. Start with low value items and increase the intensity of the value.

Practice recalls. Once the dog is steady with the objects behind him, put the food about five feet to the right or left. Add a higher value toy to the back.

Incrementally progress allowing for each attempt to be successful and working to the point where the bowl of high value food and toys are scattered in the path of where you will recall your dog.

The goal is that your dog come directly to you through any type of distraction in their way. This means not stopping to taste the treats or food in the bowl or to play or pick up any of the toys. You must be more rewarding and worth listening to than anything in the environment. You are working toward that goal.

Practice this in varying environments and then add joggers, bicyclers, skateboarders, walkers, people with dogs.

Step nine is to increase level and intensity of distractions while raising attention criteria.

The goal is that your dog sees distractions as a cue to find your eyes and remain attentive even though there are strong distractions around. You are teaching your dog to make good decisions on and off lead. You have become an anchor. You are more rewarding than anything in the environment, which will become evident if you ever have to stop your dog before chasing after a deer, jogger, or skateboarder.

For me, this exercise came in handy in a tracking exercise where my dog and I came just feet away from six deer in a field and near the track we were pursuing. My dog stopped, looked up from the track at the deer, looked back at me and continued to complete the tracking exercise. Your dog will give you proofing moments such as this, which will mean they have passed the test toward reliability.

Start with low distractions again, at acceptable distance and duration. Acceptable means where your dog can be successful without stress. As real life happens around you, it is your job to know what your dog can handle and distractions that are extremely tempting are caught early enough for your dog to be attentive to you in time.

Step ten starts the addition of powerful distractions.

Your dog by now should have proven over and over that they are reliable and have come through steps one through nine like a champion. Now you'll combine the exercises around powerful detractors.

Your dog should remain in a stay position for several minutes and at increased distances.

Begin practicing with short periods around high distractions. If you increase duration, decrease distance. If you increase distance, decrease duration.

When I am training an exercise such as no-fence or natural boundaries, I use toy tosses and tempting passers-by as high distraction. This is the same concept in this stage. You don't want your dog to move from the spot you have placed them no matter what distraction come along.

People who show their dogs in obedience or other dog sports venues spend a great deal of time on this step because you never know what distraction could crop up in a show setting. For distraction training you can throw a toy, a ball, or have a few people walk by with their dogs. Repeat any steps above striving for reliability.

Step eleven is continued training near animals of all types and in real life situations.

Now you should be able to accelerate the process and get reliable responsiveness off lead. This step is vital when taking your dog to a dog park and expecting voice control off lead.

I teach my dogs a cue of "check in" which means to stop what you are doing, come into view, find my eyes and get another cue. The other cue is often go play, with lots of verbal praise for responsiveness. However, the cue might be "that'll be all, come away". I've called my dogs off and through mice, bunnies and deer nearby, as well as other dogs and people without hesitation. This step is important if you plan to enjoy off lead walks in varied terrain with your dog.

Revisit step three and make sure it is solid at closer distances and to a variety of animals before starting off lead training. When you are ready for the off leash portion, you will proceed just as you did in step five.

Off lead near tempting distractions such as animals needs to be done carefully. In the beginning, I would also use a long drag line as you decrease distance so, if needed, you will be able to gain quick control. The best process is to keep your dog successful and highly rewarded at longer distances while incrementally decreasing distance away from animals.

I've done this step successfully with sheep, cows and horses and could eventually call my dogs off even when they were running happily behind horses we met on a trail. Needless to say, to get strong reliability will require attention to detailed training.

Step twelve is to continue this training with each of your dog's distractions until they are confident and reliable in any situation.

The more you practice, the more irrelevant the distraction will become until you can pass trees of squirrels, bunnies in the field and joggers, bicyclers, skateboarders or people popping umbrellas open at a bus stop.

Step twelve is where reliability is gained in real life situations and with each success the distraction becomes less attractive and you become more attractive. Don't hesitate to move backward into any of the previous steps to solidify training, or if an incident occurred.

These twelve steps will build a confident dog, make distractions irrelevant and will help on encounters with objects, sounds and other animals, whether you are at a dog park or at the county fair.