Let’s explore a crucial element of effective dog training that can elevate your sessions from routine to remarkable: the art of engagement. In this context, engagement refers to the strength of the bond between you and your dog, where your dog isn’t simply obeying commands but is genuinely eager to take part in the learning process.
Before you do any training of formal commands, you want to build engagement with your dog. Engagement is key if you want your dog to pay attention and take directions. We want to show our dog that we are the most important thing, that we are way more exciting than anything out in the environment.
The reason we want to build engagement is that it fosters strong bonds, enhances learning, and prevents frustration. When we take the time to engage with our dogs, they learn a great deal from us and can adapt to our lifestyle much more effectively.
3 Things you need to consider before implementing engagement training:
- Marker Training – Use a word like yes or a training clicker to mark the exact moment your dog does something right and reward for the behavior. This technique aids in pinpointing the behavior you want. Enhancing engagement by making the training clear and rewarding.
- Use of Rewards – How, When, Where, and How Often all play a part in how we use rewards to strengthen our dog’s desire to interact/engage with you. The idea is to be the most important/most exciting thing in your dog’s world.
- Dogs Drive – Food, toys, and games can motivate your dog’s desire to interact with you. Utilizing all of them in different ways, environments, and intervals. Dogs don’t have long attention spans, so be careful not to become predictable in how you try to motivate your dog. Change out the treats, change the game or skill when you sense your dog getting bored/frustrated. This is helpful for us as well, so we too don’t become bored/frustrated.
How to Implement Engagement:
Start with Short, Fun Sessions: Keep training times brief so your dog stays interested. Turn each practice into a fun game where your dog feels successful by playing and paying attention to you.
Reward Engagement Itself: Sometimes, give treats or praise when your dog simply looks at you or comes back to you while playing. This helps your dog learn that being with you is the most fun and rewarding place to be.
Be Energetic and Enthuastic: Your energy level directly influences your dog. Dogs are crazy good at picking up patterns and routines. By changing up how we move (games like hideNseek, comeGOcookie are great), and changing up the intervals between different games and rewards keeps your dog guessing. Therefore, keeping them engaged with you longer.
Pay Attention to Your Dog: See Mark and Reward Training is a remarkable way to influence and start to transform your dog’s behavior. It’s also a great tool as it trains us to start looking for opportunities to reward our dogs, further strengthening our bond with them. Here is a great video that explains how S.M.A.R.T. works: https://youtu.be/Pa3u_25RUxg?si=TQsc5ifqJlFoOLCI
Vary the Environment: Once you have had some success in building engagement at home, you can start working on engagement in the backyard or during walks. In the beginning, as your dog improves, you can then progress to working on engagement in environments that are a little more challenging. You want to be mindful not to challenge your dog too hard, too fast, as this will cause your dog to fail, and that’s frustrating for both of you.
In Conclusion:
Building engagement with your dog involves teaching your dog that listening to you is rewarding. We are building value over you and what you say to your dog. This is such a simple concept, and sometimes people think dogs automatically come wired this way. However, that is not true. Dogs need to learn that listening is not only important, but it is rewarding for them as well.
Good Luck and Happy Training!