(Day #5) Instant Focus
You made it! 🥳
It’s the final practical activity in The Loose Lead Walking Challenge and it’s a good one.
Today’s tool is brilliant in its simplicity. You’ll be able to get started with this in just 5 minutes today.
When to use it:
- Once your dog is leashed-up before you leave the house for an injection of focus
- Stop and do this any time your dog pulls – excellent combined with ABC (ABC first, then go straight into this)!
- You can even use it to let other dogs or people pass you so that your dog doesn’t pull or lunge at them!
Here’s what to do now:
- Watch the video and film yourself having a go with your own dog
- Share your training clips with the hashtag #day5 #scentventure
- Join the discussion and get our personalised advice in the Facebook group.
- Tomorrow’s Masterclass is the most important one of all and not to be missed! Set aaalll the alarms for 10am Saturday morning ⏰
I cannot wait to see you tomorrow! What I’m sharing at tomorrow’s LIVE finale is a gamechanger. It’s because of this approach that I went from returning from walks in tears to actually looking forward to them. And I can’t wait for you to have that too!
Up & Down
Scentventure Compass Point: Partnership
Method:
- Drop a treat between your feet
- Your dog will put their nose down to find it
- Wait until your dog looks back up (you don’t need to wait for eye contact). Use your marker word e.g. ‘yes’/’good’ and drop another treat.
- Repeat, repeat, repeat.
After a few repetitions your dog will get into the rhythm of looking up at you to ask for another treat. Meanwhile, the distraction passes on by and your dog is still cool as a cucumber on a loose lead 😎
Deb’s adaptation for deaf dogs: I don’t change this one at all since it doesn’t rely on hearing. I just add an ‘all done’ signal (e.g. the movement you make to brush crumbs off your hands) when I’m finished doing reps so the dog isn’t left just staring at me waiting for the next treat to come.