@imagebeastmarkbeast Exactly! Suppression of fear based behaviours is not healthy, a dog who can’t comfortably communicate will escalate swiftly and without appropriate warning when they are trigger stacked. Aversive fall out is incredibly dangerous and sees many dogs surrendered and/or euthanised.
Does it ever get better? What more could we be doing? Reaching the end of our rope
- Thread starter godspurpose07
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@booboo222 What about simultaneously introducing a acceptable alternative behavior when doing the correction? Sort of the way that you teach toddlers; it doesn't work to tell them "no" if they don't know a "yes."
I can't think of any good examples of reactive behavior where this might apply, but I sort of accidentally taught my dog to whine instead of bark to get out of his crate. (Mostly. He barks when other adults are around because that's more effective.) Similarly, my parents have a super skittish dog who's been afraid of strangers and unnerved by everyone except my parents for the last decade. Again, by accident, he and I worked out that if I avert my face from him, he won't bark at me. If I walk past him backwards, then he won't flee the room. I realize that a lot of that success is that I'm avoiding his trigger, but being quiet and walking away are better choices than squaring up to bark at me before running away.
Or is teaching "not this, yes that" just a different way of talking about positive reinforcement?
I can't think of any good examples of reactive behavior where this might apply, but I sort of accidentally taught my dog to whine instead of bark to get out of his crate. (Mostly. He barks when other adults are around because that's more effective.) Similarly, my parents have a super skittish dog who's been afraid of strangers and unnerved by everyone except my parents for the last decade. Again, by accident, he and I worked out that if I avert my face from him, he won't bark at me. If I walk past him backwards, then he won't flee the room. I realize that a lot of that success is that I'm avoiding his trigger, but being quiet and walking away are better choices than squaring up to bark at me before running away.
Or is teaching "not this, yes that" just a different way of talking about positive reinforcement?
@booboo222 If a dog is barking to distance themselves from the other dog but it is not working and you are giving them treats to try to associate other dogs with pleasant things ie treats. Wouldn’t the dog just learn, if I see another dog and continuously bark at them, I will get a treat eventually.
What I am trying to understand is how does this remove the unwanted behavior of barking at the dog? You can give them treats all day but a lot of dogs will never stop needlessly barking at other dogs unless they associate something negative with that behavior
I understand the goal is to teach the dog that there is no need for them to be fearful around other dogs but if you cannot get some sort of control of your dog before they react, then it’s really hard to teach them that through only positive reinforcement and like I said you may be reinforcing the wrong thing.
I understand how these methods are very effective for teaching new behaviors and for dogs that may not be so reactive but I’m just wondering how successful it can be to ONLY do positive reinforcement when a dog is highly reactive
What I am trying to understand is how does this remove the unwanted behavior of barking at the dog? You can give them treats all day but a lot of dogs will never stop needlessly barking at other dogs unless they associate something negative with that behavior
I understand the goal is to teach the dog that there is no need for them to be fearful around other dogs but if you cannot get some sort of control of your dog before they react, then it’s really hard to teach them that through only positive reinforcement and like I said you may be reinforcing the wrong thing.
I understand how these methods are very effective for teaching new behaviors and for dogs that may not be so reactive but I’m just wondering how successful it can be to ONLY do positive reinforcement when a dog is highly reactive
@chiere If you’re curious, there’s lots of great resources online. You’re mixing two different concepts together, I’d recommend doing some reading on classical conditioning vs operant conditioning 
also if you’re on Insta; dogminded, thelivesofwilddogs, and bravodogtraining are great accounts that really simply break down some complex concepts into easy to understand pieces.
Classical conditioning is the act of applying positive (or negative) stimulus in the presence of a trigger to change an underlying emotion. This has to be done under threshold, so if you’re feeding treats to a reacting dog, nothing is really happening (the treat is definitely not reinforcing the reaction, because they’re not in a learning headspace, the reaction itself is the reinforcement so long as the trigger goes away) - you have to start at a distance the dog feels more comfortable and very slowly work to decrease that with the use of treats. This requires no outward behaviour change essentially because you’re not addressing the barking, you’re working on the dog associating the calm mind stage and yummy treat with the presence of the trigger and over time that might stop the barking because the dog no longer feels fear towards the trigger.
If you want to shape a new behaviour that’s operant conditioning (which is basically a dog learning to offer something new by the application of either reward or correction), but again you have to work under threshold and you teach the dog what to do when they see the trigger instead of barking. This will allow them to choose a different space seeking behaviour that is more desirable to the handler.
I have a dog who was red zone (uncontrollable), literally no threshold, another dog within eyesight would get a reaction. We’ve never once used a correction and he can now calmly be in spaces with other dogs, just won’t tolerate off leash dogs with poor social skills molesting him while he’s on leash, which is fine because that’s a pretty normal adult dog behaviour and I don’t expect him to be a perfect robot without opinions on how he’d like to socialise. We’ve worked with plenty of similar dogs and helped them only using tools like BAT 2.0, so I can safely say that R+ really works for all kinds of dogs I’ve never met a dog it doesn’t work for (and I see about a hundred dogs through our program each year), but I have met a lot of handlers this doesn’t work for because they are unfortunately shaped by a system that values animal relationships of compliance and convenience.
Wait for the dog to bark, apply correction for barking, is insanely easy training wise. And if your correction is unpleasant enough, it works really quickly. But again, it’s literally the laziest and least ethical form of teaching - and from a sustainability perspective, dogs taught with corrections are more likely to have issues with latency to cue and can experience aversive fall out.
If there’s a better and more ethical way to handle a dog, I personally will do that. But some people will find ways to justify introducing discomfort and punishment to their training because in some countries it’s very much normalised, so I always try to remember I come from a privileged position in that respect
also if you’re on Insta; dogminded, thelivesofwilddogs, and bravodogtraining are great accounts that really simply break down some complex concepts into easy to understand pieces. Classical conditioning is the act of applying positive (or negative) stimulus in the presence of a trigger to change an underlying emotion. This has to be done under threshold, so if you’re feeding treats to a reacting dog, nothing is really happening (the treat is definitely not reinforcing the reaction, because they’re not in a learning headspace, the reaction itself is the reinforcement so long as the trigger goes away) - you have to start at a distance the dog feels more comfortable and very slowly work to decrease that with the use of treats. This requires no outward behaviour change essentially because you’re not addressing the barking, you’re working on the dog associating the calm mind stage and yummy treat with the presence of the trigger and over time that might stop the barking because the dog no longer feels fear towards the trigger.
If you want to shape a new behaviour that’s operant conditioning (which is basically a dog learning to offer something new by the application of either reward or correction), but again you have to work under threshold and you teach the dog what to do when they see the trigger instead of barking. This will allow them to choose a different space seeking behaviour that is more desirable to the handler.
I have a dog who was red zone (uncontrollable), literally no threshold, another dog within eyesight would get a reaction. We’ve never once used a correction and he can now calmly be in spaces with other dogs, just won’t tolerate off leash dogs with poor social skills molesting him while he’s on leash, which is fine because that’s a pretty normal adult dog behaviour and I don’t expect him to be a perfect robot without opinions on how he’d like to socialise. We’ve worked with plenty of similar dogs and helped them only using tools like BAT 2.0, so I can safely say that R+ really works for all kinds of dogs
I’ve never met a dog it doesn’t work for (and I see about a hundred dogs through our program each year), but I have met a lot of handlers this doesn’t work for because they are unfortunately shaped by a system that values animal relationships of compliance and convenience. Wait for the dog to bark, apply correction for barking, is insanely easy training wise. And if your correction is unpleasant enough, it works really quickly. But again, it’s literally the laziest and least ethical form of teaching - and from a sustainability perspective, dogs taught with corrections are more likely to have issues with latency to cue and can experience aversive fall out.
If there’s a better and more ethical way to handle a dog, I personally will do that. But some people will find ways to justify introducing discomfort and punishment to their training because in some countries it’s very much normalised, so I always try to remember I come from a privileged position in that respect
@booboo222 Thank you for your honest and genuine response. I really appreciate you sharing the resources you mentioned as well as your personal experience.
From my personal experience, I’ve known many people who have used methods such as e collars etc to train their dogs and honestly they’re some of the best behaved dogs I know and I know they maintain very loving relationships with their owners and even spoiled with many treats, high quality dog food, outings in nature and plenty of engaging playtime.
The issue that I have personally experienced and may be the case for the OP is that it is extremely challenging to train a highly reactive dog especially when you have a full time job and other commitments. This is not to say that you shouldn’t spend significant amounts of time training, however from my experience with my dog, I took him to a trainer who previously specialized in training police and military dogs and by using his methods ie “dont give commands you can’t enforce” and “enforce every command” I have seen huge improvements in my relationship with my dog where he looks to me for directions and therefore gets more treats and praise when he understood the assignment.
As the training has progressed I’ve used less corrections and he has behaved better in public which despite claims of “being lazy” are still effective.
As you mentioned privilege can come into play where not everyone has thousands of dollars or endless time to commit to only treat training out reactivity. As I’m sure many people on this Reddit can attest to, having a dog that you can’t take out in public is stressful for you, stressful for the dog , stressful for the people involved so in these harsher situations I do think that applying corrections can be a more effective way to easing your relationship with your dog, considering that you are consistent and fair etc
Despite what many may think, I believe there’s a big difference between being cruel and giving a normal correction
From my personal experience, I’ve known many people who have used methods such as e collars etc to train their dogs and honestly they’re some of the best behaved dogs I know and I know they maintain very loving relationships with their owners and even spoiled with many treats, high quality dog food, outings in nature and plenty of engaging playtime.
The issue that I have personally experienced and may be the case for the OP is that it is extremely challenging to train a highly reactive dog especially when you have a full time job and other commitments. This is not to say that you shouldn’t spend significant amounts of time training, however from my experience with my dog, I took him to a trainer who previously specialized in training police and military dogs and by using his methods ie “dont give commands you can’t enforce” and “enforce every command” I have seen huge improvements in my relationship with my dog where he looks to me for directions and therefore gets more treats and praise when he understood the assignment.
As the training has progressed I’ve used less corrections and he has behaved better in public which despite claims of “being lazy” are still effective.
As you mentioned privilege can come into play where not everyone has thousands of dollars or endless time to commit to only treat training out reactivity. As I’m sure many people on this Reddit can attest to, having a dog that you can’t take out in public is stressful for you, stressful for the dog , stressful for the people involved so in these harsher situations I do think that applying corrections can be a more effective way to easing your relationship with your dog, considering that you are consistent and fair etc
Despite what many may think, I believe there’s a big difference between being cruel and giving a normal correction
@chiere And thank you for the polite discourse, it’s always nice to talk from either side of the fence without things getting heated or argumentative
I do think that leaving personal experiences aside, science says aversive training causes a dog stress. A recent study found that with dogs trained to cue with positive reinforcement only vs balanced methods, the aversive group were observed to exhibit far more frequent stress signals during the training and a significant difference in latency when compared to their enthusiastic peers trained only with reward based methods. What that tells us, is that even in healthy adult dogs receiving four quadrant style training, find the application of punishment/correction to be unpleasant. And if you can avoid making your dog feel unpleasant, why wouldn’t you? I think this is why you’re getting some downvotes, because we can debate how we, the primates on the other end of the leash feel, but it doesn’t change what science says our canine friends think about being punished.
As someone in rescue, the whole “a dog is for life” sometimes comes at detriment of the needs of dogs with reactivity or other behavioural issues. As you say not everyone has the ability to be a guardian to a dog with high care needs, but rather than resort to less ethical/humane handling, considering a more appropriate environment should be normalised. The human expectations of what a “well behaved” dog is already are so high (digging, chewing, pulling on leash, attention seeking, alert barking, prey drive, herding - these are all natural dog behaviours that some humans find undesirable) that sometimes there’s shame and failure in admitting that you don’t walk your dog around the neighbourhood or you can’t take them to brunch dates, and it puts pressure on people to seek out alternative methods promising “results”, but there’s also plenty of homes out there that don’t want to walk a dog every day, or would welcome a property guardian. I could honestly get on my soapbox and bang on all day about the entire system of domesticated animals being incredibly broken - but I’ll stop myself there, haha.
Anyway, thank you for the chat, it’s been interesting to open my mind to another perspective, and helps me to consider and frame points differently in future discussions
I do think that leaving personal experiences aside, science says aversive training causes a dog stress. A recent study found that with dogs trained to cue with positive reinforcement only vs balanced methods, the aversive group were observed to exhibit far more frequent stress signals during the training and a significant difference in latency when compared to their enthusiastic peers trained only with reward based methods. What that tells us, is that even in healthy adult dogs receiving four quadrant style training, find the application of punishment/correction to be unpleasant. And if you can avoid making your dog feel unpleasant, why wouldn’t you? I think this is why you’re getting some downvotes, because we can debate how we, the primates on the other end of the leash feel, but it doesn’t change what science says our canine friends think about being punished.
As someone in rescue, the whole “a dog is for life” sometimes comes at detriment of the needs of dogs with reactivity or other behavioural issues. As you say not everyone has the ability to be a guardian to a dog with high care needs, but rather than resort to less ethical/humane handling, considering a more appropriate environment should be normalised. The human expectations of what a “well behaved” dog is already are so high (digging, chewing, pulling on leash, attention seeking, alert barking, prey drive, herding - these are all natural dog behaviours that some humans find undesirable) that sometimes there’s shame and failure in admitting that you don’t walk your dog around the neighbourhood or you can’t take them to brunch dates, and it puts pressure on people to seek out alternative methods promising “results”, but there’s also plenty of homes out there that don’t want to walk a dog every day, or would welcome a property guardian. I could honestly get on my soapbox and bang on all day about the entire system of domesticated animals being incredibly broken - but I’ll stop myself there, haha.
Anyway, thank you for the chat, it’s been interesting to open my mind to another perspective, and helps me to consider and frame points differently in future discussions
@chiere So, in the example of the dog-reactive dog, you do start by treating every time they see a dog, but you don't just keep shoving treating in their face in perpetuity - that's just the first step to shaping the behavior you want. Generally, you want to move from there to engage/disengage (the dog looks at the other dog, then looks to the handler, and receives a reward for disengaging/looking at the handler). Then, you're gradually working to lower their threshold distance.
Once the dog understands the expectation (don't fixate on the dog, you can look at it, but then I need your focus back on me), you can work on lowering your rate of reward. Eventually, it becomes pay for performance. I've had my reactive dog for over a year now, and I know she knows what's expected of her and can usually do it....but sometimes she can't, and that's no big deal. She doesn't need a correction, I just say "walk on" and we carry on. But when she does keep it together? Praise and treat. And in particularly in difficult circumstances? Huge treat and praise jackpot.
Once the dog understands the expectation (don't fixate on the dog, you can look at it, but then I need your focus back on me), you can work on lowering your rate of reward. Eventually, it becomes pay for performance. I've had my reactive dog for over a year now, and I know she knows what's expected of her and can usually do it....but sometimes she can't, and that's no big deal. She doesn't need a correction, I just say "walk on" and we carry on. But when she does keep it together? Praise and treat. And in particularly in difficult circumstances? Huge treat and praise jackpot.
@jamesdb How do you train your dog to disengage in the first place without a correction? How do you teach them that the expectation is that they look away from the dog and stop barking if you don’t enforce them not doing that with a command such as “leave it” and a correction, followed by a reward when they get their attention back to you?
Im also curious what do you do in a scenario such as the OP says where it is a highly reactive dog and unlikely you will ever get them to successfully disengage a stressor in the first place with only rewards.
I think the key to a lot of the OP’s frustration is getting to the point where the dog can even successfully disengage reliably and you can reinforce that with praises and treats.
From my experience I’ve had similar frustration where it is easy to teach my dog to do a behavior with treats and reinforcement with more treats but getting them to STOP doing a behavior is very challenging without something to reinforce your commands. Especially when to them it seems like they are just getting a treat for a random action and not understanding that it was because they stopped what I was commanding
Im also curious what do you do in a scenario such as the OP says where it is a highly reactive dog and unlikely you will ever get them to successfully disengage a stressor in the first place with only rewards.
I think the key to a lot of the OP’s frustration is getting to the point where the dog can even successfully disengage reliably and you can reinforce that with praises and treats.
From my experience I’ve had similar frustration where it is easy to teach my dog to do a behavior with treats and reinforcement with more treats but getting them to STOP doing a behavior is very challenging without something to reinforce your commands. Especially when to them it seems like they are just getting a treat for a random action and not understanding that it was because they stopped what I was commanding
imagebeastmarkbeast
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godspurpose07
New member
@chiere So I'm sure others can/will answer this better than me, but the gist is that what you're referring you is known as "balanced" training, and it can lead to increased fear and a bunch of consequences down the line.
Let's consider reactivity to other dogs because that's easiest to explain. By correcting bad behavior (called positive punishment) you are taking a dog that's already scared of other dogs and associating it with even more scary stuff like punishment and pain. The dog may not know why he's being punished, just that when other dogs are around, he gets punished and feels pain. This makes him even more scared when he sees a dog, and brings him closer to threshold. He may temporarily behave when punished, but long term this often leads to regression and further aggression. In his head, it's "oh no it's a scary dog, when other dogs come close my owner hurts me! Gotta yell and keep the other dog away!"
In contrast, positive reinforcement teaches him up associate that stimuli with GOOD things. He learns that when other dogs are around, he gets treats and love and praise. This creates a bond with your dog and leads to a calmer, happier dog around the stimuli. In this scenario, your dog thinks "yay another dog! I get a treat!"
This isn't to say you're never correcting your dog. Things like reverse timeouts are extremely effective. For example, when he starts nipping, we say "too bad!" And step over to the other side of a play gate. He learns that biting us = play time is over, fun is over.
Hopefully this makes sense, I can provide links you threads, articles, and published research if you'd like!
Let's consider reactivity to other dogs because that's easiest to explain. By correcting bad behavior (called positive punishment) you are taking a dog that's already scared of other dogs and associating it with even more scary stuff like punishment and pain. The dog may not know why he's being punished, just that when other dogs are around, he gets punished and feels pain. This makes him even more scared when he sees a dog, and brings him closer to threshold. He may temporarily behave when punished, but long term this often leads to regression and further aggression. In his head, it's "oh no it's a scary dog, when other dogs come close my owner hurts me! Gotta yell and keep the other dog away!"
In contrast, positive reinforcement teaches him up associate that stimuli with GOOD things. He learns that when other dogs are around, he gets treats and love and praise. This creates a bond with your dog and leads to a calmer, happier dog around the stimuli. In this scenario, your dog thinks "yay another dog! I get a treat!"
This isn't to say you're never correcting your dog. Things like reverse timeouts are extremely effective. For example, when he starts nipping, we say "too bad!" And step over to the other side of a play gate. He learns that biting us = play time is over, fun is over.
Hopefully this makes sense, I can provide links you threads, articles, and published research if you'd like!
imagebeastmarkbeast
New member
@godspurpose07 All of what you just wrote sounds great in theory but is it working in practice ?
Some dogs will never like other dogs. You cannot make them like other dogs by giving them food because the self-reward they get from reacting at another dog is better than a food reward.
I’ve been through this whole process with my one dog. I was the same as you and completely close minded to the idea of correcting my dog. Until a year went by and we had hit a wall and no longer made any progress. I didn’t want to simply manage my dog forever and I knew he was really smart and could learn, we were just having a communication issue.
Dogs are visual and physical learners first and foremost. They understand corrections and when it is done properly it does not hurt them or ruin them. Up until like 20 years ago force free training didn’t even really exist yet the world wasn’t completely full of aggressive terrible dogs any more than it is now. That should be proof enough that corrections don’t ruin dogs.
Force free is great for teaching and should be the go to for foundational learning for every single behavior for every single dog. But some dogs it really will never work 100%.
Some dogs will never like other dogs. You cannot make them like other dogs by giving them food because the self-reward they get from reacting at another dog is better than a food reward.
I’ve been through this whole process with my one dog. I was the same as you and completely close minded to the idea of correcting my dog. Until a year went by and we had hit a wall and no longer made any progress. I didn’t want to simply manage my dog forever and I knew he was really smart and could learn, we were just having a communication issue.
Dogs are visual and physical learners first and foremost. They understand corrections and when it is done properly it does not hurt them or ruin them. Up until like 20 years ago force free training didn’t even really exist yet the world wasn’t completely full of aggressive terrible dogs any more than it is now. That should be proof enough that corrections don’t ruin dogs.
Force free is great for teaching and should be the go to for foundational learning for every single behavior for every single dog. But some dogs it really will never work 100%.
@godspurpose07 Thanks for the response. I understand the idea of associating other dogs with punishment but wouldn’t that be the case if you’re ONLY punishing the dog when they see the stressor, in this case another dog? Dogs correct each other all the time when they play especially if one dog doesn’t like something that another dog is doing to them so this is not unnatural to them. Dogs understand when they do something wrong and as well as understanding getting praised for good behavior ie maintaining a sit and refraining from barking when another dog or person walks by.
You highlighted that the dog may not know why he is being punished but I think that would be the nuance in the training no? For example if you are teaching your dog to heel and they break the heel then they should know that they broke the heel and that is why they got a correction. If they maintain the heel they get a praise and reward. Same thing with a basic command like “leave it” as a way of telling them to avoid engaging another dog or person. So if they successfully don’t engage they get a treat and praise but if they don’t then the correction would let them know that what they did was not acceptable.
Again I can see how this would be tricky with a dog that has previous trauma from abuse etc, but in this scenario if you are a good owner to your dog I don’t see how this could not potentially help
You highlighted that the dog may not know why he is being punished but I think that would be the nuance in the training no? For example if you are teaching your dog to heel and they break the heel then they should know that they broke the heel and that is why they got a correction. If they maintain the heel they get a praise and reward. Same thing with a basic command like “leave it” as a way of telling them to avoid engaging another dog or person. So if they successfully don’t engage they get a treat and praise but if they don’t then the correction would let them know that what they did was not acceptable.
Again I can see how this would be tricky with a dog that has previous trauma from abuse etc, but in this scenario if you are a good owner to your dog I don’t see how this could not potentially help
imagebeastmarkbeast
New member
@chiere There is a big difference between negative behaviour and fear.
If a dog jumps up to greet people you can say no and turn your back. That’s correcting negative behaviour.
If a dog barks/growls/lunges through fear and you say no firmly, drag them away, etc., you are reinforcing that there is something to be scared of.
As an alternative, throwing high value food on the floor distracts them and helps them think the scary thing is actually nice.
If a dog jumps up to greet people you can say no and turn your back. That’s correcting negative behaviour.
If a dog barks/growls/lunges through fear and you say no firmly, drag them away, etc., you are reinforcing that there is something to be scared of.
As an alternative, throwing high value food on the floor distracts them and helps them think the scary thing is actually nice.
@imagebeastmarkbeast I agree that negative behavior and fear are not the same thing. In the case where the dog barks growls out of fear, in general what I would do is tell the dog no, put them in a heel -sit and once they’ve calmed down enough where I feel that I could, I would heel them over to the person and while praising/ rewarding them as long as they are not reacting, to enforce that it is not something to be afraid of.
I believe the dogs also need to have trust in the owners/ handlers that they are safe while you are in control of the leash
I believe the dogs also need to have trust in the owners/ handlers that they are safe while you are in control of the leash
imagebeastmarkbeast
New member
@chiere You’ve put in so many questions here and people are answering but you aren’t listening. Honestly, I’m wondering if you are a troll. You’ve clearly never owned a reactive dog if you think this would work and I have no idea why you are in this group if you aren’t prepared to listen. I’m not engaging any more.
@imagebeastmarkbeast My dog is definitely reactive lol albeit not aggressive. I’m just speaking from personal experience and trying to understand why many are so against these methods especially if they are effective. A pervious commenter gave a better response that help clear things up which basically sums up to the amount of time you are willing to wait to fix reactivity, as well as money for training, and sweat and tears to get your dog to a state where he can be out in public and around others.
godspurpose07
New member
@chiere So, I don't presses the skills or expertise to spell out every single situation or hypothetical example you can find up with. I do think you're attributing a lot more human logic to this than dogs are capable of.
I'm going to suggest two things and make one point.
https://positively.com/victorias-blog/why-im-not-and-never-have-been-a-purely-positive-dog-trainer/
I'm going to suggest two things and make one point.
- Do a bunch of research. The "training methods" section wiki for this very subreddit is a FANTASTIC resource and I'll link that as well as one particular article that I've found especially helpful.
https://positively.com/victorias-blog/why-im-not-and-never-have-been-a-purely-positive-dog-trainer/
- Maybe create a thread asking this so that the many certified trainers and experts that are here can explain it much better than me.
@godspurpose07 Forgot to ask- what is the protocol for erring guest?
godspurpose07
New member
@emma43 I think it's pretty common, just something I didn't know as a first time owner. You have the dog in his crate/room and bring the guest into the house or the back yard.
Give the guests your highest value treats and have them stand facing AWAY from where the dog is coming from, with your hand facing backwards so the dog is able to reach the treats without making eye contact.
Then you let the dog into the room and have the guests ignore him. Let him sniff, investigate, and take the treats without making eye contact with him.
Eventually he'll take the treats and warm up a little, but it's still important for the first few minutes that the guests don't reach out to pet him or make too much eye contact. Once he's calm they can give him a couple easy commands for rewards.
Give the guests your highest value treats and have them stand facing AWAY from where the dog is coming from, with your hand facing backwards so the dog is able to reach the treats without making eye contact.
Then you let the dog into the room and have the guests ignore him. Let him sniff, investigate, and take the treats without making eye contact with him.
Eventually he'll take the treats and warm up a little, but it's still important for the first few minutes that the guests don't reach out to pet him or make too much eye contact. Once he's calm they can give him a couple easy commands for rewards.
jmarie196812
New member
@emma43 treat and retreat is my favourite strategy for guests