Singing the praises of L.A.T

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patrickcen

New member
LAT, or engage/disengage, is the best thing I ever taught my dog!

We’ve been walking this way for 10 months and we can pass people (adults) on the same sidewalk within a few feet, and dogs on the other side of the street aren’t difficult to pass, provided the treats come fast and often. My dog expects treats and usually looks at me without having to verbally remind him, and is now putting together (without me explicitly training it) to come into a heel. Today he saw a person headed our way, and turned around to me super excited and ran back to put himself into a heel!
 
@patrickcen I love love love reading posts like these :)

My guy is also getting very good at this same concept with people close, and dogs at a reasonable distance. He looks at me like “mom we’re about to pass a person, food now PLEASE” and it’s quite adorable. We’re a ways away from passing dogs closely, but these moments are always so rewarding!!
 
@patrickcen LAT is so good its a crime many people don't know about it.

it works for almost anything a dog might perceive as dangerous or threatening. your dog doenst even need to be reactive to need to learn about LAT, it works for socialization, neutrality, proofing focus/calm/relax

so many of the things!
 
@bef Yes!! I would consider my dog “pre-reactive” as she’s very timid of strangers (humans and dogs), noises and new objects and can get blustery when frightened. We taught engage/disengage early in her puppyhood and it’s paying major dividends. 9 times out of 10 when something spooky happens, she looks directly at me for her treat. Most of the other times, she still will recall or respond to a treat scatter. It’s wonderful!
 
@patrickcen We are using it too although still struggling with keeping the reinforcement rate high. My dog makes great progress if we remember to reinforce reinforce reinforce and keep her below threshold.

Two thumbs up to your super good boy!
 
@isaacs2311 Best case scenario, like an old senior dog across the street that doesn’t even know my dog exists, we can do just LAT, but for other dogs showing any interest in my dog, we do this and a treat scatter: kinda like scatter treats “go search”, and when he’s done I’ll do LAT, then another treat scatter, than ask for a touch to keep him moving and mind occupied.
 
@patrickcen Cheers, I'm a bit stuck in a rut because my dog used to be so over threshold she didn't notice treats unless they were shovelled into her mouth. Now she does well with find its and treat scatters but it's hard to remember to do those while facing down a trigger. If I remember I usually do LAT, click feed click feed click feed rapid fire, once she's hooked I throw some treats around and let her root around the grass. We're starting in person training on Saturday so I'll be able to refine my technique.

Having a bit of trouble training with dogs though. The on leash ones sometimes get SO worked up seeing her on her long line when she hasn't noticed they exist. It would be a terrible idea to go closer then. I don't trust the off leash ones not to bolt at her so we give them a really wide berth. I've had way more success with people because they usually just amble along doing their own thing.
 
@isaacs2311 Not joking, with my previous dog we practiced using a realistic looking stuffed dog. So much easier than trying to find a dog to do a set up with (or using random dogs whose owners will do things like continue to walk up to you when your dog is having a meltdown). They WILL think it’s a real dog as long as they don’t get close enough to sniff!
 
@asimplerway Thanks! My puppy trainer showed us this last year and it was mind blowing. I think my dog is only reactive to other reactive dogs though I've never dared to go near enough to test my theory because it's hard to tell how reactive other dogs are and there are so many of them. I'm waiting for our training class to start tomorrow, I suspect she'll either roll out a fake dog or her own dog.
 
@asimplerway Had our first class, my dog ignored the stuffed dog till the trainer started using it like a real dog, saying cues, clicking, treating it and walking it on leash. Then my dog got really interested and went to sniff it's butt. She also didn't react when she saw it on the floor for the first time.

So looks like it's reactive dogs that set her off.
 
@capd1 I think there’s some on this subreddit if you go to menu > resources, but if you search LAT online you’ll find some graphic and videos of how to do it.

There’s basically 2 steps:
  1. As soon as your dog has spotted a trigger but has enough distance to not react, mark and reward. The dog may look back at the trigger, and you just mark and reward again. You can pair this with a phrase too like a command. You’re basically rewarding them for noticing and not reacting, while building a better emotional response to the trigger.
  2. At some point (and this is different for each dog) your dog will learn to expect the reward and will see the trigger and look at you for a treat. This is where the magic happens cus you are teaching your dog to check in with you in the presence of a trigger. About 2-3 weeks in this started happening for humans, it took much longer for him to automatically check in for dogs. And for more difficult triggers, maybe a group of toddlers on tricycles, we remind him to check in. We have a command term that we conditioned in step 1, so if he’s looking at the trigger a bit too long, we say “good looking” at he’s like “oh yeah” and looks at me for a reward.
 
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