Some Look At That (LAT) tips from our recent success

[flooleyoobley]

The Look At That (LAT) training method was popularized mostly in Leslie McDevitt's Controlled Unleashed and is a commonly-used force free technique for reactive dogs. I've long been a proponent of this method, but it's not always easy to implement (as with anything with a reactive dog) and I find it's often very misunderstood.

After struggling with my reactive pooch for the last 7-8 months, we've been having more breakthroughs with this method, and I thought I'd summarize some of the key points to keep in mind when trying to implement LAT. In no particular order:

1. Forget about what your dog is doing when starting out. Although in LAT we are teaching an operative behaviour or 'pattern' to help the cope with their environment, i.e. looking at a trigger as a form of targeting, the over-arching goal of LAT is classical counter-conditioning, i.e. changing your dog's emotional response to the trigger. This is the core of the technique but I think it's often mis-judged or not well understood. I've seen people using this technique, as well as other methods, where they focus a lot on getting their dog to heel, sit, look at them, look at that other dog etc., and only provide reinforcement when the dog is not reacting. This is often counter productive to the goal of changing the dog's conditioned emotional response to the situation because they are quickly over-threshold. Instead, forget about your dogs behaviour and focus on providing gushing rewards as soon as your dog clocks their trigger. If I could bring a whole roast chicken with me and throw it in front of my dog the second they see another dog, I would. It doesn't matter what your dog is doing. They may be trying to react at their trigger but you can still provide lots of rewards for them to indulge in -- you can't reinforce an emotion. You want your dog to realise that when they see the trigger, the heavens open with glorious things, and as soon as the trigger disappears, the rewarding stimuli disappear. You could also think of this as a form of non-contingent reinforcement where the learner is reinforced regardless of their behaviour, and via that process, problem behaviours will often be discontinued.
2. LAT gives your dog chance to self-soothe. I feel strongly that LAT was much better than teaching my dog to look at me because my dog is so fiercely vigilant. Nothing is going to be more important to my dog than keeping track of the scary things in their environment, so why not let them? We can allow them to look, provide lots and lots of nice things, and build this behaviour into our counter-conditioning.
3. Start in a familiar, safe environment. In practice, we know keeping our dogs under-threshold is best for learning, so I'd always start LAT in a familiar environment. If you can start somewhere where they can see the stimuli that they react to but feel safe (e.g. it could be a family member in the back garden or familiar dogs in a safe area) then you can start to teach them that what a triggering stimulus relates to more quickly. I've done this with my dog who is very leash reactive, starting in a training facility with dogs he knows, and just rewarding for any look at the other dogs.
4. Vary the rewards, if possible. My dog is very food motivated, but poisoning the reinforcer is very easy to do. We've had a lot of success recently by switching up the training food every couple of days, which has kept my dog's interest much more than using a single very high value food for multiple days.
5. Don't skimp on the jackpots. When starting out, feel free to use loads of treats. To really get your dog to realise that the trigger is predictive of nice things, giving one piece of food isn't going to cut it for many dogs. Think handfuls of food as soon as they see the thing they don't like. You might be done in a very short amount of time, but that's fine, because...
6. Short sessions go a long way. I've been driving my dog to new spots for 2-5 minute LAT games, e.g. a large intersection where there are dog walkers. We've also been finding large car lots excellent places to watch people and dogs go past and practice. We have the car right there if we need to abort or a have a breather, which is more comforting for him and me. I feel like these short but frequent sessions have been a game-changer.
7. Practice LAT on other stimuli. We still practice LAT with people, even though my dog is no longer reactive to them (but still wary). I feel like this helps with LAT on other dogs, because my dog might already have had a few trials of the behaviour before seeing a dog that day.

I hope that this has been helpful. We've still got a long way to go, but we're making lots and lots of progress and can now be within 5 metres of other dogs whereas a couple of months ago we struggled being 20 metres away from other dogs.

 

[lydianwells]

@flooleyoobley Thank you! I definitely have been trying to distract my dog from the other dog but had also recently seen tips to let them do that and just treat away. In my experience, saying “Look at that!” has become a trigger itself because he assumes I see a dog and works himself up before he even finds it. Maybe this new approach will get him to be excited over the coming treats and not anxious about when he’s going to notice a dog.

 

[dadof19]

@flooleyoobley This is very, VERY helpful. I struggle with the timing when my dog noticed the trigger, but these tips will go a long way. Thank you!

 

[themanwhosinned]

@flooleyoobley Great write up! I do a modified Look at That where I reward my dog when she chooses to look away from the trigger. To your point 2, staring for my dog was always the precursor to reacting, so I don't want her to practice that. Other dogs staring at her is also a trigger for her, so I don't want to let her stare back. It's nice to see that the training is working when she sees a dog and immediately looks at me for treats!

 

[truthseeker1974]

@flooleyoobley We are working on leash reactivity using BAT but I will be trying this on my front step since it will be quite an easy spot to implement.

 

[curtis2022]

@flooleyoobley This is fantastic, thank you so much. Definitely going to implement the shorter training sessions - I tend to get quite fixated on what I've decided to do that session, and if she's not able to do it that day I feel quite defeated. I think just doing really quick little sessions will help to keep my anxiety down, therefore keep her calmer and more likely to have a positive training session!

 

[peacenothate]

@flooleyoobley I never realized that I was using this, but this technique is pretty much how I have nearly rehabilitated Lucy. At the vet recently, she saw another pit who was losing their shit because they were excited to see Lucy (25% bull terrier/75% APBT herself). I rewarded Lucy for just looking at them and not reacting. She used to lose her mind and we would have to get her out of sight quickly. She doesn't need the hardcore drugs anymore.

I should practice more of #6 and I haven't. We were focusing mainly on the vet because that's the area we've had a harder time reducing her reaction. She's definitely miles better than when we first got her though!

This is really excellent advice! Thanks for sharing!

 

[abid14385]

@flooleyoobley This is so helpful! I think when I first started counter conditioning my dog I was really hung up on the “if your dog is reacting/over threshold they are not trainable in that moment” part and I would get very stressed if I didn’t catch her right before she started to react. But I recently worked with a trainer who helped me understand what you explain so well in your first point

 

[isaacs2311]

@flooleyoobley Wonderful tips, thank you! LAT worked wonders for my dog but she's gotten more anxious and regressed so we'll have to do it all over again. I have the book Control Unleashed but I constantly struggled with what to do because when a trigger appaears and your dog is going to react in 2 seconds it gets overwhelming. I was also getting upset that she didn't want to look at me when she heard the clicker. Currently we are struggling with her going from not noticing the trigger to full out reaction which meds seem to be helping with.