Side to Side Pattern game
Pattern games are a great, fun training tool for dogs who suffer from anxiety, reactivity, focusing, and over-arousal. These games provide stability and predictability and can help dogs to stay under threshold at times they may struggle to do so. As with all training, start practicing this in a quiet, low-distraction environment and slowly increase distractions as and when your dog is ready.
Have a handful of treats (or part of your dogs daily kibble allowance whilst working inside in low distractions)
Place a treat in front of you on the floor for your dog to eat
Wait for your dog to look up at you before placing a treat to the side of you on the floor for them to eat
Wait for your dog to look up at you before placing a treat the other side of you for your dog to eat
Keep swapping sides each time your dog looks at you.
You can progress with this to tossing a treat away from you for your dog to eat and waiting for them to orientate back to you before tossing one the other way
Gradually increase either to tossing treats or increasing distractions - do not do both at once
Always work at your dogs pace. If they are starting to struggle simply rewind training back to where they are working well before moving on again.
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