Different activities and preparing your dog for distractions.
Fun activities to do with your dog:
Go for a hike
Snap photos of your dog
Attend festivals
Prepare for Halloween
While enjoying a hike/walk with your family you want to make sure you have control of your dog. You want to first work on your leash walking in a low stress environment before working up to walks with higher distractions. During your walk try feeding your dog their meal, when your dog is walking with a loose leash give them some food. Anytime you get a behaviour that you like from your dog, reward them with food!
When taking a photo of your dog while on a walk, we want to make sure you keep your dog safe. Keep your dog on leash while taking the photo. When your dog goes into the sit/down you want to reward that behaviour, this will help keep the attention on you instead of distractions. Get your dogs attention with food or a toy, this will help you get a great photo!
Attending festivals with your dog is fun, but there can be lots of distractions and your dog could get overwhelmed. To prepare your dog, first take your dog out in public with low distractions. While out in public with your dog, practice commands such as walking on leash, sit, and down. Your commands will give your dog a task and help keep them calm in a stressful environment. When you see your dog getting distracted or stressed in the environment, bring them out of the situation. Once your dogs is out of the stress, work on attention grabbers to get their attention back on you.
Halloween can be stressful for your dog if you are trick or treating or handing out candy in your home. When walking with your dog on Halloween night have something that grabs your dogs attention when kids are running by in scary costumes. Train for this before Halloween and work on engagement to keep their attention on you. When handing out candy at home, practice a place/mark command to keep your dog from barking or trying to run out the door. This will help keep your dog calm and confident while kids knock on your door. Work on the place/mark before Halloween to make sure your dog enjoys this command and can hold the place/mark command with distractions.
