“My dog knows how to walk nicely and respond to my cues inside the house but as soon as we go outside, my dog seems to forget everything.”
“My dog is great in our yard and in dog class but has a lot of trouble on neighbourhood walks where there are so many distractions like rabbits, squirrels, other dogs, cars, and people on bikes.”
“As soon as my dog sees the leash, it’s like my dog’s brain goes offline.”
Practicing skills inside is very different from practicing those same skills outside.
What can you do? When your dog has mastered a skill indoors, begin to add distractions one at a time. Distractions that mimic some of the distractions outside. Distractions that are not the same as the ones outside but that are still exciting. Don’t make it too difficult for your dog. Baby steps. Make sure your dog masters each skill with the distraction before you increase the intensity of the distraction or before you add an additional distraction.
For example, if your dog gets amped up on walks when your dog hears another dog barking, you can try using a recording of the sound of dogs barking during your indoor training sessions. Try to start with barking sounds that seem happy rather than dogs fighting or guarding or in fear. The internet should have videos of dog parks or dogs playing, for example. Start at a very low volume — just loud enough for your dog to barely notice. You might have to start with just a few seconds of the sounds and then turn it off and continue to train without the sound. Then as your dog proves to be able to still perform known skills at an expert level, you can increase the duration of the sounds. Or increase the volume a tiny bit. Eventually, over subsequent training sessions your dog will be able to ignore the barking sound at a normal level for a longer duration.
For dogs who find squirrels very exciting, you can find the sounds of squirrels on the internet. Eventually, when your dog is okay to train indoors with the sounds of squirrels playing at a normal volume, you can try playing a video of a squirrel, if your dog notices images on a monitor/TV screen. Some dogs don’t watch TV, but if your dog does, you can try using this as a way to provide visual distractions. But start without the sound. And you might want to show it for a few seconds. Or dim the screen so that it’s not that easy to see the squirrel. The idea is to start at a very low level distaction — low enough that your dog can succeed. Then progress in very tiny steps when your dog has mastered each step.
The indoor distractions don’t have to be the same as the outdoor distractions
Creating distractions indoors that challenge your dog’s attention don’t have to be the same as those outdoors. The value lies in providing opportunities for your dog to succeed in working around any distraction. Your dog will become better at ignoring distractions in general. If you are wearing a silly hat, if you do some jumping jacks, if you place a toy nearby, if someone in the house is walking in and out of the room, if you place an empty box nearby.
If you start training indoors with your dog wearing the harness used for walking, this can help your dog become less amped up about wearing the harness because it won’t always mean a walk is coming. If you bring out the leash and your dog gets excited, place the leash on the floor and train. If your dog is calm about that and can easily train, you can try holding the leash but not attaching it to your dog’s harness/collar. When your dog finds that easy, you can then attach the leash — maybe for a short time at first. Find the level of difficulty that is a slight challenge for your dog that your dog can succeed at. Practice at that level until mastery and then increase the level of difficulty. This might take several training sessions.
Training Tip: short sessions (1 to 5 minutes) several times a day
Short, frequent training sessions are usually more effective than one long session.
Allow your dog to have mini-breaks (10 seconds? 30 seconds?) during a training session
Learning is hard. It drains the brain. Provide the option for your dog to take mini-breaks during a session. Then, when your dog looks like they want to resume training, resume again. For example, if you are practicing a skill that has repetitions (reps), you can do a set of 3 to 5 reps and then release your dog for a mini-break and walk a few steps away. If your dog looks like they want to keep training, do another set of 3 to 5 reps.
For dogs that become overly amped up by training, you can provide mini-breaks and then when they look like they want to resume, wait for them to show that they are a bit calmer. Perhaps you have trained them to go to their place (a dog bed) and you can use that as a cue that training will resume. Then, once they learn that cue, you can wait for the dog to offer that behaviour on their own. When they can calm themselves and go to their place and wait on their own, you can resume the session and do another set of 3 to 5 reps of whatever you were working on.
Always end the training session BEFORE your dog starts to lose interest or BEFORE your dog starts to drop in performance
Sometimes we want to keep working at it but the dog is “done” mentally, physically, or emotionally. Keep training fun for your dog and your dog will be more likely to want to perform those behaviours in the future. For dogs that get really excited by training, short sessions with mini breaks will help them practice emotional regulation.
End the session with a clear signal that the session has ended. It might be something like “That’s All” or “Finished” and then perhaps toss a few treats on the ground and walk away and put the training equipment away. End the session for real. Don’t be tempted to do another session right away. Let the dog know that when you give the end of session signal, it means the session is over. Non-negotiable. Otherwise, if you resume again, your dog will be likely to keep pestering you to do more training.
Certified Professional Dog Training 