July 2012 -- Day Sixteen

Dogs can get easily distracted and Mollie is no exception. Like most dogs, she can be very attentive at home but out in the real world with real world distractions, it's a whole other story. We help dogs to be more attentive in the face of distractions by slowly introducing various distraction levels while we are working on skills like attention, basic obedience, leashing walking, etc. There are a lot of things out in the world that can distract your dog but luckily we have some tools in our toolbox to help her through those distractions.

You can use the acronym M.O.S.T. to remember things that can distract Mollie but also things you can use to your advantage to get her attention back on you. M.O.S.T. stands for Movement, Odor, Sound, and Touch.

 Movement of objects or living things can be very distracting to a dog. It can be as simple as a leaf blowing around or as much as a cat running past.

 Things that are moving can feed into their desire to play and to chase.

If I've lost Mollie's attention or I might lose her attention, I can use movement to get her focused on me. I can use wiggling my fingers, moving backwards, waving a tug toy, or walking faster to keep her attention on me.

Dogs have very powerful noses and take in a lot of the world around them through their nose. Smells (odors) every where can distract a dog...especially food or other animal smells.

I can use odor to get her attention back on me by waving a treat under her nose and luring her back to me. Sometimes it even works if you have just the smell of treats on your hands.

There are a wide variety of sounds that can distract Mollie from people talking or dogs barking to traffic sounds.

I can use sounds like a whistle or clapping my hands or making clicking noises with my mouth to regain her attention.

Things touching her like a person bumping into her or a dog licking her face can distract Mollie but I can regain her attention with a light tap on her hip or by goosing her a bit. I usually use a combination of these to get her attention depending on the situation. I might wiggle a treat under her nose while I'm backing up and encouraging her with my voice.

Primarily, though, I'm going to scan the environment to see what might distract her and get her attention before she is fully distracted. I might increase my rate of reinforcement (give her treats more often for paying attention to me), increase the value of the reinforcement (break out the cheese or the chicken), and get as much distance from the distraction as possible. For instance, if I see a group of dogs playing at the park and I know she will be distracted by that, I'm going to stay at a distance where I can still get her attention by saying her name.

As she improves with time and practice, she'll be able to handle distractions at a closer distance. But for now, it just takes a little more work on our part.