Thursday, June 22, 2006

Treats on the Ground

Wyatt has been always been distracted by treats on the ground during agility class but has gotten worse lately. He will sometimes leave the run (especially at the start line) if he smells treats around. I wanted to work on this problem. Here's what I did:

1) Maintain eye contact when leading out.
2) Give him plenty of treats from me especially at the start line.
3) Don't allow him to get treats from the ground. This is difficult but I was able to do it by leashing him and keeping his head off the ground when it looks like he smells a treat. I also will grab it if I see it and give it to him from doing something. I also use his "leave it" command and reward him if he does "leave it."
4) If he chooses to go on a treat search, put him back on leash so that he loses his turn. Try again later.

It seemed to work pretty well last night...

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