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Courteous K9

Focus & Engagement: The Backbone for Training

What is Engagement?


Good engagement is the foundation of good training. Engagement in the dog training worlds means that our dog finds it rewarding to offer us their focus without their person having to prompt them. They learn that fun things happen WITH their person vs the environment they are in is fun with or without their person.


Why is Engagement Important?

A dog focusing on their handler

One of the biggest benefits to having good engagement is that it helps build a solid relationship with you. They learn that no matter what is going on, it is more rewarding to engage with you rather than their envrionment which means they will be less distracted. If a dog is less distracted by their environment as they find more gratification in engaging with you, they are far more likely to listen to any commands that we give them.



What Are Different Ways We Can Get Engagement?


One of the easiest ways to start building that natural engagement is to reward your dog when they decide to check-in with you. A lot of people think that you should only reward a dog for giving them a command. But when we first start training a dog, we will reward the dog for deciding to look at us. Having a solid foundation of engagement will make teaching other commands like sit and down much easier because your dog will get less distracted. Basically, they learn that working with you is the most rewarding thing- and remember, dogs repeat behaviors they are rewarded for!


If we forget treats or our dog isn't very food motivated, we can still work on building engagement through our environment. We do this by limiting access to their envrionment until they offer us engagement. For example, if your dog really wants to sniff a tree while you're out on a walk, instead of letting them go sniff it on their own, stop and wait for them to look at you before you release them to go sniff the tree.



Check out our online or group classes to learn how to build engagement in your dog today!




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