What are the 4 D's of dog training?
Dell Swaniawski
2025-07-12 19:35:15
Count answers
: 8
The 4 D’s of training are key to solidifying all your cues and getting a response from your dog when you need it most. Duration refers to how long your dog will continue to do a task without interruption. Distance – There are two parts to increasing distance, one is how far away you can be from the dog and still get them to sit, the other part is to have the dog sit and remain sitting whilst you move away from them. Distraction - Distractions, or what behaviourists call competing motivators, are all those things in life that will compete with you for your dog's attention. Difficulty-Anything that can be taught can be made tougher, if you teach the dog to sit on the kitchen floor, they may not know how to sit on grass, the patio or the carpet or even in a different room.
Vida Marks
2025-07-12 18:04:04
Count answers
: 14
So, what are the four D's.
The four D's of difficulty are Duration Distance Disengage/Disconnect Distractions.
First, we have Duration.
If I ask my dog for a Sit or a Stay, for example, the longer I want my dog to maintain the behavior, the more challenging it is.
Second, we have Distance.
If I am asking my dog for a Stay, it's much easier typically for my dog to maintain a Stay if I am close by.
Third, we have Disengage or Disconnect.
It's much easier to perform and continue to maintain a behavior when I am focused directly on my dog.
Fourth, we have Distractions.
These are all the other things that we generally think of when we talk about distractions.
These are the things in the environment that get your dog's attention.
We work on increasing the difficulty – or distraction – of one “D” at a time.