How to improve dog engagement?
Bailey Schuster
2025-07-22 16:02:33
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Practice these 5 tips to work on getting better engagement with your dog. Hand feeding: teaching your dog to focus on you by feeding from the hand may sound basic but it works! Especially if you have a dog who comes to get their reward and then immediately checks out. Extend the amount of time they pay attention to you by giving rapid fire rewards and hand feeding. Teach tricks: you may not use tricks in day to day life but tricks give you the opportunity to teach your dog about learning, how your payment system and communication works, and keeps your dog focused on you! Teach your dog a look or focus command and pay them when they do it! A dog that is watching you is 100% engaged and ready so that when you do start to ask them for more complicated behaviors, they are committed. Engagement should be fun, build your dog’s drive to stay engaged with you by making a game out of it. Sneak off with some tasty treats and call your dog to find you.
Janae Marquardt
2025-07-22 15:28:00
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: 11
I've heard that you need to acclimatize a dog to their surroundings to get good engagement with R+ methods, which is what I have done. I've also heard that allowing a dog to constantly self reward whether it be with other dogs or surroundings can harm engagement. Am I over doing the acclimatization? Because of the lack of engagement and the pulling ect we end up having a bad time and I think he sometime views me as the barrier to his "fun" further harming the relationship. What should I doing to work on engagement/relationship?
Willow Schoen
2025-07-22 13:37:20
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: 9
Practice Makes Permanent, this means that you need to commit to daily practice with your dog. Make your relationship MATTER to your dog. I hand feed my dog(s) and I put up toys so when I pull them out, I have my dogs undivided attention. Practice having your dog drag the leash IN the house to start. I use their dog food and hand feed and walk with them in the house giving dog food when your dog makes eye contact. Extend the amount of time they pay attention to you by giving rapid fire rewards and hand feeding. Play hide and seek with your dog. This will help to build engagement and teach your dog that finding you is FUN and rewarding. Use treats, toys petting and praise to engage your dog when they find you. Help them learn that paying attention to you is beneficial. A dog who has practiced engagement is easier to train, has a stronger bond, can better handle distractions, and enjoys the training experience.