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How to focus a very distracted dog?

Jeff Hartmann
Jeff Hartmann
2025-07-02 11:21:43
Count answers : 12
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He is super active only a few minutes before a walk - he wakes me up every day at 6:30, we have 45 min walk, then at 13:00 - 1-hour walk, and then at 20:30 - 45 min walk. Almost every time we visit the dog park. Outside he is usually free, with no leash, and he could stop and wait before the road. But when there is another dog, he just runs towards him and ignores me totally. Today he even walked with another dog so far away that I couldn't see him. I was calling him, running, waving, I had toys with me, and threats, but nothing worked. He is also sniffing like crazy all the time. When I put him on a leash he almost chokes himself, cries out loud, and he is jumping from side to side, totally ignoring me, nothing worked. We tried dog training and also the trainer was hopeless. He just ignores all human beings outside. He sees only animals.
Hailie Lemke
Hailie Lemke
2025-06-20 03:32:23
Count answers : 12
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To get your dog’s focus around distractions, teaching your dog a ‘watch me’ cue, as well as practicing their reflex to their name being called, will be helpful. While training your dog to respond to you, remember not to throw them in the deep end and expect them to respond in a park full of distractions. Instead, try to increase the level of distraction slowly during training sessions. For example, you could practice 'watch me’ in the garden before trying this out in a public area. Managing your dog’s threshold is also important, as dogs are around distractions, they’ll have a ‘threshold’ distance where they’ll be able to show calm behaviours, take food and respond when we interact with them. Monitoring your dog’s body language will help to understand when they are approaching their ‘threshold’. Reward your dog for noticing a distraction, begin by marking with a ‘yes’ and reward whenever they notice a distraction, and once your dog reliably looks at you when they notice a distraction, you can start to wait for them to look at you before marking and rewarding them. If your dog begins to stare at the distraction, you can use another cue, like ‘watch me’ or their name, to prompt them to look back at you.

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