Attention at a Distance

In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw discusses:

• The importance of mandatory eye contact and how to generalize for distance work.

• Moving from negative reinforcement to positive punishment to move from escape to avoidance.

• Training progressions to train mandatory eye contact with your dog.

• Transitioning from lure to reward to variable reward.

Key Takeaways:

• To get your dog to pay attention to your face, consider putting a food reward in your mouth - like hot dogs, cheese, or chicken.

• Build duration before you build distance in your training progression. If they aren't paying attention at 2 feet, they're not going to pay attention at 20 feet.

• You have to take the training wheels off as you move between training progression levels.

• When you get to trial, you have to operate on an extinction condition - there is no reinforcement or rewards on the field, so it is better to have your dog on a very, very thin variable reward schedule by that point. That only comes through training progressions and systematic generalization.

"If we never get to the point where the dog understands there's a correction for inattention, then that's not going to be a very reliable tool for us for attention at a distance. We want to generalize it. We want to continue to create a systematic desensitization to all the things that the decoy might do." — Jerry Bradshaw

Episode References:

• The Working Grip Foundation: https://workinggrip.org/

• Stewart Hilliard's Kynology: https://kynology.org/

Get Jerry's book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

Contact Jerry:

Website: controlledaggressionpodcast.com

Email: JBradshaw@TarheelCanine.com

Tarheel Canine Training: www.tarheelcanine.com

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Twitter: @tarheelcanine

Instagram: @tarheelk9

Facebook: TarheelCanineTraining

Protection Sports Website: psak9-as.org

Patreon: patreon.com/controlledaggression

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

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Tarheel Canine Seminars: https://streetreadyk9.com/

Tarheel Canine Student Portal: https://tcstudentportal.com/

Sponsors:

ALM K9 Equipment: almk9equipment.com

PSA & American Schutzhund: psak9-as.org

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The Drive Company: thedriveco.com

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Dog Armour: dogarmour.com

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Rogue Arsenal: roguearsenal.com

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Kirby K9: k9irby.com

Train hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.