Part 1:
Engagement, what does engagement mean?
*How much your dog likes you.
* He is happy to participate and become involved with you.
Think about what the word engagement means, commitment etc:
*Engagement’s about investing in something or someone.
·*Engagement is a 2-way thing, you and your dog needs to be equally invested in this process to build on your relationship.
Part 2:
It all begins with ENGAGEMENT…the first stage of training, is engagement.
Engagement Principles:
* Start very early, not just in age, but stages of training, this should be the first stage, no matter the age of the dog.
*Handfeeding – You need to be the bringer of food, not the metal bowl on the floor…YOU need to be the absolute provider of all that’s enjoyable in your dog’s life.
* To start with you feed from anywhere …. The settee, kitchen, office and the laundry room. The dog needs to know you are the provider.
* Dog’s that are not motivated will soon be when they realise food only comes from you.
*You take this opportunity to shape the dog’s behaviours, as well as their obedience.
(Please look At Markers, Commands and Release Section)
Part 3:
As you progress into your handfeeding and your engagement is really good, you then use this where you need it most:
* Recall.
* Around Other Dogs.
* Around People.
* When visitors come in.
* Training.
* Out Walks.
* House Manners
Part 4:
Everything your dog’s gets, must be earned:
* All his food.
* All his toys, no toy box’s full just with him helping himself, you have to have the fun with your dog.
* No free affection.
* No free food.
* No free Walks, every walk is a training opportunity.
* No free play.
Dogs with no engagement often have no impulse control around other dogs, people or their environments they would do anything than listen to their owner.
These are the dogs that run to every dog or person they see. These dogs care more interested the environment and what’s in the environment, it’s very clear that engagement is missing from their relationships with owner and dog.
Part 5:
Believe it or not Engagement is easy to build, between dog and owner.
Engagement Training:
* Handfeeding
* Eye contact. (See Section on Eye Contact)
* Games hiding and go seek, find it. (See Section)
* Building a marker.
Part 6:
Building the verbal Marker, to let the dog know, the behaviours that you want and they will get payments of (food- toy-fun) are coming from the Owner.
(Please look At Markers, Commands and Release Section)
The marker I use is YES.
The Release I use is command is OK
It begins with asking dog to sit, wait for eye contact (that’s the most important part) then say YES and the dog gets a reward.
Repeat over and over. Randomly throughout the day, if the dog makes eye contact, we the mark then reward.
Part 7:
Once the dog gets this, then progress to:
* Before we let the dog in the garden, we wait for eye contact then realise the dog to go to the garden
* Before we go for a walk, we wait for eye contact and proceed.
* Before we feed the dog, we wait for eye contact and then release them for their food.
The more you reward eye contact and the dog getting the reward they were looking for, the more the dog pays attention to you and you have started to get engagement.
We also teach the owners games to play, interactive and relationship-based games that are fun for you and the dog as well as focusing on obedience with a reward-based rewards.
Using the above steps, very quickly builds engagement.
If you clear and confidant in what you’re doing and reward often, the results are rapid.
