Look At That, or LAT, is something that comes up time and time again on the forum, so I thought I'd write a post about it and make it into a sticky in the training section so we can link to it. This isn't a soliloquy, so please feel free to add anything I've missed, or your own questions and experiences. LAT is hugely useful for conditioning your dog not to respond to a stimulus. This might be in the form of barking at a trigger due to fear, or maybe your dog is excited to run up to others. It covers a multitude of issues. The title words "Look At" could also be replaced with "Listen To" or "Smell" as it works well in these situations, too. For this explanation, I'm going to talk about a dog who is overly gregarious and runs up to others all the time (for some reason, I'm thinking of a "she" in this situation. Maybe a chocolate "she"...), but the same technique can be used in any situation where your dog reacts to a trigger. The way it works is that you start from a distance where the dog isn't reacting to the trigger. This is HUGELY important. If your dog is reacting, you're too close. Move farther away to a distance where your dog can cope. A dog who is lunging, barking, growling (which may be from frustration of being held on a lead) isn't in the zone where they will be able to learn, so you have to give them distance. You can do this by moving away, for sure, but the best thing is to set yourself and your dog up for success by orchestrating situations which are under your control so your dog never reaches that threshold. This doesn't necessarily mean having someone else to help you, although that is wonderful if you can manage it: in the case of our dog, it might mean you arrange to meet your friend and her dog in a location where you can manage the distance. If you don't have the benefit of that, though, it doesn't mean all is lost, as you can think about where the best places are for encountering your trigger in an environment where you can control the distances. For our over-friendly dog, we need to make sure she doesn't have the opportunity to run over to other dogs. This doesn't mean she can never play with other dogs, just that it has to be on cue. She needs to be able to control herself until you tell her it's OK to "say hi", or whatever other cue you choose to use. So, we're at a distance where she's able to think, she's not lunging towards the other dog. I want her to be able to see that dog, though, and make the choice to ignore it. At this point, what I'm going to do is mark her for looking at it. This can be done with a clicker or with a verbal marker such as "yes". Click the second she looks at the dog and then give her a treat. Something nice and tasty. Repeat. Every time she looks, click (or mark) and treat (from hereon in, this is known as C&T). Note: you are not trying to use the click to get your dog's attention. Your dog should have previously learnt that a click means a treat is coming, so they should look to you. If you've not done this yet, then read up on this article - the same applies whether it's a clicker or a verbal marker: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/5-steps-to-charging-a-clicker/ If you are confident your clicker is charged and your dog still isn't looking to you when you click, then you're too close. Move farther away until your dog turns to you on the click. Your dog looks calmly at the trigger > You click > The dog looks to you and takes her treat. Over time, meaning several sessions, you can start decreasing the distance. Your dog is learning that seeing her trigger means a treat is coming, so she will begin to anticipate that. If your dog looks at the trigger and then at you, C&T. This means she has made the connection between her trigger and the treat, which is brilliant. It may not be a linear progression between sessions. Sometimes she will be able to cope at, say, 20m but the next time she is reacting at that distance. That is OK. Training dogs is rarely linear, as there are a huge number of other stimuli working on your dog at any one time; just take a step back, look at the dog you have in front of you and make your choice of distance based on what she is telling you. If she is finding it easy, decrease the distance a few paces. If she is struggling, move it back. Another note: be careful you are not bribing your dog by showing her the treats. This may work in the short term, but will fail in the long term. There will always be something in the environment that trumps your treat. To repeat, the pattern is: Your dog looks calmly at the trigger > You click > The dog looks to you and takes her treat. which, over time, should transition to: Your dog looks calmly at the trigger > The dog looks at you > You click and treat. You are not trying to end up with a dog who looks at you the whole time. "Look At Me" is a useful coping mechanism for a panic situation, but it does not lead to a dog who can cope with and remain calm around the trigger. Instead, you are working towards a dog who can watch their trigger for extended periods without reacting. In fact, once this is achieved, the trigger is no longer a trigger! You can absolutely do this "in the real world", too. If you're using a clicker, I encourage you to carry it in your hand on all walks so you are ready to click as soon as another dog appears in your view. It's important you get it in before your dog reacts, then you can treat and move away to get the distance you need. View every trigger you see as an opportunity to practice and you'll make good headway. Don't panic if your dog does react, though, if someone suddenly appears, for example. Just use damage control to manage the situation and then find more opportunities to practice. When you do want your dog to be able to play with another dog, such as one you already know is friendly and the owner is happy for yours to play with, then use the LAT protocol first, then, once your dog is sitting and watching calmly from whatever distance they can manage, you can release them with your "say hi" cue. Your dog needs to learn that she doesn't get to "say hi" to every other dog, so only do this now and again. Say one in ten dogs she gets to meet (where appropriate). All this relies on your dog being on lead for the most part, but that doesn't mean she needs to be confined to the lead. It just means pop her on lead when you see another dog approaching until you're confident she can ignore the other dog without it. And, if you are absolutely sure there is nothing you can do to stop her running over to the dog, get your "say hi" cue in before she does, so she gets used to that always being the words she says before a meet and greet. This is a really useful graphic that explains LAT a little less verbosely. You can see it says this is for fearful, anxious or frustrated dogs, but it also applies to excitable dogs. And here is a video of it in action, by Donna Hill: If anyone has any more thoughts, comments, questions, resources, please add them below.
I think the importance of actually creating a LAT cue is interesting. To really train 'look at that' as described by Leslie McDevitt, the cue is a critical part of it. In her book she explains why, to get the full benefit, you really do need to put 'look at that' on cue, and she isn't a fan of just clicking and treating and leaving it at that - I don't have the book to hand, but from memory it's to solidify the behaviour of looking as an operant response. In this context, it's easier to see why Donna Hill in the video actually does go to the trouble of putting the behaviour properly on cue. Otherwise, you are feeding as other dogs appear. Which is fine, useful and works. But I don't think it's what Leslie McDevitt meant by LAT.
And as an alternative you can train that the click and treat comes for the slightest look away from the focus of their attention and becomes a 'Look at me' instead so you get which I find produces results more quickly with reactive dogs.
I'll have to look that up. My thought is that the trigger appearing is the cue and that by specifically not putting it on a verbal cue means you're not having to rely on seeing the trigger first. I do understand the reasoning behind adding the cue, though. I've used LAT far more in fear responses than in excitable responses and in that instance I'll be classically conditioning the calm response to the trigger. You raise the topic of the biggest resource of all, which I completely missed, oops! LAT is from Leslie McDevitt's book "Control Unleashed": https://www.amazon.co.uk/Control-Un...=1513874825&sr=8-1&keywords=control+unleashed
It’s in the Puppy Programme version. She says: I have had students who were so happy with the offered version of the game that they did not put the time in to teach their dog a verbal cue—they were just happy that their dog turned to them as soon as he saw something that used to trigger a reaction. So I tell everybody now that, yes, it is important to teach a verbal cue also. Excerpt From: Leslie McDevitt, MLA, CDBC, CPDT. “Control Unleashed: The Puppy Program.” I don’t want to cut and paste the rest of the section, because that’s unfair on the author. But the nub of it is that LAT is a game – it’s a game to play that involves your dog seeking thing out to point them out to you, and you cue the start of the game, not a specific trigger. Feeding – or making a sound that indicates to the dog they will be fed – will work as an ‘offered’ behavior on a specific trigger. As in see trigger, turn to Mum for a treat. I don’t think that’s all that Leslie McDervitt had in mind though.
Putting a ‘look’ (at any object) on cue definitely makes it a more versatile behaviour. In the case of a specific trigger though the aim is just to desensitise. As Snowbunny said, so that at the very least the trigger now isn’t a trigger or, even better, so the trigger for fear/overarousal becomes a trigger for calm, positive feelings (aka classical counterconditioning). If your dog can look at the thing calmly or, even better, look at the thing calmly then voluntarily take his attention away from it (so, performing an alternative behaviour, aka operant counterconditiining), then it’s mission accomplished.
Yep - for a specific trigger, it works. Betsy is certainly conditioned to turn to me for a treat when she sees a dog, and it's handy. It was a simple case of see dog, here's a treat, for Betsy and it worked nicely. I got it in early though. For a dog with a lot of triggers though, it really might be worth trying Leslie McD's version. I think her version is look 'for' something, as in scan your environment for something you want to point out to me. It links into her section on reactivity in the book.
I will be doing this from Day 1 with my next puppy/dog! Definitely. And I really must read that book....
Uau! Great post, thanks! I was sure you were talking about my 5-month-old Ema! She's a very good girl, now with perfect* off-lead, heel and stay. But all that fades away with other dogs nearby. I'll start LAT tomorrow and will let you know
My Lab seems to have taught himself LAT, he sees a squirrel, or horse/cow/person and runs back to me for the tennis ball Sometimes it is a real nuisance as he keeps rushing back to me but at least he doesn't chase the myriads of squirrels down my lane!
Could I ask a question? I'm doing LAT with Inky, at the moment, when he's on the lead when we see other dogs. Should I get him to sit first? I do usually ask for a sit which he does then I say LAT as he's looking at the dog then when he turns to me I say yes and treat. He doesn't usually turn when I ask for the sit. Is the idea that he will eventually just look at me instead of the dog? Also at the moment once I've said yes and treated, if he looks again at the dog, I repeat the whole thing. If the other dog is close I have to do this more, I guess that's because it's more distracting? Especially other dogs off lead whose owners appear to have no control over. One helpful comment I had was what will I do when I run out of treats! I felt like replying that at least I'm trying to train my dog. Eventually is the idea that he'll ignore other dogs off lead too by teaching LAT? At the moment he tends to say hello but generally comes to my whistle, but I'm thinking I couldn't to LAT in that situation. Presumably LAT is to get them to ignore dogs while on the lead but I'm not sure what to teach to ignore off lead?
I don't like asking for a sit during LAT. I prefer my dog to be able to express himself freely, which he is unable to do if sat down. Not asking for the sit allows me to easily see if he is getting excited or anxious and asking a dog to stay in a position he's not comfortable with can actually increase anxiety. Not to mention that if we're working close to the dog's limit, it's just asking for them to break the sit and damage that cue. So, no, I prefer to do LAT in whatever position the dog is most comfortable with. If they offer a sit, fine, but I don't ask for it. On the other hand, if I'm in management mode (the other dog is getting too close and I can't control that) then I may ask for a behaviour in order to work on focus on me to get us out of the situation. The idea is that he'll eventually not be getting overly excited/aroused/anxious with the other dog, so he won't need to stare at it or you. So he will acknowledge it but not fixate. Well, you make sure you don't Yes, you're out there training, and that's the thing. LAT isn't about mindless distraction with treats, it's about changing the dog's emotional response to a trigger. Once that has happened, the treats will no longer be necessary because your dog won't be reacting anymore. The best way is to break it down so he has more freedom - or the appearance of it. When his behaviour is solid on lead, you could use a long line, or a toggle on the collar that he doesn't know whether you're holding it or not. Of course, you'd go back to greater distances with this before decreasing the distance (to increase the distraction) again.
Thank you for your helpful reply. As usual, I seem to get half of something but I feel clearer about where I'm aiming now! You mention a toggle on his collar, that sounds like a good idea, do you use something specific?
No, but when he's walking on the lead I'd like to be able to walk past without him reacting to other dogs. He's much better now if they are at a distance we can walk by. when they are closer if we stop and do LAT sometimes he doesn't react but I'd like it to be all the time, might as well aim high!
That’s good, I only ask as I have a neighbour who did such a good job of training his lab to fixate on him that now it totally ignores all dogs all of the time. It’s so sad
No, the idea is that you're reducing your dog's reactivity (either through excitement, fear, anxiety or aggression) to another dog so they can walk past calmly. I always want my dogs (and specifically my youngest, who is ultra sociable) to wait for my cue before she engages with another dog, because it's not always appropriate - elderly, fearful, injured etc dogs.
I've just had an unexpected and rather epic LAT session with Willow. She didn't want to go out earlier, so I took her out alone just now. It's complete chaos out there, completely unlike how it normally is here and not at all ideal for her anxiety. We got stuck between two children tobogganing down the road and a car spinning its wheels to get out of the snow while people shovelled around it. Lots of people walking past, and other dogs running up to us. If I didn't have the LAT protocol, I think we'd have both gone to pieces! As it was, we worked through it and, as much as I'd have preferred not to have to, I think we came out of it relatively unscathed. The only bit of real reactivity we had was when a guy's over-friendly huge yellow Lab came running up to us. I got between Willow and him (he was a lovely dog, don't get me wrong, just not what we needed), gave him the stop sign and he backed off, but then the owner walked past TWICE more with him off lead, on a single track road where I couldn't get away (or move ahead because of the tobogganing kids) so he came right up to us again. The third time, he actually put him him on lead and apologised, while Willow was barking at him. Keeping in mind on the very first time he'd approached, I shouted to the owner "my dog is scared, please keep yours away". FFS. Aaaaaand.....breathe! It's all good training and I think, even though we could have done without it at this moment in time, it was mainly positive.
