I think I'm being dense here, but could someone clarify LAT for me? I started a few months ago and as per usual haven't progressed to the next stage. I was following the tall American lady and waving a distraction for her, clicking then rewarding when she looked at me. All well and good. (Not rewarding tall American lady just Cassie My question is when we are out and about and I want to use it do I click when she looks at people walking nearby (as this morning on walk) whether or not I say Look At That? Or a dog in town? And then reward when she looks at me? @Sven put a useful chart on here recently I know but I can't remember which thread it was on.
I very rarely actually say "Look At That". I only use that if we're in a situation where I want the dog to see something s/he hasn't noticed while we're at a distance they can cope with. The way I use it is by simply marking the distraction - if she's still at the stage where she's reacting, then as soon as she looks at the distraction. Later, this will be for her looking at me, or for simply ignoring the distraction completely.
@selina27 I don't cue or use the words, same as @snowbunny. Just click for the distraction and reward. Not sure if it is luck or a lot of training, but we are now at the point (or have been for a month or so) where we can ignore most day to day things whilst out. It has taken us a good 3 or so months in getting to this point. I know it is different than 'LAT' but we also do a lot of check ins which now having combined these two it works a treat when it comes to off leash and being allowed to play/interact with other dogs. Previously she would get to exited so we used 'LAT' whilst on leash, this was a slow process as the distance was massive. But all of a sudden she just calmed and turned towards me. After that decreasing the distance was quicker than what I expected. The check in was practised on the golf course during the winter months. That worked beautifully and then transfered to other places when quiet ie: early or late whilst no one was around. Then during the day with training leash with minimal distractions and combining the two. Now I am not sure if that is the right thing (but as both where in her book I figured it should be OK) in combining these two but it works for us. I now have Vanilla able to walk past other dogs or say a quick hello if I think it is appropriate. She will even ignore other dogs that come up to us. If we see a dog friend in the distance, always know as Vanilla has her nose up and looking towards a group that may be a good 50 to 100m away. This alows me to have a look to see if I am OK with it. She will turn and loom at me and wait for me to give her the 'Go Play' cue. And here is the poster Hope all that helps
Thanks @Sven, yes that helps a great deal, I'll get started today! She already has the basic idea and now that this has straightened it out in my head we should be able to nail this. Training over luck, I'd say well done.
