Managing Arousal Levels....

Training Tuesday

Ember spit out food.

I was totally shocked.

She's a lab. Labs don't spit out food in my experience. (Okay, they do, but usually that is NOT a problem).

We were working on retrieves and casting, she knew bumpers were out there and was ready to go get them. In every fiber of her vibrating 53lb self.....

Niko (the 80lb Dutch Shepherd) does the same thing when he is excited to go work. He spits out food, he pulls on his leash, he barks. He also has problems outing his toy when his arousal levels are too high.

It is my job as a trainer to TEACH them how to go from high arousal to thinking. This is not done overnight, it is an ongoing process.

We often play really hard with our dogs and then expect really snappy responses while they are still in that reacting part of their brain. Have you taken the time to really watch and learn your dogs body language to understand what their arousal level is?

How do you amp them up?

How do you cycle them down?

I am spending a lot of time cycling down my dogs so they can think about the next task I am asking them to do. Detection work and hunting dog work take thinking dogs, not reacting dogs.

You see, Niko can't out his toy if he's too amped up....for now.

Ember and Flare loose their sit on a whistle if they are too excited to get a bumper....for now.

This is a skillset I have to teach and reinforce. As we move through the progression, they start spinning up and cycling down faster. This is what I want.

A huge thanks to Cb Wing for all of the great discussions around arousal levels, use of food to gauge them, and how to out a large pointy ear dog.

What fundamentals are you working on?