Help! My Dog is Distracted by Everything! The Road to Disney….

I often use the analogy with my students that training skills in the face of distractions is akin to trying to learn calculus on a roller coaster at Disney World. It would take a very seasoned math whiz to be able to focus on math during SUCH exciting times. The same is true of our dogs. Trying to teach them new skills when they are over-faced with excitement will likely increase the frustration level for you both, but won’t likely help them learn what you’d like them to.

Dogs are quite capable of ignoring ALL levels of distraction, but it will take a special approach to get there.

So, how do you navigate the road to Disney? That is the topic of today’s post.

Picture yourself in a busy room. The walls are covered with strange objects that are interesting, but don’t fit into any context that you recognize or understand. On the other side of the room, there is a buffet. When you spot it, your stomach rumbles. You instinctually head towards the buffet, but you are stopped by a wall. You can feel the wall, but you can’t see it. Your problem-solving skills kick in and you try to find a hole in the wall, you try to climb it, you try to find the edge so you can move around it. You start to bang fruitlessly on the wall. Frustration starts to mount. No matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to…