‘Check-In’ helps to increase your dogs baseline attention/focus, this encourages them to regularly ‘Check-In’ with you throughout the day. This gives you an opportunity to provide them with feedback, to let them know if they are doing the right thing, or direct them to a more appropriate behaviour.
We can capture ”Check-In’ throughout the day. It’s best to start in the house, then on a walk. The ‘Check-In’ is a look in your direction, we want to reward any engagement with you, it doesn’t have to be eye contact.
‘Check in’ will start to help your dog by allowing them to engage with the environment, remain calm, and be rewarded. This is how check in works. It builds up a habitual behaviour within your dog where when they see something that they’re unsure about, they look back to you for reassurance. We can then guide them to make the right choice in these situations.
When your dog looks at triggers (dogs and people) they need to be at a distance your dog can cope with, as these things can be overwhelming to them. If this happens, they can become emotionally hijacked, and react without thinking. To avoid this understanding distance and duration of exposure are key
The sight of these triggers may make your dog feel stressed, worried and reactive. To teach your dog to feel safe in these situations, we want to teach your dog to look at them without reacting. However, first the need to understand this away from the class context.
Have a go at this exercise with your dog. Place neutral objects in front of them. Wait for them to investigate the object and then look back to you. Treat and repeat!
We don’t need a cue at this stage, we want your dog to be able to engage, disengage and re-engage on their own. This will help them to manage their own behaviour and feel more confident.
