Using Game Based Training to Socialise Your Dog – Tuffies Wooly Pet Bedding

Posted on January 19, 2023

Using Game Based Training to Socialise Your Dog – Tuffies Wooly Pet Bedding

Once when Gerry was 6 months old I took him for a walk down to the river. I usually decided that that was a good place to go because there were often other dogs there that he could practice socialising with. Sure enough the scent of a dog coming the other way entered Gerry’s nostrils but this time his reaction was a bit disconcerting, he flattened out like an alligator in anticipation. This had happened one or twice before and I knew that the situation might go south quite quickly, especially if the other dog was a young male. I was prepared with the highest value rewards I could think of, chicken and cheese. If I could get him to concentrate on the food it would snap him out of his confrontational mindset and also get him to associate other dogs with tasty rewards and a positive experience. Other dogs are also much less likely to react if they’re being ignored.

Gerry Flattening Out After Noticing Another Dog

Anyway, it didn’t work. The luxurious chicken breast and Cathedral cheese was of absolutely zero interest to Gerry, whose eyes remained firmly locked onto the approaching ‘threat’. The other dog had seemed fairly calm as it approached but reacted with aggression to Gerry’s stand-offish attitude and in the blink of an eye they were at it, snapping as if they’d been mortal enemies their entire lives. I didn’t really blame Gerry for being defensive in the face of a much larger dog, but I also knew that if his attention had been on me, it probably wouldn’t have turned ugly. It usually takes two to tango and even aggressive dogs will often just have a sniff and move on if they’re being ignored.

I was conscious of the fact that every bad experience Gerry had with another dog would add to his anxiety around them and make the problem worse going forwards, so I decided something needed to change. Socialising is important though and I definitely didn’t want to shield him from every other dog for the rest of his life. Not only would that be a hassle for me, it would be depriving him of his own kind and wouldn’t really be addressing the problem, just avoiding it. It would also mean I’d have to keep him on the lead around dogs he didn’t already know, and what kind of life is that? Normally cheese/chicken worked, at least indoors it did. But now that he was growing up, producing testosterone and becoming curious about rabbits, crows and other distractions it clearly wasn’t enough. I needed something else, a more enticing reward for the behaviour I was trying to encourage.

Gerry’s Rewards – Trying to Select a Favourite

I started testing each of his toys to see which game was his favourite and then hopefully use it to grab his attention around other dogs. Gerry liked playing tug, he also thought tennis balls were ok but neither of them would cut the mustard when it really mattered. He’d recently found a rubber ball on one of his walks, which he seemed to value a bit more than the rest of his toys. For some reason he preferred the texture to fuzzy tennis balls. I found the same one online but this one had a brand-new squeaker inside. It completely fixated him, now we’re talking.