The training environments we work in have a huge impact on our dog’s ability to learn. The same goes for other animals and people! Understanding the training environment and how to use it to you and your dog’s advantage can boost your training outcomes in the right direction and set all parties up for success! In this post, I am going to discuss three misused training environments, what a good training environment consists of, and how to use that environment to get the most out of training.
Three Misused Training Environments
How many times have you been outside in the yard and you call your dog and it seems like your dog has gone deaf? It might seem like your dog has lost its sense of hearing. However, it is much less about what your dog has lost, and more about what your dog has found…a delightful distraction! There are three common environments that make training extremely hard for the learner due to these distractions. I am going to go through these first, so bear with me, and I will get to the good stuff soon!
The first commonly misused environment tends to be the center of the house. In this location, there is a predictable number of distractions that your dog might seem completely fine with, until training starts. It is at this moment your dog realizes just how interesting the ball stuck under the couch is, or you notice just how fast your children run, and you both realize how hard it can be to focus when people come through the door half way through the training session. These training environments and their distractions are common. Yet, as harmless as they seem, these distractions (even if brief) put a damper on your dog’s ability to retain information.
The second commonly misused environment tends to be the backyard. In the backyard there are all kinds of distractions that you cannot control. For example, smells, the dog remembering that he hid a bone under the bush that just got drenched by the sprinkler, and the fact that squirrels seem to know when training time is and show up just in time to interrupt a breakthrough! This training environment tends to be less common than the first, but it is still one that many people misuse.
The third commonly misused environment tends to be out in public. It is in this environment where there are numerous uncontrollable objects and stimuli that could grab your dog’s attention at any moment! From personal experience, this environment might include other dogs, rabbits, smells, other people, cars, space to run, and much more! Not only does this environment offer many distractions, in some cases, it can also offer danger! This environment is used much less than the other two, but I have seen it misused as well as the others.
Where Do I Go from Here?
At this point you might be thinking, “She just ruled out my house, the yard, and the general public. Where am I supposed to train?!” That is a very good question, and one I have an answer for. The answer is this: environment is not just location. Each of the locations mentioned above have one thing in common. They are dictated by the location, rather than the stimuli in the environment. Did you notice that I used the word “misused” to describe how people might use these environments? Simply put, each of the previously mentioned environments can be useful, if used correctly! The first environment that is in the middle of your house, might not be good at lunch time. But it might be a great environment at 10:00 in the morning when the kids are busy with school. The second environment located in the backyard might be bad for a dog just learning the “wait” cue. But it could be awesome for a dog who knows the cue for “wait” and is working on responding to it with some familiar distractions present. The third environment of public places will be a bad place to train self-control. Unless you are working at an advanced level of self-control and your dog has all the tools they need to succeed. In which case, public places might become a wonderful environment for training.
Environment is not just about location. Environment is about the stimuli in the immediate (and for some dogs distant) vicinity and how those stimuli impact you and your dog’s ability to focus. The Oxford Dictionary on Bing defines environment as “the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates” (Retrieved from Bing, refer to reference section for source). By this definition, environment is more detailed than just where you are at one moment. Have you ever been hanging out with a friend and you turned to them and asked a question, to which after a moment of delay, they responded “What!?” Not because they did not know you were there or even that you were talking to them, but because their mind was focused on something else and did not register what you were saying. Many times, something about the environment (whether an internal or external environment) can impact our ability to focus even on things right next to us. That is often what happens when we cue our dogs in the wrong environment with a half-trained cue. The dog does not respond until the third time we cued them, not because they are ignoring us, but because their mind was somewhere else, and they have not learned to be listening for cues when distractions and other environmental stimuli are present. It is not just the location, it is the environment, both internal and external, and the stimuli that environment contains. This is why it is important to train in low distraction environments, unless you are specifically working with real life distractions.
So, what is a good training environment? The answer to this lies in you and your dog. Where can you concentrate? Where can your dog concentrate? What environments make you and your dog feel good enough to train? What behaviors are you working on? The general rules are that you want to have a good amount of control over the distractions that may present themselves for both you and your dog. Unless you are training specifically for distractions and advanced behavior proofing, do things like putting your phone on silent or make sure the kids (if you have any) are entertained or gone, and using treats that your dog will work for in the face of distractions you can’t control (e.g. odd sounds, smells, etc.). Choose your location (where in the house, in the yard or on walks, etc.) based on how many distractions you think both you and your dog can handle while remaining successful.
Getting the Most out of Your Environment
A good training environment is one that sets you and your dog up for success. Think about what you and your dog would like to accomplish and choose an environment that will help you reach your goals. To get the most out of your environment, set up the environment, literally, for you and your dog to succeed. Take what I mentioned in the previous paragraph one step further and start by clearing a space for training. Find a room in your house and clear it of all objects other than the tools you are using for training. Move the table, pick up anything on the floor and put it away, and shut off anything that will make a distracting noise (maybe close the window if there are birds outside). Next, let your dog outside to go to the bathroom. This would also be a good time to play with your dog if it has too much energy to concentrate. Once your dog has gotten some energy out (make sure they still have enough energy to train), bring them into the training area and let them investigate it if they would like to do so. Close the door behind you and, while your dog is investigating (or simply waiting for the fun to start), get all of your training tools in place (clicker in hand, treat pouch full and on your hip, etc.). Set a timer for five minutes (checking the clock to make sure no one will get home within that time frame). Once you and your dog are set, start with some focus exercises. My favorites are “look” (eye contact) and “touch” (a nose to hand target). Practicing these cues will give you and your dog a chance to warm up and get into the swing of things, while also promoting focus in your dog.
If you are working on distractions, always start in the same type of environment that I just described but simply add some distractions you have control over (e.g. a toy on the floor, another person in the room, etc.). In addition to this, a great tip to help your dog learn better is to set up this training environment in different locations each time you train. This way, the learning process, and the behaviors you teach will generalize to other locations and environments and make distraction training much easier. When your dog can perform the behaviors in response to their corresponding cues while you are inside the house, then you can take the behaviors outside. Set up the training environment the same way as you did inside, knowing that there will be less stimuli under your control. Gradually move on to more and more distractions and other training environments as your dog learns to deal with them (e.g. eventually you will practice behaviors in public).
Closing Notes
Think through the environment you are in before you start training. You do not need to take a long time but be mindful of what your dog will see and what you might think of halfway through your session (did I leave the stove on?). You will only train for five minutes at a time, so keep that in mind as well. Last, but not least, have fun!
Reference
Definition of environment retrieved from https://www.bing.com/search?q=environment+definition&qs=LS&pq=environment+def&sk=SC2&sc=8-15&cvid=6AB5C1B923774C5E811B2B93D5FEF712&FORM=QBRE&sp=3
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