NBN

3MIN GAME
CHANGERS
DOGS WHO HAVE LESS PREDICTABLE SCHEDULES
ARE MUCH HAPPIER IN THEIR EVERYDAY LIFE
 STOP WORRYING
ABOUT WHAT CAN
GO WRONG,
GET EXCITED
ABOUT WHAT
WILL GO RIGHT!
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 PRESENTS...

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GAME 1
CONE GAME
To play this game, all you need is a plastic cone or cup that your
dog can fit their muzzle in and their dinner!

In this game, you reward your dog for any

kind of interaction with the cone and then
progressively become more specific about
placing their nose in the cone. Once your
dog has this behaviour down, you can switch
the cone for all kinds of things!

The benefits of cone game:

• It builds optimism
• It promotes confidence We have a video of this game
• It arms your dog with a crucial skill should
they ever need to wear any of the following
to share with you. It arms your dog with
a crucial skill
1. Muzzle 3. Head Collar PLAY THE CONE GAME
2. Buster Collar 4. Harness
https://game.absolute-dogs.com/muzzle-love6fpimq5e

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 Play this
everywhere,
GAME 2 anywhere

ORIENTATION
and as often
as you can!

GAME
Naughty But Nice dogs can often find themselves wanting to
interact or react with things in the distance and independently
from the owner. This makes it very difficult to give them freedom
in distracting environments and trust they will bounce back.
We created the orientation game for this exact reason! How to play: “YES” or a CLICK (if you use a clicker).
1. Start this game in a very easy, low If they do not look back at you right away,
distraction environment where your dog just wait them out and mark the moment
is used to playing with you! they do look back. You may have to start
The orientation game creates:
playing this game on lead first.
• A crazily focussed dog!
• It promotes confidence in 2. Throw a piece of your dog’s dinner out
(about one meter away) 4. Follow the marker with the reward of
distracting environments!
throwing another piece of food out to
• It creates a default bounce back!
3. After they finish eating it, of course, continue the game.
whenever your dog leaves you on a walk!
• It’s the start of a super retrieve! they are going to look back at you for
more. At that moment of them orienting 5. Play this everywhere, anywhere and as
back to you, mark the movement with a often as you can!

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GAME 3 5) Now we can work on the final behaviour

MIDDLE
we want - a sit! You can:
1) Shape the sit by marking and rewarding
weight shifts backwards until your dog sits.
2) Cue a sit, repeat a few times and then wait
your dog out for him/her to offer it.
3) Cue a hand target with your hand
The benefits of middle are huge: above your dog’s head such that he/she
- It lowers arousal sits when targeting.
- It gets your dog into a safe
place QUICK
- It allows you to position dogs that TOP TIP!
don’t like being handled If you want a high energy, tucked sit,
then using a hand target is a really
1) We like to shape this trick, which means good way to get this!
rewarding successive approximations of the
final behaviour - or rewarding things your
dog does that are closer and closer to the Tucked sits are more accurate to maintain the
final behaviour in mind! final position and you can shape these also,
or, if your dog has a specific cue for a tucked
2) To do this, we mark and reward turns sit, then use method too with that cue!
and steps towards behind us to start with,
rewarding by placing the treat or toy behind 6) Build duration into maintaining the sit
us and eventually between legs. position between your legs by manipulating
rate of reinforcement again. Here is where
3) Do this until your dog is consistently heading you can add your release cue too!
around your leg and then between your legs. At
this point, placement of the reward should always 7) Work on proofing the sit for you moving
be in the final position - between your legs. away now by rewarding for sit maintenance
as you change position!
4) Build duration into maintaining position
between your legs by providing a rapid rate 8) When you are happy with the final
of reinforcement in this position. Then work behaviour, introduce your cue (“middle”,
on reducing the rate of reinforcement while “centre”, “position”) just before your dog
your dog stays in one place. performs the full behaviour and reward lots!!!!

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GAME 4
CHIN
4) It is at this point that you should also
add duration into the targeting with rapid-
fire rate of reinforcement. You can reward
directly to the mouth, maintaining chin

TARGET
contact with hand!

5) Do this until your dog shows super

desire for resting his/her chin in your hand!
Once your dog begins to press more firmly
into your hand when you withhold the
reward for a couple of seconds, move onto
The benefits of chin target are huge: the next step. Adding a release cue
- It lowers arousal to this behaviour can
- It allows you to take control of 6) Place away & capture: this involves placing
be lots of fun!
your dogs gaze your hand slightly away from the chin and
- It is a confidence booster capturing the moment your dog seeks it out
- It is great for establishing focus in with his/her chin! The key is to build lots of
very distracting environments value in the hand so that they seek it out and
don’t progress until your dog is showing that
1) We have a formula for teaching body part he/she understands the behaviour!
targeting. It involves value priming, place
away & capture, adding a cue! 7) Do this until your dog has a good
understanding of the moment that he/she
2) Value priming: this is to ensure that your dog targets his/her chin to your hand as the
is not only comfortable with hand placement desired behaviour.
on chin but actually sees it as a predictor of
something fun or tasty! We want to build this 8) Now build distance by moving your hand
value, so that your dog will eventually seek your further away! Work on building two steps, TOP TIP!! Adding a release cue to this
hand out with his/her chin! then three steps, then side to side motion! behaviour can be lots of fun! Use your
usual release cue or say another one and
3) You do this by placing your hand under the 9) Add the cue when you have the final then disconnect hand from your dog until
chin, marking the moment, and rewarding. Use behaviour by saying your chosen cue (“chin”) they begin to predict the new release cue
super tasty food or extra special toy and work before you can guarantee your dog will work as the end of the behaviour and disengage
slowly as this can feel strange to some dogs! to target your hand with his/her chin. Simple! themselves. Reward release each time!

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 TOP TIP: Use a reward dispenser (a toy containing
treats, e.g. a kong), especially in the face of distraction,
as a long-lasting reinforcement! The chewing action

GAME 5 will further promote calmness and relaxation. These are

especially useful when your full attention can’t be your

CALMNESS
dog and rewarding calmness.

If you also want to train your dog to occupy

themselves with toys in the house, then you can use the

PROTOCOL
above tips, but, instead of doing them when your dog
is settled and relaxed, implement the tips when your
dog is occupying himself with a toy!

The benefits of calmness protocol: and don’t get excited. In complex, especially
- It makes calmness the default distracting or dangerous environments, play
‘when in doubt, be calm!’ this on lead in an easy location to start with
- It allows our dogs’ stress buckets and then increase the difficulty. Make sure
to empty much quicker after to be rewarding your dog when their body
stressful events is relaxed and they are not focussing on the
- It is a confidence booster food. Don’t create a faker!
- If there are being calm and settled,
they aren’t doing a whole range of 2) IGNORE your dog (especially for attention-
inappropriate behaviours! seeking behaviours), wait for him to settle
and relax and call him over for attention. Do
1) Offer your dog a medium-value TREAT when not do this too regularly or you risk the dog
he is settled and relaxed. If he gets up from yoyo-ing between the floor and you!
position after you have walked away, ignore him.
If he has stayed settled and relaxed, then return 3) Time the rewards (treat or attention) with
and give him another one. Do not use a clicker external DISTRACTIONS. For example, a
or other excitable marker for this - we find that person walking past the house, a noise
silence is most effective! Give the treat calmly outside, a dog barking in the distance, Use a reward dispenser
and deliberately. Don’t be disheartened if your someone cheering in the next agility ring, etc. especially in the face of
dog does get up or gets excited afterwards, the This will reward your dog for remaining calm distraction, as a long-
calm behaviour is what has been reinforced! At in the face of distraction and also change lasting reinforcment
first, if your dog gets up or becomes excited as their emotional response from a negative
you walk towards him with the treat, you can still one of anxiety or increasing arousal to a
give the treat. Once your dog knows the game positive one of calmness (low arousal) with
though, only reward when they don’t move the external distractions.

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 LETS GET EXCITED!
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