Working with Distractions.Sammy, the Doberman, is board and train client who is working week five of The Koehler Method of Dog Training. During the obedience training, I (or you) will take a dog through three levels when teaching a command. Teaching the dog what ‘it’ is, placing ‘it’ on command and add distractions which challenging him to focus on ‘it’ but don’t cause him to fail, and finally, committing the dog to ‘it’ so he controls ‘it’.

Here you see Sammy, a 10 month old Doberman, working a sit/stay calmly and with confidence amidst a flock of chickens, and a couple of cats, goat poop and whatever else the barn may provide. Having learned what ‘it’ is (the sit) and being held accountable for breaking the sit (providing a consequence) , Sammy has learned she can control the outcome of any situation we place her in, she has reached a point of relaxation.

While many dog training programs are effective in teaching the first level of learning, how to manipulate their bodies into the sit, not many are working with distractions as a Koehler trained dog will.  Koehler training can change the character of the dog, from one who wants to (fill in the blank), to one who will relax in their presence.