pattern games
Pattern games are an excellent way to keep your dog moving and thinking during training, especially outdoors for reactive dogs. Pattern games work well because when practiced enough, they are very predictable for dogs and easy to perform in the presence of triggers. They also prevent your dog from stopping and staring at triggers which can potentially escalate to barking/lunging - and we need to discontinue the practice of that! Pattern games can also be used to encourage loose leash walking skills and getting your dog safely past environmental stimuli. We can also use pattern games to interrupt other troubling behaviors such as jumping up, mouthing, or anything else you can think of!
There are three types of pattern games to teach your dog and we recommend practicing them all:
Our favorite pattern game for loose leash walking is 1-2-3 because once conditioned, your dog will hear the count and come to your side and give you eye contact. This can also help you create distance from triggers until you can stop within sight of the trigger and play more stationary pattern games or the engage-disengage game.
Always remember that the more we can keep dogs thinking and moving, the less time they have to be reactive or pulling - and pattern games are EASY to perform under stress.
Check out the video below of Hunk performing all three pattern games:
There are three types of pattern games to teach your dog and we recommend practicing them all:
- Up-down: put a treat at your feet and allow your dog to eat it. When your dog gives you eye contact again, mark with a YES and place the reward on the floor at your feet again. This keeps your dog's eyes down or on you during triggering events and helps to desensitize, along with rewarding attention to handler.
- Ping-pong: place a treat on the ground to the side of you and allow your dog to eat it. When they re-center and give you eye contact again, mark with a YES and place the reward on the ground on the opposite side. This serves the same purpose as the up-down pattern.
- 1-2-3: there are two ways to train this pattern. You can begin by conditioning the sound of the word "three" with reinforcement. You can say "three" and deliver your reward, repeating the process for several minutes to ensure your dog understands that "three" means a reward is coming - OR - you can have a handful of treats in your closed fist and count "1-2-3" and release one treat at a time, repeating for several minutes. Once your dog understands the process, begin backing up with your closed fist presented to your dog so that your dog follows you as you count "1-2-3" and then release a treat to them. Once this process is understood and your dog is performing it reliably, take your hand away and stop luring, count "1-2-3" as you walk, and deliver your reward.
Our favorite pattern game for loose leash walking is 1-2-3 because once conditioned, your dog will hear the count and come to your side and give you eye contact. This can also help you create distance from triggers until you can stop within sight of the trigger and play more stationary pattern games or the engage-disengage game.
Always remember that the more we can keep dogs thinking and moving, the less time they have to be reactive or pulling - and pattern games are EASY to perform under stress.
Check out the video below of Hunk performing all three pattern games:
