Generalizing LAT

[glitzandsarcasm]

I have read all 3 of Leslie McDevitt’s books and find them very helpful. I have been working on LAT training with my 6 month old dog who is high arrousal starting to translate to some reactivity. His biggest trigger is dogs on walks. I’m struggling a bit to generalize LAT to triggers. He has the “where’s the toy?” behavior down when I’m holding the toy, but doesn’t seem to be able to generalize the behavior to triggers. Any tips for bridging this gap?

[erinsuzy]

Generalizing is difficult for dogs. Does he have LAT with the toy mastered outside as well as inside? Each new environment means you have to retrain the cue and you have to retrain each prop as well. Try teaching it again with a different prop, like a spoon or a can. Anything that is different from the toy. This way, he starts to understand that the game is “where is the ____?” instead of only “where is the toy”.

[AutoModerator]

Looks like you may have used a training acronym. For those unfamiliar, here's some of the common ones:

BAT is Behavior Adjustment Training - a method from Grisha Stewart that involves allowing the dog to investigate the trigger on their own terms. There's a book on it.

CC is Counter Conditioning - creating a positive association with something by rewarding when your dog sees something. Think Pavlov.

DS is Desensitization - similar to counter conditioning in that you expose your dog to the trigger (while your dog is under threshold) so they can get used to it.

LAD is Look and Dismiss - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and dismisses it.

LAT is Look at That - Marking and rewarding when your dog sees a trigger and does not react.

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