Engagement Skills Should Not be Overlooked

Engagement simply means your dog wants to be with you, do what you are doing, wants what you have and is less focused on the environment around them. When you have a dog that is engaged with you, it makes it easier for you to teach them new commands, and makes it easier for them to generalize those commands in new distracting environments.

How do you gain engagement with your dog? Lots of ways! You can teach them new tricks, create an agility event at your local park, play tug of war or fetch or work on obedience in a fun and rewarding way. The more you do with your dog, the more they would rather be glued to you then explore their environment. Engagement training should always begin in your home because it is a low distracting environment; and once you’ve practiced it enough you can begin to introduce low level distractions.

Practice engagement skills with your dog and obedience training will fall into place without too much difficulty.