Intro to BAT Course

Lesson 6: “Find It” and Equipment

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FIND IT

This is really useful as a distraction for times when the trigger is too close to your dog in real life. The goal is to be able to say Find It and have your dog’s nose drop immediately to the floor to search for treats. To train Find It, have a treat that your dog loves in your hand. Say Find It a second before you toss the treat on the ground near your dog. At first, your dog should see you tossing the treat, but after several times, start to have her use her nose to find it. For example, you can drop the treat behind your back and then say Find It.

You can hide the treats a few feet away as you distract her with your other hand. You can drop treats one onto the sidewalk as your dog walks ahead of you, then stop and say Find It. Get creative. If your dog doesn’t find it right away, that’s fine, as long as she is searching for it. If she stops searching, it was too challenging, so make it easier next time.

If your dog is not really excited about food, get better treats, go to an area where she is less stressed, or try Find It with a toy instead.

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EQUIPMENT FOR WORKING WITH REACTIVITY

We already discussed some of these in the last lesson, but here’s the full list:

  • Harness. Have a front attachment if you need more help controlling your dog around triggers on walks. Attach to the rear for BAT set-ups if you feel safe doing so. Make sure the harness fits your dog well.
  • 12-15 foot leash (4-5 meters) for set-ups.
  • 6-15 foot leash for walks. Wait use the longer leash until you become comfortable using it safely, even if your dog were to jump at something. Shorten the leash up at corners and have your dog wait as you check to see what’s around it. Never allow your dog to go around a corner without you.
  • Treats. Especially useful for walks, or for making the training area more interesting.
  • Treat pouch. Don’t always have your treats in a pouch, and don’t always have the treats on your body. But treats are a great way to reinforce coming back to you and a pouch is pretty convenient for walks. What else can you use as a reinforcer?
  • Muzzle. A basket muzzle is ideal, like the Baskerville Ultra or the Italian Basket Muzzle. Used for close-up work when no fence is available to put between your dog and the trigger.
  • Fight break-up tools (will hopefully never be necessary). Like Spray Shield, blankets, water bottle, fog horn, etc.

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What’s not on my equipment list:

Please replace any gear that is uncomfortable or meant to correct / punish your dog’s behavior. BAT gives dogs confidence and allows them to practice good social skills. It works by reducing stress and teaching the dog that he can control his own comfort level by moving his own body. You may not feel ready to promise to go without your favorite tools forever, but you wouldn’t be here if what you had tried so far was perfect. To give BAT a full chance to work, please go without these tools for at least the 6 weeks of this course:

  • head collars*
  • prong collars
  • check chains
  • collars (don’t attach the leash there, but of course you can use them for ID tags)
  • e-collars
  • spray bottles
  • pssst sounds, loud, gruff voices, etc.

* If you feel you really must have a head collar for walks, please get a double-ended leash and clip one end to the front of a harness and the other to the head collar. Use the harness for most communication with the leash and the head collar only as an emergency back-up.[/s2If]