How often do you remember to slow down and give your pup the opportunity to acclimate to new environments? Humans often forget that for our four-legged best friends, the world is still so new, novel, and overstimulating for many of them. When we understand and accept this reality, we can be better able to set our dogs up for success in new environments and scenarios by allowing time to acclimate, prior to jumping into any training games.
So what does it mean to “acclimate?”
What are the benefits? How do you do it?
Let’s dive in!
Acclimating, in dog training, refers to giving your dog the opportunity to become familiar with a new environment or scenario, before diving into any training.
By slowing down and giving your dog the opportunity to sniff, to look around, and to observe a new area, prior to expecting their attention and focus, you increase the likelihood of them successfully focusing on you because they are less likely to be distracted by their environment. Think of this technique as one that intends to satiate biological needs PROactively to set your dog up for success.
Imagine if you were deplaning in a new location after a flight. Naturally, you would want to look around, to notice your surroundings, perhaps notice the people, the landscape, the sounds, smells, sights, etc.
Similarly, our dogs desire and require the opportunity to observe their environments.
Additionally, our dogs senses are significantly stronger than ours and they are taking in much more stimuli than we are aware of or able to perceive. This additionally impacts their mental load and ability to engage with us.
By giving our dogs 5-15 minutes to sniff, observe, notice, and begin to naturally tune into us, we are significantly more likely to see focused engagement from our pups with less distractibility by their surroundings. Keep in mind, that each time the environment changes in some way, (a squirrel runs by or another pup and pawrent walk by for example,) this requires your pup to acclimate to this shift in the environment as well. This is why it can sometimes feel so challenging to always be the most rewarding, exciting, engaging thing in your pup’s environment!
Some tips to set you up for success:
1) Do stationary work exercises OFTEN.
I personally do stationary work every day, several times a day with my pup. Stationary work simply refers to giving your pup the opportunity to sit and watch their world go by. During this time, they are not allowed to greet other dogs or humans, and if/when they voluntarily engage with you, their human handler, you should Mark and Reward this with “YES!” and a little piece of high value treat. Otherwise, you remain quiet and simply watch your pup watching the world go by and wait for those moments of engagement to Mark and Reward.
Stationary work can easily be incorporated into your daily walks by stopping in your buildings lobby, sitting out of the way, and allowing your pup to observe, or by stopping in a location with lots of excitement, (like the SW duck pond or the Wharf,) to allow your pup to sit and watch the world go by for 30seconds-30 minutes.
You know your pup is ready to move on from this exercise when they are able to look at you and perform basic cues easily and you don’t intend to build up their duration of ability to demonstrate calm neutrality in this moment, OR when they have become restless and stationary work appears to be increasing this, rather than helping them settle. In this case, you can pivot to the Go Find game to ease them into the stationary work.
Stationary work is the most undervalued and utilized training exercise by most. Don't underestimate the power and impact of 'doing nothing training.'
Consider how hard it is for most humans to sit still and meditate.
It is no different for our dogs.
That's exactly why we practice!
And practice often.
2) No rushing allowed!!
Set both of you up for success and allow for ample time and flexibility to work with your dog. If you are feeling rushed and anxious, your dog will feel this too without understanding the context for why. This will make it difficult for you both to be engaged and intentional in your work together.
Give yourself plenty of time whenever possible and be flexible in working with your dog.
It is our job to meet them exactly where they are from moment to moment, so if we set out with intention to attend a group training class for example, and our dog had a poor nights sleep and seems highly distracted, perhaps this isn’t the best time to do focused attention work around a bunch of distractions. OR perhaps you can ensure you have a lot of time to acclimate prior to expecting focused work and not hold yourself or your pup to any specific outcome.
I find our dogs tend to struggle most when we are being rigid in our expectations. Let go and instead consider how you can set yourself and your pup up for success from moment to moment. (Very often, this will involve offering acclimation periods or pivoting between tasks frequently; leash manners, to Go Find, to stationary work, to training game, etc for example.)
3) Help your pup acclimate more easily and quickly by offering support as needed.
Our pups are not born with a lot of self-regulation skills and often need some support and guidance of how they can regulate their energy and be successful in what we are asking of them.
Some options of ways we can help our pup acclimate more easily are to offer calm, confident energy ourselves when we are in new spaces. By modeling calm, confident energy, our dogs are more easily able to reflect this, due to mirror neurons in both species. It is also scientifically proven that all beings have energy fields, and when we feel a particular emotion, that a small amount of hormones are released into our energy field, and that of those around us. (Example: You are stressed. Cortisol is released.) This is why many of us can feel a shift in energy when a new person walks into a room. Energy is literally contagious.
Additionally, once we have offered time and space for the dog to sniff, acclimate, and observe the new environment, we can make it a fun place to be by engaging in simple enrichment and training exercises. For example, the Go Find game is soothing, enjoyable, and creates a positive association with the new environment. Additionally, sniffing and rooting are powerful self-regulation tools your pup can use.
Asking your pup to complete easy, known cues can also build their confidence and feeling of comfort in a new environment. If your dog’s 'Touch' is consistent and reliable, turn this into a short game in the new location to not only have fun with your dog, but also assess their ability to engage with you. ONLY begin cueing and assessing their engagement and focus AFTER allowing for time to acclimate.
4) You know your pup is ready to train and to engage with you when they begin naturally checking in with you in some way; offering eye contact, nuzzling you, physically coming to check in, are all indicators that they are likely satiated with sniffing and getting comfortable and are ready to work. You can assess this by asking them to perform a known and easy to them cue, like Sit, Touch, or Look for example. If they are able to easily engage with you and perform these cues, repeat them 3-5x to build confidence and begin to slowly increase the challenge of what you are asking, either by varying your cues, varying the order or speed or cuing, or changing the context of the environment.
Keep in mind that for our dogs, slow is fast.
We want to increase challenges gradually in order to set them up for success.
Like humans, dogs feel good when they have the opportunity to be successful and celebrate their wins, so set them up for success, celebrate often, and remember to have fun!!
Remember that dogs take in much more information from the environment than humans do and as their general managers in this life experience, it is our job to set them up for success by allowing time for acclimation and training them in ways to help them co-exist confidently, happily, and healthily in this life, by our sides.
If you'd like some support in helping your pup acclimate or in making your training more fun, reach out and let us help!
Join us for Engaged Pack Walks, every Saturday 9-10AM, meeting at Waterfront Park (directly across from 525 Water St. SW)
Arrive 10-20 minutes early to allow your pup the opportunity to acclimate before diving into the walk. Take the last few minutes of acclimation to do some simple engagement games to set them up for success during the walk.
Register on the website and we'll see you there!
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