Training a Noise-Sensitive Dog for Agility or Tricks

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Training a Noise-Sensitive Dog for Agility or Tricks

Written by Lorrie Reynolds

Lorrie has been an agility enthusiast since 2002 and has taught tricks, family obedience, agility, and canine conditioning since 2005. When she's not writing articles, developing courses, or training dogs, you can find her curled up with a book in her hands and a dog warming her feet.

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Categories

Dog Agility | Dog Training | Dog Tricks

As we were training today, the neighbors started shooting. Before you panic, we live in a rural area and lots of people have gun ranges. Unfortunately, Onyx isn’t a fan of the noise. She was not terrified or panicked, and she was safe inside a fenced area. However, she was showing some signs of stress – being distracted and sniffing.

Rather than push her to continue to learn something new to her and “just work through it,” I decided to play a game with her to help her understand that it was safe. I would ONLY recommend doing this with a dog who is mildly nervous, never with a dog who is over threshold or very scared.

We set up a single hoop and gave her an easy task – running back and forth through the hoop as we called her to each of us and rewarded her with a high-value treat. You can see at the beginning, even though she works with Kristen quite often, she was a bit reluctant to leave my side.

Two trainers working with an agility dog

After a few minutes though, she was happily running back and forth and we were able to move back to the serpentine and play the game there. We gave her a break and she was much less concerned when she had her next turn.

Today’s Tip:

Pay attention to the signals your dog is sending you and avoid asking them to work when there is something in the environment that they are worried about. Instead, find an easy task or a fun game, as long as they are under threshold, and help them understand that they are safe.

Watch the video of our training session here: