Bruce – Springer Spaniel – 4 yrs – Ireland

Welcome! Looking forward to meeting Bruce – my first dog was a Setter so I know your struggles. 😀

“Hi Polona! Sorry for the slow start!”
No worries! 🙂

I am assuming you already made a session outside and it didn’t go so well, but if you haven’t yet or when you are about to do another one – go out and just do an engagement game. Keep him on the leash and wait. Reward the slightest attention he gives you “unprovoked” by bursting into full on action, running backwards, throwing a treat, than running full speed away from him, throwing another treat,… at one point step on the leash and repeat the cycle. No pokes, just very simple engagement followed by lots and lots of action.

When you play inside he shows super good attitude! When you create moments of anticipation freeze like for example at 1.12 (he was nearly there) try to “drag out” the moments before you deliver food and build up some anticipation with your voice as well as slow movements (reaching for the treat). Then at one point where it all accumulates, give a very clear and happy signal, something like “free” or “get it” so it almost “snaps” the dog out of anticipation and into action.

Super good! It is nice when dogs surprise us in a positive way. 🙂 It is actually really great that he was immediately interested in Poke me – given that it is a relatively passive game I don’t often use it as a first choice for dogs that have troubles focusing, but if it works, my “often” really doesn’t matter. 😀 When you do engagement game, make sure you keep him on a much shorter leash. There shouldn’t be tension on the collar to begin with, but if he pulls in any direction, hold your ground, don’t move with him. All together don’t let him explore further than cca 1m radius around you. He LOVES to sniff, so if you give him all the space he wants to do that, he gets caught up in it and forgets that he is supposed to be doing something with you. If his space is limited and you hold your ground, he will eventually get bored and will look up – this is where you can “pay” him with lots of action.
Now that you are back in action, try to do a couple of sessions like this in your garden, but keep it shorter – a minute, minute and a half is more than enough. After a few sessions like this, go somewhere outside your home and see how it goes. You can keep him on a long line there, but still – when doing engagement, hold it short. Once you start running and giving him food throws, you can let it run to full length.

Outside your home I would focus mainly on engagement game, but with very active reaction each time he looks at you (just looking at you is enough, you don’t have to wait for him jumping up or anything) – immediately start moving backwards so he follows you to get the treat. You can mix between giving the treat from the hand, throwing it or even giving a series of food throws – short ones so you can manage keeping him on leash. If you see his attitude improving throughout repetitions, give him a jackpot of a full on speedy food throws. Several in a row, you running in the opposite direction as far and fast as you can, depends on the situation and how much control you have to keep still.
At home I would work on all other games, including “go sniff” because we will use that to get his desire to sniff “under control”. 🙂 You don’t have to go crazy and devoting half your day to do everything every day – if you do a short session with him every day and you switch between different exercises each time, it is perfectly fine.
And no matter how good it looks, always keep it very short. We want him always wanting more, not getting fed up of it, because those feelings also influence on how the dog perceives you and the activities you can provide.