If you're facing the daily struggles of managing a dog who is fearful of other dogs or one who chases after every dog it sees, know that you are not alone.
These challenges can be both emotionally draining and stressful, and are a common reason owners reach out to me for support. Changing your dog's behaviour can often feel overwhelming, but with patience and a structured training plan, your dog can learn to navigate challenging situations with greater calm and confidence.
The Free Focus Loop is a structured training method designed to help both excitable and nervous dogs build engagement, self-soothe, and maintain focus. It can be practiced as a 5-10 minute exercise, or used throughout your walks for an overall change to your dog's behaviour. Unlike many other techniques, it is still very much achievable even when walking multiple dogs.
Case Studies
To illustrate how this method works in real-life situations, let’s introduce two of my case studies:
Percy: A nervous mixed-breed rescue dog whose owner often felt disheartened and anxious on walks, dreading every encounter with another dog. Percy would freeze, bark, and sometimes lunge as another dog passed, making the experience stressful for both of them.
Finn: A high-energy Labrador whose owner felt frustrated and embarrassed by his excitable behaviour. Finn was kept strictly on a lead due to his habit of impulsively running off towards other dogs. Up close, Finn would lunge and bark, keen to play, turning each walk into a chaotic and stressful challenge.
Each of these dogs faced unique challenges that were improved by implementing the Free Focus Loop.
Components of the Free Focus Loop
This exercise is helpful for any dog, but can be particularly beneficial for dogs that are prone to overreacting to other dogs or being overwhelmed by new environments, such as busy streets or parks. Each component serves a specific purpose to address different behavioural needs:
Free Focus
Develops engagement by encouraging your dog to voluntarily check in with you, building trust and attentiveness.
Hand Touch
Provides a powerful redirection tool, leveraging your dog’s strong visual instincts to create space or regain focus.
Find It
Harnesses natural sniffing behaviour to lower arousal and provide moments of calm during walks.
Free Focus
Why Free Focus Is Important
Engagement is essential for any dog, as it lays the groundwork for cooperation and attentiveness. A dog that regularly engages with their owner is more likely to listen to cues, stay focused, and behave appropriately even in distracting environments.
Nervous dogs: Rewarding even brief moments of voluntary eye contact helps them feel less overwhelmed and builds on their ability to focus.
This is especially useful for hyper-vigilant dogs like Percy, who would often fixate on his surroundings during walks, making redirection difficult until this approach helped him shift his focus away from fear-inducing stimuli.
Excitable dogs: Free Focus helps redirect impulsivity by reinforcing calm engagement. Starting with small, achievable behaviours—such as brief check-ins—builds confidence and creates a snowball effect, as the dog learns that checking in with their owner is consistently rewarding.
For dogs like Finn, who would lunge at other dogs, this exercise became a key tool to reduce impulsive reactions. Additionally, it provides an opportunity to capture attention before impulsive behaviours occur, helping to guide excitable dogs towards calmer choices.
As you continue to practice, you should also notice that your dog begins to offer voluntary attention more frequently, even replacing impulsive behaviours with check-ins.
Over time, this process links various distractions—such as seeing another dog—with the instinct to check in with you.
If voluntary check-ins increase dramatically, you can raise the bar by pairing a check-in with more challenging tasks, like a sit-and-wait around distractions.
Steps
This exercise encourages your dog to naturally check in with you, improving engagement and reducing stress or anticipation during walks.
At home:
Wait for your dog to voluntarily look at you. When they do, immediately mark the moment with a cheerful “Yes!” and offer a treat.
In low-distraction areas:
Gradually move to slightly more distracting environments, keeping sessions short and fun.
On walks:
Dedicate 5-10 minutes of your walk to practice. Avoid saying your dog’s name to prevent prompting or influencing their behaviour. Instead, focus on rewarding voluntary check-ins. Early sessions may have infrequent check-ins, but they will increase with practice.
If necessary, you may use a light “tut” noise or similar to gain attention, but remember that the goal is for check-ins to happen voluntarily.
Tip: If you are stuck in a highly distracting environment, use high-value treats like cheese or chicken to help encourage engagement.
Summary
Free Focus is foundational to helping your dog develop calm engagement and attentiveness. It helps establish check-ins as a habit, which prepares your dog to respond better when facing distractions or challenges on walks. Next, we introduce the "Find It" game, which further supports focus by using natural sniffing behaviour to reduce arousal.
“Find It”
Why the “Find It” is Important
Scientific research shows that sniffing helps dogs regulate emotions and lower arousal. This makes “Find It” especially beneficial for managing excitement and anxiety during walks.
Nervous dogs: This game promotes relaxation by encouraging a calming focus on the ground rather than on their surroundings. For dogs like Percy, "Find It" helped shift his attention from hyper-vigilance to a calming sniffing activity, enabling him to feel more at ease during walks.
Excitable dogs: It provides a structured outlet for mental energy, helping bring them to a more manageable state. Finn benefited greatly from "Find It," as it helped lower his arousal after exciting encounters with other dogs, allowing him to regain focus and composure.
When to use the "Find It"
Frequent use—such as every 5-10 minutes during key moments of a walk—can help maintain calmness and mitigate arousal from building up. To make this a habit, consider mentally associating certain triggers like encountering new areas or other dogs with playing “Find It.”
Setting a reminder on your phone during walks might also help reinforce consistency. Key moments might include situations like approaching other dogs, entering a new environment, or pausing at a crossing.
Steps
The “Find It” game taps into your dog’s natural foraging instincts to help reduce arousal levels.
Start indoors or in a garden:
Drop a few small treats on the ground and say, “Find it!” Allow your dog to sniff them out.
After stimulating encounters:
Play this game if your dog becomes overexcited or stressed after meeting another dog. Sniffing helps them relax and re-centre.
During walks:
Use the game at key moments, such as transitions between environments or when your dog needs a calming break.
Summary
The "Find It" game builds on your dog's ability to self-soothe and manage arousal. Regular use during transitions or after stimulating encounters keeps your dog in a calmer state of mind.
To complete the loop, the Hand Touch cue will provide a versatile tool for redirection, offering immediate focus when your dog needs a strong but calming intervention.
Hand Touch
Why the Hand Touch is Important
The Hand Touch cue is a versatile redirection tool that can be used in various situations. Its strong visual element is particularly helpful since dogs rely heavily on visual cues.
Practising this cue in different contexts helps your dog respond reliably in critical moments, such as when they encounter sudden distractions like other dogs, traffic, or unfamiliar objects.
Nervous dogs: The Hand Touch can create distance from something that worries them. This movement helps de-escalate anxiety and aggression by teaching the dog to create space, following the principles of the "Ladder of Aggression." For dogs like Percy, this cue was invaluable for creating space from overwhelming stimuli, allowing him to gradually de-escalate from anxiety.
Excitable dogs: The Hand Touch provides a physical focus point, helping to channel their excitement into a productive behaviour with a clear target. For Finn, it was a crucial tool for redirecting his high-energy impulses, transforming moments of excitement into opportunities for engagement and focus.
Steps
At home:
Hold out your hand in a ‘thumbs-up’ position. When your dog touches your hand with their nose, mark the behaviour with a “Yes!” and reward.
Add a cue:
Say the word “Touch” just before presenting your hand. Over time, your dog will associate the word with the action.
Increase difficulty:
Gradually practice in more distracting environments to ensure your dog can perform the cue reliably under various conditions.
Tip: Use this cue to redirect your dog from distractions or as a grounding activity when reassurance is needed.
Summary
With the Hand Touch, you now have a reliable way to redirect your dog’s attention and create space during stressful moments. Together with Free Focus and "Find It," this cue helps complete the Free Focus Loop, enabling your dog to stay engaged, calm, and resilient even in high-distraction situations.
Bringing It All Together: The Free Focus Loop
The Free Focus Loop integrates these exercises to keep your dog engaged and calm on walks.
Key Takeaways
Check-ins: Regularly encourage and reward spontaneous check-ins using the Free Focus exercise. Repeat this practice in increasingly challenging areas as your dog’s confidence grows.
Redirect distractions: If your dog encounters a distracting or stressful situation, use the Hand Touch to guide them away and refocus their attention.
Calm and reset: Once distance is created, play the “Find It” game to help lower arousal and return to a calm state.
By consistently applying this loop, you’ll foster your dog’s focus through regular check-ins, enhance their emotional resilience with Hand Touch, and maintain calm behaviour using the “Find It” game.
Over time, these exercises contribute to long-term behavioural improvements, helping your dog develop greater trust, self-regulation, and adaptability to challenges.
About the Author
Hi there! I’m Joey, the founder of Dog and Yogi and an accredited dog trainer with over ten years of experience in both in-person and virtual training. My mission is to make high-quality, reward-based training accessible to dog owners around the world, all while focusing on improving dog welfare and building stronger bonds between dogs and their humans.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with a wide range of dog owners, from first-time pet parents to experienced trainers. Alongside my extensive experience in delivering in-person training, I’ve also taught over 1000 virtual training classes, including both one-on-one sessions and group courses, all tailored to meet the unique needs of each dog and their owner. Currently, I serve as Head of 'Dog School Virtual' at Dogs Trust UK. I’m also proud to have contributed to global outreach programs like WVS and Mission Rabies, and I’m currently studying for a BSc in Applied Canine Behaviour and Training at the University of Hull.
Through Dog and Yogi, I offer a variety of virtual training services, from personalised one-on-one sessions to group courses, all tailored to suit your dog’s individual needs. I’m passionate about breaking down barriers to dog training, whether those barriers are financial, physical, or simply the lack of local resources. Every dog deserves a chance to thrive, and I’m here to help make that happen.
References
Duranton, Charlotte & Horowitz, A.. (2018). Let me sniff! Nosework induces positive judgment bias in pet dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 211. 10.1016/j.applanim.2018.12.009.
Amaya V, Paterson MBA, Descovich K, Phillips CJC. Effects of Olfactory and Auditory Enrichment on Heart Rate Variability in Shelter Dogs. Animals (Basel). 2020 Aug 10;10(8):1385. doi: 10.3390/ani10081385. PMID: 32785115; PMCID: PMC7460225.
Mikkola, S., Salonen, M., Puurunen, J. et al. Aggressive behaviour is affected by demographic, environmental and behavioural factors in purebred dogs. Sci Rep 11, 9433 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88793-5
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