The Look At That Game
THE LOOK AT THAT GAME (LAT)
The Look At That Game (LAT) was made popular by Leslie McDevitt in her training book “Control Unleashed – Creating a Focused & Confident Dog”. Basically it is a counter-conditioning game that teaches your dog that it is OK to be a dog & look at things, but it is no big deal & no need to react to it. It has many applications, including, but not restricted to, reactions to movement eg. cars, bikes, skateboards, other dogs running etc, being distracted by & needing to chase other animals, fear & aggression & in the case of border collies, simply staring with a strong eye & getting “stuck”.
I first became interested in the LAT Game a couple of years ago when I read about it in a Clean Run magazine, & thought “Hey...that might help me with the problems I am having with my Border Collie, Bindi”. Bindi is Motion Reactive, ie. she is easily distracted by anything that moves & reacts by lunging, & spinning if on lead, or chasing, if she is off lead. Before LAT, at agility trials, while waiting in line, she would be like a Tasmanian Devil as soon as she saw another dog running or tugging etc. She would also get distracted very easily on course & sometimes would even leave the ring to join the dog running in the next ring. She also becomes “stuck” & is triggered by anything that moves. When she goes over the threshold, she literally, switches to the other side of her brain & she cannot hear me. This is called “sticky dog syndrome” & is common in working dogs, especially border collies that have a strong eye. Her strong eye would also get her into trouble with small dogs, as her “staring” would bring about a reaction from the little dogs who lunge & bark at her, causing her to react back & of course her being the larger dog, would be the one to get the blame. Fortunately she has never been aggressive, but will react to other dogs’ aggressiveness.
For more information on how to train it, click on this link for the PDF File The Look At That Game
I hope you get as much benefit & fun out of this game as I have with my girl :)