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Hey Andi – I was hoping we’d get a few others jumping in this conversation, but meanwhile, I wanted to give you one little idea to try with this pup.

Instead of working on having the dog look at the handler for a reward, try associating the food with the dog looking at the trigger at a distance that keeps the dog under threshold. In other words: Trigger = Yum! It is a subtle yet significant difference in timing.

See the scary thing, food appears. Scary thing goes away, food goes away. Doing this for short intervals, at enough distance that the dog is able to process cognitively, can be very effective. The dog should be aware of, but not in escape/avoidance/reactive mode when working on this. Over time, the conditions will change to bring the trigger in closer, or for longer, or to try in a new location.

You could blend this with the “Fun on the porch” idea @denise shared, earlier.

Does this make sense to you? Have you ever tried changing the timing to associating the presence of the trigger (and actually looking at it) with good things?