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Not sure if I’m to late but I’ll jump in with a scent game/nose work for known triggers that elicit reactivity.
Step one: grab the dogs favorite high value food/treat and toss it on the floor and cue “Find it” Your dog should search for the food. This works awesome for food motivated dogs. Do this a few times a day with short sessions and after a few days your cue should be a go signal for dog to use its nose to find food/treats. (Nose to the ground)
Step two: take this outside and practice under threshold of known triggers. Nose work is known to help dogs be more confident and desensitize to its surrounding environment.
Step three: find your dogs threshold and keep him/her under threshold and when you see/hear a car coming toss your food/treats and cue find it. Your dog should put its nose to the ground and start searching for food as the car passes. In theory this can be desensitization and counter conditioning because it’s raining good things but if we get technical we are kind of working on an operant level. I think it can benefit both ways. That’s another whole topic 🙂
Step four: I use this technique especially with dogs that are food motivated and I’m observing that it is working. What I look for after many trials is the dog offering the behavior with out me cueing the behavior. With some dogs I find it becomes a coping mechanism for the dog etc scary trigger dog sniffs the ground until tiggers are gone.
Summary: I use this for many fearful dogs and it has become a what I label a coping mechanism instead of reactivity. If it doesn’t become a coping skill I use it in what I label survival skills in the real world when I can’t keep or get the dog under threshold in time. The last thing is it might work as ds/cc and it changes the CER conditioned emotional response.
Note: the editors can do better justice with this 🙂
Bonus: I also use this similar technique in the shelters with dogs that have known Argo (fear anxiety related). The ones that come barreling out after you leash them and open the kennel. I load up a near by grass area with grated cheese and small pieces of high value food. When dog gets there I have them on a long lead and let them sniff the whole area therefore dog learns I am no threat and I can start building my relationship and trust.
Hope this helps…love the idea and can use some detailed training/behavior modification files 🙂
Is it ok if we use them in the future?