What is Purposeful Disengagement?

An example of this would be giving your dog a cue to disengage from and not pay attention you. (look away, go sniff, explore, etc.)

Why is this something I should do?

Many times, when a dog is in a new environment, they can get over stimulated and stressed. Allowing your dog time to "disengage" from you will help them get accustomed to the environment. That way, when you ask for their attention, they will have an easier time focusing on you.

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It sounds funny, we're working on an "Engagement" series with our dogs, so why would we want them to disengage from us?

I'm going to tell you a little story of being in a trial run with my dog Tucker.

When we went into the ring, I could instantly see he was trying to not pay attention to something. I wasn't sure what it was, but his nose kept wiggling and his eyes wanted to drift away from me. In that moment, I could have tried competing with the environment. However, this would probably look like me shoving treats in his face and resorting to luring his attention towards me. I could have tried to continuously get his attention and reward it, but that would not have been setting my dog up for success.

It would have been very likely that I wouldn't act fast enough or be "exciting" enough and he would get distracted by whatever the environment had to offer.

Tucker is also a very anxious dog, and so allowing him the time he needs to disengage, will help him relax about the environment around him.

I decided to use a release cue to tell him to go ahead and disengage from me. I told him, "Okay go sniff!" and he explored the ring. It turns out, there was another very large dog's drool all over the floor. He spent a decent amount of time sniffing it and getting his "fill". It is possible, that the large dog on the outside of the ring who left the drool was actually making him nervous. By letting him go and sniff the floor, he was able to feel more comfortable about the large dog on the outside.

After a few minutes of sniffing, he offered his attention to me. This was a sign for me that he was ready and wanted to work/train with me.

If I hadn't given Tucker those few minutes of disengagement, I can almost guarantee you that he wouldn't have naturally offered me his attention. This is why Purposeful Disengagement is so useful. It gives your dog a minute to take in the environment, the distractions, and so on.

Even though Tucker offered me his attention, I didn't jump into training right away. I rewarded him for looking to me, but then gave him a release cue again. This was to ensure that he was actually ready and not just trying to appease me or stare at me for food. Once he was disengaging for only a second and then offering his attention back to me, THIS is when I knew he was actually ready to start training.

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A few problems you may run into...

Giving your dog too much freedom.

After reading this, you may be thinking 'okay so I will let my dog just run off leash in the field for a while and eventually he will offer me attention and that's when I'll reward him and start working on come'

While this isn't totally wrong, it can create a dog who constantly checks out. So this should be done carefully and with proper safety protocols in place.

Now to try it!

Try this in a fenced in area or with a long leash on. Do not have treats in your hands or your hand in your treat pouch. Practice this in an area where there are no other animals or people - it doesn't work well with this exercise if your dog is engaging with something else.

Step 1: Tell your dog to disengage. (I say "okay go sniff!")

Step 2: Wait and watch what your dog does. (make sure they cannot get too far from you.

Step 3: Keep waiting! Haha. Don't call your dog's attention unless absolutely necessary (in case of emergency or an animal/person)

Step 4: Whenever your dog offers attention to you, praise and reward it and then release them again.

Step 5: Wait until your dog is offering attention even after immediately released to disengage.

Step 6: Now practice some training. Ask for basic and well-known behaviors. If your dog performs these behaviors perfectly, continue training. If your dog performs the behaviors a little off or distracted, release them to disengage again and repeat from step 1.

Giving your dog the opportunity to disengage is going to increase your dog's actual engagement. This will help you see full engagement rather than the half engagement half distracted dog you see many times. Allowing our dogs to disengage at times helps them focus fully on us and allows them to take in the environment rather than seeing it as a distraction.

If you have any questions or need help with this, please ask! Share your videos with me. This one might take some time, so set it up and be patient!