On Waiting for Your Turn and the Emotions Involved part 2.

6. Don’t put your dog in situations that are beyond their ability.

If my dog can’t wait their turn, I don’t take them to group training (or I do, but with the goal of training just that!). I don’t bring my puppies to seminars if they can’t sleep for several hours in a crate or go into it joyfully at my request. I don’t train two dogs during one session if they can’t handle it. I know it’s often inconvenient, but every time you let your dog behave inappropriately, you set yourself back by many steps in training polite waiting. If my small dog can’t wait while I train my big dog, then I, as a handler, simply have to do two separate sessions.

If you don’t get it when I tell you that you’re ruining your polite waiting training, here’s another fact: You’re also sabotaging the training itself. A dog in that emotional state won’t work efficiently. There will be mistakes, frustration, and quicker fatigue.

7. Find a way to release your dog’s emotions.

It’s normal for certain situations to overwhelm your dog’s mental endurance. Try to find ways to naturally release their emotions that don’t interfere with your criteria. I don’t bring a raised platform to competitions, but I still have to wait with my dogs for our turn. With each of my dogs, we have a system that allows us to keep their emotions at the right level. Of course, we learn this over years, based on experience and live tests on real animals. 😉 I can give you a few examples.

Wena waits at competitions by holding a toy or a life-experienced frisbee in her mouth. She loves to take it out on that, we call it her “pacifier.”
Nismo is known for kneading cabbage. He’s sitting still, but he has to knead the cabbage. It makes everyone laugh, so it helps release tension.

Honda goes for walks in “civilian mode,” that’s the best way for her before a competition. She wears her civilian harness (yuck, it’s Norwegian!), I scratch her behind the ear, and we sit together on the grass. If I reward her, I do it with treats scattered in the grass for her to find with her nose.
As for Bułka, I’m not sure yet, but I’ll let you know in a year! 😊

3. Reward with food.

The entire initial stage and supporting this behavior in training are done with food. I want to lower the dog’s emotions and reward them in position. If your dog is so excited that they won’t take food, it means they may not be able to meet your criteria. You need to go back to basics (points 1-3 😊).

Later, I reward with a toy as well, indirectly by releasing the dog to train (also visible in the video, towards the end), but food is still the primary reinforcement.

9. Gradually add distractions.

If you'd like to try working in this way, remember that the training itself is your ultimate distraction. If it overwhelms your dog, find distractions that are challenging, but manageable for them.

Start with your own movement, the movement of food (e.g. dropping food). Maybe try cooking dinner while practicing active waiting with your dog on the raised platform? Or go to a friend's house for coffee and take the crate with you. Or step out on the lawn in front of your building during commercial breaks on Polsat 😉 There are many possibilities. The hardest part will be when you start removing attention from your dog, for example, by training a second dog. That's the advantage of having multiple dogs – so many opportunities for training!

10. Avoid excessive pressure and a high rate of failure.

If every training session on the raised platform is associated with your negative emotions, pressure, and failures, you will create a negative image of this exercise for your dog. The very sight of the platform will frustrate them or "shut them down."

Therefore, I introduce this raised platform through shaping, not luring. I want to achieve the effect where the dog offers to go on it and hold the position calmly. I want the dog to choose the raised platform as a place where they feel safe and understand all the criteria, even in stressful situations. I want them to be able to self-correct after making a mistake (for example, if they break the wait, I can send them back to the platform from a distance because they like going to it).

Of course, failures will happen, but they will teach the dog what doesn't earn a reward and what is not worth doing. The dog should learn from these failures and draw conclusions.

Well, here's the link to the promised video. Be warned, it's LONG. But it's a factual video, so I couldn't help myself. Plus, there's so much cuteness from little Bułka that I couldn’t resist! Here it is: YouTube link. (unfortunately it's in only in Polish language for now)

Thank you all for motivating me to write all this down! Of course, this doesn’t cover the topic in its entirety, and I could easily add another fifty points, but I’m practicing writing in a more focused way.