Pawpads for Fantastic Focus

Squirrel! Dog! Person! Sometimes it feels like a pup’s attention is everywhere except on their job. We have a great game you can play to help pups stay focused around their greatest temptations.

Why It’s Important
Learning to stay focused around distractions is an important skill for a guide dog puppy to learn. Guide dogs work in all environments and they need to remain focused on their job without much input from their handler. A good foundation in focus goes a long way toward helping a puppy succeed!

What You’ll Need

• A Pawpad (you can make your own!)
• A calm pup
• Kibble or treats
• A quiet environment

To begin, grab your bait bag, a pawpad, and some kibble. Find a quiet spot where you can work without too many distractions. Start by creating a positive association with the pawpad. Use a kibble to lure the pup’s front foot onto the pawpad. Release the kibble to them when they step a foot up onto it then continue feeding while they have their foot on it for a few more seconds. After a few rewards, encourage them to step off and repeat.

When they are comfortable and willingly stepping one foot up, see if you can lure both front feet up and only reward with two feet on the pawpad. Repeat until they are comfortable standing with both feet up there while receiving frequent kibbles.

Over a few sessions of this game when they’re comfortable with two feet on the pawpad, start to randomly increase the time between kibble rewards.

Mix it up! Sometimes they get a kibble after 2-3 seconds, sometimes 10 seconds, and sometimes right away. Increase the time gradually and keep your energy light and fun so that the pup associates having their feet on the pawpad with a fun game and lots of rewards!

Once they are eager to get on the pawpad with both front feet and can occasionally wait up to 10 seconds between kibbles, it’s time to start slowly adding distractions. When you start adding distractions, it’s time to put the pup on a leash. You’ll hold the leash loosely - it’s not used to contain them on the pawpad, only to prevent them from reaching a distraction.

But wait! Before you get started with that, review the Rules of Three as a reminder of when to increase the difficulty, when to make it easier, and how to incrementally make things more challenging. Go do that now!

Now that you have reviewed the Three Ds, you understand that when adding distractions, they should be at a distance, with a short duration, and not overly enticing. Remember, we’re setting the pup up for success!

The first distraction can be anything – a person, a pet, a toy, kibble – anything that might take their focus a tiny bit away from you (but nothing too tempting). Reward the pup frequently if they keep both front feet on the pawpad. It’s okay if they look at the distraction as long as they keep their paws on the pawpad. If they step off the pawpad and towards the distraction, restrain them gently with the leash so that they can’t reach it, then get their attention verbally and help them get their feet back on the pawpad. That’s a sign that the distraction was too difficult, so reduce one or more of the Ds so that the pup can be successful next time.

When they are successful with frequent rewards, start to gradually increase the time between kibbles just like before. And when they can occasionally wait 10 seconds between snacks, you’re ready to up the challenge with one of the Three Ds!

Use this method of gradually increasing the Three Ds for various distractions until the pup is able to focus and stand on the pawpad with many different types of distractions. They’re learning that if they keep their feet on the pawpad they’ll be rewarded and if they step off the pawpad they don’t get to interact with the distraction. That will help them to maintain focus when the distractions continue to get more challenging.

Unlimited Upside
Once the pup understands and has achieved success with the pawpad in training situations, you can use this tool in the real world and as a stepping stone to settling or walking past distractions that might initially be too exciting to handle without a little extra help. It’s portable and can be used to reinforce calm greetings, work on dog distraction, help with ignoring food on the ground, wait at the door, and other scenarios where they might need a little help staying grounded (maybe even literally!) in the face of temptations.