The On-Off Switch Game

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Nick and I were fortunate enough to attend a seminar given by dog trainer Leslie McDevitt, the author of an innovative book called Control Unleashed.

After reading McDevitt’s book earlier this year, I became a fan of her unique methods, especially her “Look at That” (LAT) game. Instead of asking your dog not to look at people, dogs, or items that prompted them to react poorly in the past - you direct your dog to look at them, and then reward them for doing so. In time, your dog begins to glance at things that used to upset or excite them, and instead of acting up, they turn back to you - on their own - in search of a reward.

Sound backwards? It is. And it works amazingly.

Since Toby already knew a different meaning for the command “Look,” I taught him the LAT technique using the phrase “Check it Out,” and it has helped immeasurably in decreasing his leash pulling when he is around other dogs. Later, Nick implemented the same game to work with Meadow on her fear of cars, and has witnessed equal success.

During the seminar, along with demonstrating LAT, Leslie explained several of her other methods, including a game called the “On-Off Switch.” She directed the owners to play with their dogs to get them excited, and then stop cold (shutting themselves off), to wait and see which behavior their dogs offered first. That initial behavior became known as the dog’s ‘default’ behavior.

Some of the dogs sat, others downed, and one offered eye contact when their owner stopped moving. Once the dogs made a selection, their owners immediately rewarded the behavior, reanimated (switched back on), and began playing with their dogs again.

The goal is to reward increasingly longer durations of the default behavior until the dog automatically offers it, and remains in position, whenever they want to solicit attention - instead of jumping up, barking, or any other obnoxious behavior they may have attempted in the past.

I decided to try it at home with Leah just for fun, and she chose the cutest, most comical looking sit as her default behavior. Please watch the video below to see Leah and me playing the “On-Off Switch” game. To learn more about the inventive methods in Control Unleashed, please visit Leslie McDevitt’s website.