Impulse Control and Impulsivity in Training with Prey-Driven Dogs

In the first part of our webinar duet, we will first focus on impulse control. Later, we will discuss frustration in detail; see link https://www.kosmos.de/de/frustration-im-training-mit-jagdlich-motivierten-hunden-und-wie-man-sie-reduziert_1900281_100-112-900281-video

Being able to wait and not even start sniffing or chasing, or to interrupt sniffing, chasing, etc. by stopping or recalling – these are the stated training goals when it comes to controlling hunting behavior. Both are a matter of impulse control, which must be worthwhile for the dog's brain. To reliably display desired behavior in situations where innate triggers actually want to activate innate behavior is strenuous – it requires impulse control. Whether the marker signal sounds, the recall sounds, a search task or reward is imminent, the dog must withdraw its attention from the dog world and focus on the human world. What seems simple from the outside consumes valuable, mental, and finite resources internally.

Anja Fiedler explains,

• the origin of impulsive hunting behavior,
• how to account for the triggers of unwanted hunting behavior,
• why impulsivity has two sides of the coin: impulsive reactions to innate triggers in the dog world and communicative signals from the human world,
• how attention and impulse control are related,
• why impulse control must be worthwhile,
• how we improve impulse control with hunting triggers and impulsive reactions to recall signals, stop signals, etc.

The speaker
Anja Fiedler is the head of the "dogable – what (hunting) dogs want" dog school. With her diverse seminar program, she travels throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
More about the speaker: http://www.dogable.de/node/5

Photo credit: Anna Auerbach/ Kosmos