Invisible dog
To reduce your dog’s level of expectation of interaction, a visual signal can be introduced which indicates that human interaction is unavailable so such times are best filled with relaxation. Of course a signal that indicates a level of social isolation and lack of stimulation could become a negative one so it is important to combine it with an indication that when the object is removed from view, attention and interaction are available once more.
After a few seconds you can put the object on display again, ignore your dog for a further 10 seconds, put the object away and call your dog to you. Repeat this sequence until your dog accepts your lack of interaction and is not pestering you to interact with them. Start to gradually increase the period of ignoring them and leave the object on display for slightly longer.
You should be aiming to be able to leave the object out for variable intervals of between 1 and 3 minutes (although the rate of progress is dependent on the individual dog). Provided that your dog remains relaxed while the object is on display you can continue to increase the length of the “no interaction” period at variable intervals until the object remains on display for 5-10 minutes (about the same time that it takes to read a page of a book or a few articles in the newspaper).
If you are confident that your dog understands the significance of the object and responds by settling as soon as you produce it, you can display it when you are leaving your dog, wanting your dog to be left in another area of the house or wanting to relax without your dog asking for attention.
For more information on the Invisible dog, please watch the the fourth video of Dr Sarah Heath’s The CALM® programme series with Reconcile.
Sarah demonstrates how to leave the dog a predictive signal which gives the dog certainty of the caregivers return.
Learn more about the CALM programme here