The thing that you keep referring to is the state of the dog.

The dog gets some endorphins and some happiness out of whatever it is that you're doing it together.

We're doing it together.

Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sex and a Squirrel podcast. I'm Lauren Langman. I'm one of the world's leading dog trainers and it's my mission to help owners become their dog's top priority. In each episode, you'll discover how to gain trust and communicate with your dog like never before, creating unbreakable bonds that make you the most exciting part of their world. So engagement, probably the single biggest thing,

if you don't have it, you're definitely not going to do agility, you're definitely not going

to be out of doing obedience and you're probably not making the best dog owner because I know

this morning I had a cow incident where one of mine saw a cow

and went, I'm going to work that. And I was like, oh my God, did my recall, bang, back on a toy.

But if I didn't have that engagement, what'd you do? Like, it's all part of like the game, isn't it?

You've got to have that engagement because if not, the world is probably going to be way more exciting.

So what would be a top tip or a top skill or a top game or a top thought when it comes to engagement for you, Hughes?

Reward it when you see it.

Catch them doing something right.

Yeah.

Because they do engage and lots of people just don't take any notice. Give me an example, because you've been teaching this week. Because what have you seen at times? Well, they do behaviours. Yeah. So they do behaviours and then the dog does the behaviour and then it re-engages with the owner and they take no notice. They miss it. They don't, they don't reward it. It's like, well, that didn't happen. Bad. And then they go, oh, he switches off a lot. And you're like, well, actually, you don't catch many things. And actually, I'd like to tell to you, pot kettle black. Pot kettle black. Yeah, no, it's a really valid point. What do you do in the absence of a queue? what do you expect your dogs to do in the absence of a queue? I expect them to what I call Q-Sique. I expect them to look at me and go, are we doing anything else? Go on. What do they say? What do they actually say? Isn't it like, how may I help you, Tom? Would Madam like anything else?

Would Madam like anything else?

And that is really what we want for our dogs, isn't it?

We want them out and about going, how else can I help you?

What else could I offer you?

How else can I be a good dog?

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

But we ignore it.

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