This Or That's: Your Dog's Decision-Making Blueprint #332

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This or That games create a decision-making blueprint that helps your dog learn to make brilliant choices. In this episode, I share the five stages that grow simple choices into confident everyday decision-making. You'll also discover the common mistakes that can take choice away from your dog and how to know when they're ready to progress, so you can grow a confident decision-maker who knows how to choose well, even when life gets exciting.

🎉Join the free ItsYerChoice Summit and be added to the waitlist for the Recallers Archetype Series event coming in late August: https://dogsthat.com/y/332/iycsummit

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why there can be a big gap between teaching behaviors and expecting good decisions around distractions.

• How your dog's behavior gives you feedback about what they actually learned.

• Why This or That games pair one well-understood response with another.

• The five stages of This or That games: Spotlight Choices, Choice Pairs, Choice Challenges, Choice Chains, and Choice Living.

• How Spotlights are used to create clarity, with examples of the ones I use ("cook," "search," "chow," "strike," and "bring").

• Why I make failure inexpensive for dogs.

• How Buzz's love of swimming became a game of waiting for permission to enter the pond.

• How to know when a dog is ready to progress in the 5 Stages.