The LAT/LAM/LATTE games are powerful tools for reactive or fearful dogs, helping shift their emotional responses to triggers using classical conditioning and marker training. Here’s a breakdown of each one and how to use them:
🟢 1. LAT: Look at That (by Leslie McDevitt)
✅ Goal:
Change a dog’s emotional response to a trigger by marking and rewarding the act of looking at it calmly.
🐾 Best For:
- Dogs who react to people, dogs, vehicles, etc.
- Building confidence and self-control.
🧩 How to Use LAT:
- Set up in a location where your dog can see the trigger at a safe distance (no reacting).
- Cue your dog to look at the trigger by pointing and saying “[Dog’s Name] Look at That”
- When your dog looks at the trigger, immediately mark (e.g., with a click or “yes!”) and give a treat.
- Repeat every time they look calmly.
- Gradually move closer over multiple sessions as your dog stays relaxed.
🔁 Pattern:
You cue ➝ Dog looks ➝ You mark ➝ Dog gets a treat
🟠 2. LAM: Look at Me
✅ Goal:
Teach your dog to shift focus from the trigger to you on cue or by choice.
🐾 Best For:
- Building engagement.
- Strengthening attention skills around distractions.
🧩 How to Use LAM:
- Say your dog’s name and “Look at me.”
- When they look back at you, mark and reward.
- Practice in calm environments first, then add light distractions, then triggers.
💡 LAM pairs beautifully with LAT—first reward looking at the trigger (LAT), then reward looking back at you (LAM)!
🔁 Pattern:
You cue ➝ Dog looks ➝ You mark ➝ Dog gets a treat ➝ Dog starts to check in with you ➝ You reward that too!
🔁 Advanced Pattern:
You cue ➝ Dog looks ➝ Dog starts to check in with you ➝ You reward!
🟡 3. LATTE: Look At That, Then Enrichment
✅ Goal:
Help your dog associate a previously stressful or exciting trigger with calm, rewarding enrichment rather than reactivity.
🐾 Best For:
- Dogs working through reactivity or fear.
- Building positive associations with triggers.
- Supporting calm decompression and emotional recovery.
🧩 How to Use LATTE (Enrichment Style):
- Expose your dog to a known trigger at a distance where they can observe without reacting.
- When your dog notices or looks at the trigger, calmly mark it (“Yes!” or a click).
- Immediately follow with enrichment:
- Scatter feed/sniff game in the grass
- Lick mat or stuffed Kong
- Tug toy (if appropriate)
- Snuffle mat
- Letting them move away and sniff freely
- Allow your dog to engage in the enrichment activity for a few minutes before ending the session or resetting.
- Repeat over multiple sessions, slowly decreasing distance only as your dog remains relaxed.
🌿 Why This Works:
- Seeing the trigger becomes a predictable, non-threatening event.
- Enrichment activates the seeking system in the brain—reducing stress and promoting calm curiosity.
- Gives your dog a coping strategy: “See the thing → Do a fun thing.”
- Great to tool to work in with LAM to jackpot a really good rep and promote full disengagement
🧠 Tips for Success:
- Use easy, low-arousal enrichment for fearful dogs.
- Make sure enrichment is rewarding enough to shift focus from the trigger.
- Avoid high-arousal play if it leads to more stress or overstimulation.
- Always end on a success—don’t push too far or too close.