In the beginning, you will want to train your dog in an environment that has few distractions. You want to be the most interesting game in the room in order for your dog to pay attention to you. Indoors is definitely better than outdoors, because you can't control the outdoor environment. Joggers, kids playing, cars, and other dogs are just a few of your dog's favorite things that may outrank you in competition for his attention.

If you consistently use the same room in the house to train, he will automatically start to focus on you when you set up to train. Use this room whenever you are going to teach something new. When your dog seems to understand a new behavior, then you will want to take it on the road by practicing in different environments. It is very important to do this if you want your dog to be well-behaved in public.

Most dogs are perfectly well-behaved in the privacy of their own homes when no visitors are around but turns unstable or high-strung when a friend comes over or when you take him out to the park. This is because your dog won't integrate distractions or generalize his training (be able to apply it to environments other than the one you trained in) well unless you help him.

If you always work in the kitchen and practice having your pet sit two feet in front of the sofa, he will think that the command "Sit" means to "sit two feet in front of the sofa." The first time you take him in the kitchen and ask him to sit in front of the refrigerator, he doesn't do it. He's thinking, "Are you crazy? How can I sit? There's no sofa here!"

Meanwhile, you are thinking that your dog is being stubborn, spiteful, or dumb because he knows very well how to sit and he is ignoring your command. Every time you move to a new environment or add distractions, you may need to back up a couple of steps in your dog's training to let him know that "Sit" means the same thing wherever he is, whether there's a sofa there or not. A group training class provides a perfect opportunity to train your dog in a distracting environment and to teach him this important lesson. You will need to find dozens more opportunities like this for him to understand that "Sit" happens everywhere.

Once he becomes more sophisticated about training and accustomed to working in different environments, your dog will be able to learn new things despite reasonable distractions, and he will be able to generalize more quickly with each new behavior that you teach him.

Canine Behavior Testing: Staying Calm During Everyday Distractions

Reaction to distraction testing requires a demonstration of the dog's confidence when faced with distracting situations, which can be any two of the following, usually one auditory and one visual:

1. A person using crutches, a wheelchair or a walker.

2. Sudden closing or opening of a door.

3. Dropping a large book, no closer than ten feet, behind the dog.

4. A jogger running in front of the dog.

5. Good-natured pushing and shoving or animated excited talk and backslapping by persons, with the dog and handler passing within ten feet.

6. A person pushing a cart approaching from the front or rear, passing within ten feet.

7. A person on a bicycle approaching from the front or rear, passing about six feet to the side of the dog.

8. Knocking over a chair, no closer than six feet from the dog.