Puzzle has strong foundation mat skills. She’s ready to take her mat work to the next level!

What that next level is depends on your goals for your dog:

+ You could start using the mat to relax under the table while you’re eating out at a restaurant.
+ You could use it as a station while you train your other dogs.
+ You could use it while your dog waits their turn at seminars or group classes.
+ You could use the mat to teach the “look at that!” game.

This is what I’m going to show you for Puzzle’s final mat video: how do you teach “Look at that” (LAT) to a dog on a mat?

Note that there are different ways to teach LAT. This is just one of them – but it’s a particularly nice one because it has relaxation built into it. To learn more about the LAT game, what it is, what purpose it serves, and the different ways to teach it, check out any of Leslie McDevitt’s books:

Control Unleashed: Creating a Focused and Confident Dog
Control Unleashed: The Puppy Program
Control Unleashed: Reactive to Relaxed

This is the video I used for my CCUI homework: Puzzle assists me in demonstrating how to teach LAT on a mat! Thank you also to my helper Zane!

The coffee can serves as a target for my helper. Part of setting your dog up for success is making sure your human assistants knows where to stop!

This post is the last one in Puzzle’s the mat work series.