While hanging out at a dog show with my once reactive dog, a remarkable thing happened that really made me step back and think. My dog observed two dogs in joyous play with each other. These dogs were barking and jumping and having a grand old time. The owners were completely obliviously and engaged in a deep conversation. Instead of barking, howling and becoming that foaming at the mouth, loud obnoxious and very embarrassing devil dog, my dog saw the other dogs and immediately turned back and gave me a very intense stare.
The stare at the handler is an extremely desired response. I now have all his attention despite that overwhelming stimuli right in front of him. This response was not easy and took a really long time to perfect. There are still times he gets over his threshold and reverts to devil dog mode. But today, something that has always pushed him over his threshold in the past, simply made him look back to me for a treat. Attention games really DO work!