The "Look at That" Game Explained: How This Training Method Helps Reactive Dogs
Medically reviewed by Jessica Ennis, DVM, CVA — For general education — not a substitute for veterinary care.
The "Look at That" game teaches a dog to glance at a trigger, then look back at you, calmly.
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Bodie was a two-year-old border collie, about forty pounds, who came in because his owner couldn’t walk him past the mail carrier’s truck without him lunging and barking. I watched them work through it in my exam room parking lot — dog stiff, ears forward, staring down the truck two properties away, owner tightening the leash and bracing. That tightening is almost always the tell. It’s not just the dog escalating; it’s a loop between the two of them.
Here’s the verdict I give most owners in that spot: the “Look at That” game, developed by trainer Leslie McDevitt as part of her Control Unleashed method, is one of the more reliable ways to change that loop, and it works because of what it asks the dog to do — not fight the trigger, not avoid it, just notice it and check back in.
What is the “Look at That” game, exactly?
The mechanics are simple enough to teach in a single session. You start far enough from the trigger — another dog, a jogger, a delivery truck — that your dog can glance at it without going over threshold. The instant your dog’s eyes move toward the trigger, you mark that glance (a clicker or a verbal “yes”) and follow with a treat. Over repetitions, most dogs start voluntarily looking at the trigger and then swinging their head back to you, anticipating the reward. That’s the behavior you’re building: notice, then check in.
It sounds almost too simple, and that’s usually where owners get skeptical. What makes it work isn’t the treat itself — it’s that you’re changing what the trigger predicts. Instead of predicting a fight-or-flight cascade, the trigger starts predicting a food reward and a moment of connection with the handler. That’s classical conditioning layered under an operant behavior, and it’s the same mechanism behind a lot of counter-conditioning work used for barrier frustration on leash.
Why does distance matter so much here?
This is where most owners sabotage the exercise without meaning to. If your dog is already barking, lunging, or fixated so hard it won’t take food, you’re too close — you’re past the point where learning happens. I tell people to find “the distance where your dog can think,” which is usually farther away than feels necessary. A dog that’s stressed enough to refuse a high-value treat is not in a state to learn anything new; you’re just rehearsing the reactive pattern at that distance instead of replacing it.
Is “Look at That” the same as just distracting the dog?
No, and this distinction matters. A distraction pulls the dog’s attention away from the trigger entirely — you’re competing with it. “Look at That” does the opposite: it deliberately lets the dog look at the thing that worries it, and rewards that look. Over time this builds tolerance rather than avoidance. A dog that’s only ever distracted away from triggers never gets the chance to relearn what those triggers mean; a dog playing “Look at That” gets repeated, low-stress exposure paired with a good outcome, which is closer to how real desensitization works.
Where does calming support actually fit into this?
Owners often ask whether a supplement can make the training go faster, and I want to be straight about the limits of what’s known. Structure/function ingredients aren’t a substitute for the training mechanics above — they’re not going to teach a dog to look back at you. What some may do is take the edge off a dog’s baseline arousal enough that training sessions land better.
A common question is whether ashwagandha does anything measurable here. A systematic review in Cureus looked across multiple randomized controlled trials and concluded that ashwagandha, specifically the KSM-66 extract, has a moderate positive impact on stress reduction and cognitive performance — a human evidence base, but the mechanism is why some calming products for dogs include KSM-66 Ashwagandha as a clinically studied ingredient for stress support.
L-theanine comes up almost as often. A review in Molecular Psychiatry found effects on anxiety were inconsistent across trials, except for one study on psychotic anxiety, which found a moderate effect size at a dose of 400 mg per day for eight weeks — a specific population, at a specific dose, not a general finding you can extend to dogs. Even so, L-theanine is an amino acid found in tea that has been studied for its calming properties, which is part of why it shows up in canine calming formulations.
Chamomile is the other ingredient owners ask about most. The evidence base is thinner. A review in Biomedicines notes that for most species, evidence for chamomile’s anxiety effects is derived mainly from preclinical studies or traditional use — not controlled trials in dogs. That’s not a reason to dismiss it outright; chamomile and valerian root have a long history of use in traditional herbal care to support relaxation. It’s a reason to treat it as a mild, traditionally-supported adjunct rather than a proven intervention.
In my practice, I’ve seen owners lean on a calming chew as a crutch instead of doing the training, and that’s the failure mode I actively steer people away from. I worked with a family whose six-year-old goldendoodle, Wren, would spiral at the sight of skateboards on their block. They’d tried three different chews over four months with no real change, because they were never pairing the calmer baseline with any actual “Look at That” repetitions — they were waiting for the supplement to do work that only training does. Once we added five-minute sessions at a distance where Wren could still take treats, twice a day, they saw her start voluntarily glancing back at them within about two weeks. The supplement didn’t do that. The mechanics did.
When should you bring in a trainer instead of doing this alone?
If your dog’s reactions involve growling, snapping, or you genuinely can’t find a distance at which they’ll take food even outdoors in a quiet lot, that’s past what a DIY game should handle alone. It’s also worth ruling out pain or a medical contributor before assuming it’s purely behavioral — a dog that’s suddenly reactive on leash after being previously fine sometimes has a physical reason worth a vet visit first. This is a different picture from a dog that’s growling when petted at home, but the same principle applies: don’t skip the exam.
It’s also worth distinguishing this from generalized anxiety. If the reactivity looks more like separation anxiety than boredom — restlessness only when alone, not tied to specific outdoor triggers — “Look at That” isn’t the right tool at all, because there’s no external trigger to condition around.
Where I land with owners
Distance and timing win. Bodie’s owner and I worked at roughly forty feet from parked delivery trucks for the first two weeks, moving closer only when he’d glance and check back without stiffening first. By week six they were passing trucks at ten feet with a loose leash. That’s a specific, lived case — not a promised outcome — but it’s the pattern I see often enough to trust the method itself over any single product layered on top of it.
Bottom line: the “Look at That” game changes what a trigger predicts for your dog, and it does that through distance, timing, and repetition — calming ingredients may help support a lower baseline, but they don’t replace the mechanics.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take for the "Look at That" game to work?
Many owners see a dog start voluntarily checking back within two to three weeks of short, consistent sessions, though timelines vary with the individual dog and how consistently the distance and timing are managed.
Can I use "Look at That" for reactivity toward other dogs, not just objects?
Yes. The mechanics are the same regardless of trigger — the key is finding a distance where your dog can still take a treat and think, then gradually closing that gap over repeated sessions.
Do calming chews replace the need for training?
No. Structure/function ingredients like ashwagandha, L-theanine, or chamomile may help support a calmer baseline, but they don't teach a dog the new behavior — that comes from the training mechanics themselves.