Understanding the Brain’s “Circuit Breaker” for Attention

Picture this scenario: Your dog is performing a beautiful, focused heel in training class. Suddenly, another dog appears around the corner. In a heartbeat, your dog’s attention vanishes, and no amount of calling their name or waving treats will bring them back to you.

What just happened? In neuroscience terms, your dog’s Ventral Attention Network (VAN) just ran roughshod over their Dorsal Attention Network (DAN). Understanding this process can transform how you view and address attention issues in training.

VAN: The Brain’s Alert System

VAN – the Ventral Attention Network – is a “bottom-up” attentional system. It’s driven by stimuli in the environment rather than by conscious choice. VAN operates automatically, alerting your dog to potentially important information without requiring any decision on their part.

This system has been crucial for survival throughout evolutionary history. A dog whose attention couldn’t be captured by the sudden movement of a predator wouldn’t survive long. Neither would one who couldn’t instantly notice potential prey or danger. By the same token, VAN can be responsible for your dog noticing a leaf dancing along in the wind, or a cat dashing across the yard.

When VAN Runs Over DAN

When I talk about VAN “running over” DAN, I’m describing a neurological reality. These networks exist in an inhibitory relationship—when one activates strongly, it suppresses the other. And in certain situations, VAN can completely override DAN, no matter how committed the dog was to their previous focus.

Three primary scenarios cause this instant attentional hijacking:

1. Perceived Threats

Remember my cobra example? If you’re walking down the street to buy a present for a friend (DAN is active), but suddenly see a dangerous snake (VAN activates), your present-buying mission instantly becomes irrelevant.

For dogs, perceived threats might include:

• Unfamiliar dogs who appear threatening
• People who make them uncomfortable
• Novel objects that look strange or move unpredictably
• Loud or startling noises

This is so important when we’re dealing with fearful, anxious, shy dogs. We can walk them down the street, and feel safe — right until we spot a cobra. We have to remember for the dog, their “cobra” might be the woman with the toddler heading your way.

2. Anxiety and Fear

Chronic anxiety creates a brain primed for VAN dominance. When a dog is anxious, their amygdala (fear center) is already activated, making it easier for VAN to take control at the slightest provocation.

This explains why anxious dogs often appear “distracted” or “unfocused”—they’re not being stubborn; their brain is in a physiological state where DAN simply cannot function optimally.

If we feel safe, we forget that the dog may not.  This mismatch between our perception and the dog’s emotional reality leads to many training frustrations.

3. Sensory Sensitivities

Dogs with heightened sensory sensitivity experience stimuli more intensely than others, making VAN activation more likely. I always assess individual dogs along these dimensions:

• Auditory sensitivity: From complete deafness to so sensitive they’re dysfunctional with normal sounds
• Visual sensitivity: From blindness to being triggered by slight movements or light changes
• Tactile sensitivity: How they respond to touch (remember that light touch can actually be alarming!)
• Olfactory sensitivity: How intensely they respond to scents

A dog with extreme auditory sensitivity might have their VAN triggered by sounds you barely notice. A visually sensitive dog might react to subtle movements that wouldn’t register with other dogs.

Real-Life Examples of VAN Dominance

Let me share some classic examples from my work:

The Nose-Driven Dog

“When people say, ‘I think my dog’s gone deaf when I call him. He’s got his nose down and he’s sniffing. He doesn’t hear me at all.’ Well, that may be true.”

When a dog is intensely engaged in olfactory work, their VAN is completely dominated by scent processing. It’s not that they’re choosing to ignore you—their brain is literally filtering out auditory information to devote more resources to olfactory processing.

The Reactive Dog

“The meta message to the dog that says, ‘It’s not even worth my full attention. I’m not going to orient to it.'”

When working with reactive dogs, I teach handlers to turn their core (hips and torso) away from triggers. This works because when VAN has taken over, the dog is looking for confirmation of danger. If you appear unconcerned, it can help reduce their perception of threat.

The Vigilant Guardian

“He could hear them coming, you know, most times of the year, because the metal shoes on the asphalt road you’d hear clip clop, clip clop… But on one fine winter day, there was so much snow that he had kind of, sort of relaxed his vigilance a bit… and the snow muffled the hoof prints. So it was only when it got very close to the house did he hear something that triggered. And it wasn’t, you know, metal horseshoe on road… but something got his attention. And she said, when his eyes snapped open, he was ‘oh…, stealth Amish.’ He was quite shocked.”

This story about my friend’s dog waiting for the Amish buggy illustrates how vigilance (a VAN-heavy state) can be exhausting for dogs, and how surprising it can be when something breaches their expectations.

When Environmental Management Becomes Necessary

For some dogs, certain stimuli are so powerful that realistic training goals may need to include management rather than complete “training through” the issue.

As I explained regarding a dog obsessed with hunting rodents: “If that really matters to the dog, how are you going to make it not matter to the dog? That would be like taking a Golden Retriever through a bakery explosion where there’s cinnamon buns all over the floor. Can it be done? Hmm, maybe. But there’s going to probably be a fair amount of management involved.”

This isn’t giving up—it’s respecting the dog’s neurobiology and making thoughtful choices about where to invest training efforts.

Working With VAN, Not Against It

Understanding VAN doesn’t mean abandoning training goals. It means working with your dog’s brain rather than against it:

1. Respect thresholds: Stay under the threshold where VAN completely overtakes DAN.
2. Create distance: When VAN triggers appear, increase distance when possible. “The very first answer is always, if at all possible, put distance between you and the scary thing.”
3. Recognize signs of VAN activation: Learn your individual dog’s early indicators that VAN is beginning to activate.
4. Build recovery skills: Teach your dog how to return to DAN dominance after VAN has been triggered.
5. Address emotional responses: Use counterconditioning to change how your dog feels about VAN triggers.

Conclusion: Respecting the Brain’s Reality

When we understand that VAN can and will run over DAN in certain situations, we stop taking our dogs’ “distractibility” personally. We recognize it as a neurobiological reality, not a training failure or a reflection of our relationship.

As I always emphasize, each dog is an individual with unique attentional tendencies: “Their prefrontal cortex is not particularly finished… That’s where executive planning, decision-making happens.”

By respecting these neurological realities and working with them rather than against them, we can develop training approaches that set our dogs up for success rather than constantly pushing them into situations where their brain’s wiring works against them.

Summer presents unique challenges for dog training. The world explodes with distractions – squirrels dart across paths, children play in yards, and barbecue scents waft through the air. Rather than fighting an uphill battle, what if you could turn these summer challenges into training opportunities?

Suzanne Clothier’s Summer School Series brings together four essential webinars that will revolutionize how you approach training during these distraction-rich months.