Dogs are smart and always need something new to learn or at least build on a previous behavior.
A good place to start is focus on 10 min AM and 10 min PM for the 2 days that you’re off and have time to dedicate the time to teaching your dogs. Once they know multiple behaviors… then work 5 min AM and 5 min PM each day.
A list of behaviors to start with are:
Dogs find eye contact as a challenge, but by teaching them to look at us, we are teaching them that focusing on us brings them great things. If you start doing this on a consistent basis, you will find your dog looking at you more and more. It makes calling them to you easier as well, because you have shown them that every time you call their name and they will look at you they get a tasty treat or a fun game of tug/fetch.
Ask for this at least twice a day and reward. A good time to do this is with his or her meal (2 meals a day=great training opportunity).
How to get the behavior:
Look at me:
⦁ Keep a leash on your dog for this training session to keep your dog from wandering off (at least in the beginning). For this lesson, we want to achieve eye contact. Count out 10 treats. Wait for your dog to look in your direction, click/treat (C/T). Each time wait for the dog to look closer towards your face before you C/T. Once your dog starts looking at your eyes, C/T. Once they know looking at your eyes brings them good things, they’ll start doing it more and more, then you know it’s time to move to the next step.
⦁ Test: Count out 10 treats. Wait for eye contact and C/T. Can you get 10 C/T for eye contacts in 40 seconds? Ready to move on.
Give it a name:
⦁ Get 10 treats ready. Wait for your dog to look at your face, say his name, THEN C/T. Do NOT keep calling his name, just 1 time will do. If you say his name multiple times “Rover, Rover, Rover” he will learn that his name is “Rover, Rover, Rover” instead of “Rover”. Repeat this several times through out the day.
⦁ You can give this behavior a cue “Watch Me”. I use both cues, their names and “watch me”.
⦁ Test: Count out 10 treats. Say your dogs name FIRST. Does he look at your face? GREAT, C/T. Do this 10 times. If your dog does NOT look at your face, then back up to the previous step.
Moving On:
⦁ Goal: Get your dog to STARE at you. Wait for your dog to look at your face. Now delay your Click/Treat (C/T) for a count of A-B-C. Then C/T. Now call his name and he’ll look at your face at this point, wait A-B-C-D-E-F before C/T. Gradually fluctuate between “A” and “A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L”.
⦁ From here you can build on it until you can get from A-Z. IF he fails at this point, shorten the length of time the next time you ask. ALWAYS, C/T for successful stares.
⦁ Distractions: Try working with your dog in new locations (different rooms in your house, backyard, front yard, parks, etc) and in different body positions. When you change locations or body positions, you’ll want to lower criteria (don’t expect your dog to STARE at you for 10 seconds when another dog is 10 feet away at the park).
Keep in mind: with dogs, you need to start low and work your way up… if you work in a way that your dog always succeeds your dog will have a GREAT attention and FOCUS on you!
