I learned this little trick from a dog-training pro a few months ago and it absolutely works. He also taught me one very basic rule in dog training: ” Do not give your dog a command until he is paying attention to you!” A simple concept I had not grasped till then. How many of us keep saying “sit, sit, sit, sit, SIT!” as our dogs merrily look around at the flowers, butterflies, birds, and anything else they find more interesting than us. Then, we are shocked when the dog doesn’t do what we are asking. I changed that one habit and my training effectiveness made a drastic improvement! Don’t tell the dog to do something until he is looking you in the face!
Now, how to get your dog to look you in the face. Here’s a very simple yet highly effective exercise that I was taught. Make a
Get that eye contact!
gasping sound, like drawing in breath as if you are surprised by something. The dog will most likely look right up at you too see why you are making that odd noise. As soon as that happens, either make a clicking sound with your mouth or a clicker, bring a treat up in front of your mouth, and then give it to the dog. Do that at random times through the day. If the dog looks at you without the gasp, click and treat. After probably a day or two, you will have a dog starting you in the face all the time.
The reason you bring the treat to your face is to stop the easily formed habit of the dog looking at your hands instead of your face. If the treat goes to your face first, that is where they will focus. It is the easiest way I have seen done! Other people try to break the habit by hold their arms out and randomly giving the dog a treat, but doing it this way is way easier and in my experience really effective!
After a few days of that, try to work in the word “watch” or “look” to eventually take the place of the goofy sounds. Then do this exercise in more challenging places with more distractions!
Happy training!
