An important part of a dog training is to have your dog’s complete attention. The command “look” or “watch me” can get your dog to focus on you. It’s useful to have your dog pay close attention to you, especially during obedience training.
It’s beneficial when you want to team up with your dog. It is also useful when your dog has behavior problems. Having your dog focus on you can alter his attention away from things that bring aggressive and fearful behaviors.
The initial step to training your dog is to start indoors. If you do it outside, your dog can get distracted about many things; whereas indoors can make your dog concentrate and focus more on the training.
1. Eye-to-Eye Contact
Allow your dog to practice eye to eye contact. It’s actually the first step to teaching your dog how to focus. You can use a treat and put it near your eye. Once your pet looks you in the eye, give him the treat.
Over time, your dog will understand that eye contact provides him a reward. Eventually, you can move your hand near your eye to obtain the desirable effect. However, the treat is still there, of course.
Some dogs do not respond quickly to hearing their name. In this scenario, after giving a command, wave a treat in front of his nose, and then pull the treat up to your face.
Your dog will follow the treat and end up looking straight to your face. Praise him or pat him at the back, and give him the treat.
Few short training sessions should make your dog focus his attention on you.
2. Practice the Next Day
Go to the same location where you trained the dog previously. Hold a handful of treats the same way you did the day before. Wait till you get your dog have eye contact with you. When he does, give him the treat.
If the dog doesn’t look through your eyes, call his name to attract his attention. Wait till he makes eye contact before giving the treat. It should be this way so as not to defeat the training.
Continue practicing with your dog, and gradually move to more distracting and busier environments, until he gets used to it. Ensure you also teach him the command around other people and dogs.
3. Leave It
Train your dog to focus by leaving things as it is. You can start by placing a treat on the palm of your hand. When your dog goes for it, close your hand so that he can’t get the treat. Once he leaves it alone, you can hand him the treat.
Ensure that you say the “leave it” command when closing your fist, so he understands the word related to the action.
Once your dog gets the instruction, pat him when the treat is in your hand, and move to placing it on the floor. Begin saying “leave it” and wait till what happens for a few seconds. This is how your dog will handle the situation at first.
After a moment, release him so he can get the treat. Do this training after multiple times, until your dog gets used to the “Leave it” command.
Remember, training your dog is all about persistence. It’s best to start during a shorter period than have him run away from the command.
4. The Focus Combo
Now here’s a step to training your dog to focus on you – you need to combine the “leave it” command with “look”. It’s an advance command where the dog can have hiccups. Your dog can get the command in time.
Once he’s able to follow the instruction, you can move to the outdoors to strengthen his focus command with more visible distractions.
5. Teaching Focus with a Clicker
Training clickers are simple devices that can be purchased from a local pet store. They provide a small clicking sound that gets your dog learning a positive behavior.
Clickers are handy as they offer a sound more consistent than your voice. Clickers work well with dogs when paired with treats. That way, the dog will associate the clicking sound with a positive support of the treat.
Toss the treat behind the dog. When the dog eats the treat, he may spend time looking for more. When you see him moving towards you, mark it with a click and a treat.
This should allow him to associate the treat and the fact that he has looked at you. Practice it every day until he gets the notion to look at you each time he hears the clicker and gets the treat.
6. Teaching Focus with a Toy
Select a toy that your dog wants to play with during trainings. Hold the toy away from your body so the dog can see it. Let him focus on the toy, until he is eager to jump or probably bark at you to get started with the game.
Stand or sit still until you have his eyes locked on you. Eventually the dog will realize that you are not apt to play a game with him until he looks through your eyes. When his eyes are locked on you, throw the toy for him to pick-up.
Train your Dog to Focus on You – Safety and Convenience
Two objectives are answered when you get to train your dog to focus. It will be a lot easier to train him with other instructions, especially that you have captured his attention.
It does not only provide your dog protection especially in risky situations. Training a dog to focus will keep him from dog fights or other hazardous scenarios like running into traffic or chasing an animal to a more dangerous environment.
Success and safety are achieved when you get your dog to focus more on the training. It’s really a daunting task to do for dog owners, but in time you can get your dog to understand why this training is crucial.
Leave a Reply