Begin training in an place free of distraction, such as a bedroom or living room. Put a short leash on your dog or hold the leash so there is only a small amount of slack, but not tight. Have 10-15 treats in each hand and a container nearby with hundreds of treats readily available.
Gimme here: I was such a busy and wild puppy that my person first taught me this game when I was in my crate so she didn't have to worry about tangling me in the leash. After that we played it in the bathroom, living room and kitchen. We've done it in the back yard, front yard and on the sidewalk. We play this on our walks in the woods, in the car and in grocery store parking lots. Its really cool to have a great game that you can take anywhere. I really love playing learning games with my person.
Before starting the game, stand in a loose, relaxed posture, one foot out and shoulders slack. To start the game turn to face your dog, stand up straight with hands to your sides (fingers closed around the treats) and feet together while looking at your dog’s face.
When your dog glances at your face, say "yes" and give her a treat. If she does not look to your face in twenty seconds, then you may have to shape this in the beginning.
You might shape in small increments, such as "yes"/treat if she turns her face more toward you or looks at any part of your body (except your hands). Watch for behaviors that are closer and closer to what you want and "yes"/treat those until you get to the behavior you want.
Shape from a look/glance at your face to a point where the dog is truly focusing on you with intent eye contact.
When your dog indicates it KNOWS the eye contact game by immediately giving you focused eye contact upon seeing your "on switch" posture, start to wait a little longer before saying "yes" to gradually lengthen the time of the eye contact. When you get to 30 seconds, start adding distractions, but expect a shorter duration initially.
Introducing Distractions
Decide in advance which distraction you will introduce and how you can do it in a gradual and careful way so your dog can succeed.
For example, your dog has learned to look at your face even though you have food in both hands and even though your hands are closer to him than your face. In preparation for teaching him to not dive on food, start by moving the food hands closer to his head and "yes"/treat when she is able to look away from the food hands to give you eye contact. In the beginning to make this easier for your dog, you might need to hold the food hands up and farther away from the dog’s face.
If your dog tries to sniff a food hand, then move that hand out of range (move it at medium speed, and not enticingly). When he stops sniffing it, carefully move it back toward him and be sure to catch a moment when you can "yes"/treat for eye contact. Moving the hand away interrupts the unwanted behavior and tells your dog that sniffing the hand is not an available option and will not earn a "yes"/treat.
Part of incrementing this distraction for the dog might be moving the hands in an enticing way, but from far enough away so the dog can resist the distraction. Other possibilities might be having your food hand peeking out from behind your body, waving the food hand overhead, moving the food hand to your lips and making munching noises.
Taking It On The Road
For most behaviors you'll wait until it is well established before taking it on the road, but you'll begin taking the eye contact game on the road very early in training. This teaches your dog that the game does not just apply at home, in the yard and at the training location. You want your dog to understand that all the things you teach him apply just as much in strange locations as they do in familiar settings.
To begin, take your dog with you in the car when you have errands to run (of course being aware of safety for your dog) or on planned training trips. At each stop, get the dog out of the car and play the eye contact game for 2 minutes. In the beginning it will be enough for your dog to give you any eye contact in a strange setting and you may even have to increment just like you did in first teaching the game. If your dog has difficulty giving you eye contact, you can do some things to make it easier and gradually introduce the road trip concept, such as:
· You could leave your dog in the car while you do your errand,
so she has a chance to look around at the environment before
you start the game.
· You can park at the far end of the parking lot and play the game
standing right next to your car.
· You can go to settings that are not especially interesting from a
dog’s point of view.
· You can play the game in the car.
· You can stop every block and play the game while walking your
regular route.
Distractions To Work Your Dog Through
The following is a laundry list of things that you can work through. Be creative and add to the list. It doesn’t matter if the things you teach seem "relevant" to dog training, since every distraction the dog overcomes teaches them how to resist distraction and makes them better and better at giving you their full attention. The only rules are:
Distractions must be presented in a gradual manner so that your dog can succeed.
Your dog must be having fun. If you want to work on something that your dog has shown fear or anxiety toward, you should discuss this with a dog training instructor (who only uses reward based training) to get assistance in desensitizing the fear and/or setting up things to be fair to your dog.
Remember: you are looking for an attitude from your dog that says, "You can’t fool me."
food dropped at your dog’s feet
someone tossing food near yousomeone offering/teasing with foodanother dog eating food at your dog’s feet
poop or dead animals on the ground
cats and other small animals
farm animals, people riding horses
other dogs walking by
other dogs running by
other dogs running agility
other dogs playing
children playing
people walking by from all directions
people running by from all directions
tennis ball bounced near the dog
enticing settings - woods or fast food place
people eating
someone (not family members) saying the dog’s name
someone saying your release word
someone riding a bicycle past you
you looking away
you swaying from side to side
you stepping from side to side
you high stepping
you running in place
you moving your feet very near your dog
you stepping over your dog
you gently bumping your dog with your foot or leg
you leaning over your dog
you kneeling
you sitting on the ground
you sitting in a chair
you turning around (pivoting) in place
you taking several steps in any direction
you talking to another person
you singing
cars driving by
in your yard while neighbors run power equipment/lawn mower
in your yard with mad crows cawing at you
at your vet’s office in the waiting room
food tossed from your hands on the ground
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