‘Look’

Attention

 Purpose– teaching this exercise will train your dog that it is more reinforcing to pay attention to you than the distractions around him.

Criteria– your dog should look at you.

Visual Que– Point to your eyes.

 Verbal Que– ‘Look’

Important to remember

Your dog is familiar with his own environment.  There are fewer distractions at home as compared to a park.  Begin all training where there are minimum distractions.  As your dog becomes more reliable with certain behaviors, gradually work your way to a more distracting environment.  DO NOT expect your dog to respond to you as well as they would at home in this new environment.

Behavior Pyramid

1. Start in an area with no distractions
2. Take a treat slowly wave it in front of your dogs nose and with your dog watching bring it to your eyes.
3. Say ‘Look’ then ‘ok’ then give your dog the treat.
   1. The above must be given in that order.  Your verbal ‘ok’ is their que that they can look away.
   2. When beginning this behavior only expect your dog to look at you for 2 seconds.
4. Repeat several times in a environment that is not distracting.  Slowly start increasing the length of time your dog looks at you.
5. Move to different environments that are not distracting.
6. After 50 successful approximations of your dog looking at you while using the food lure, begin to fade the use of the lure.
   1. Fading the food can be done by asking for ‘Look’ with the treat in your hand by your eyes but reinforce your dog from the hand that is not by your eye.
   2. After 10 successful approximations.
   3. Do not use a food lure. Give both your verbal que ‘look’ and your visual que, point to your eyes.  Reinforce from hand that is not by your eye.
   4. After 10 successful approximations.
   5. Intermittently reinforce your dog.  Don’t forget the occasional ‘jackpots’ to encourage your dog to look at you in future exercises.
7. Slowly start add more distractions for your dog.