Not Paying Atention In Training

When training obedience,dazzle won't keek her eyes on me at all times,shes looking all over the place.

this is usually in heel and stay,i've tried clapping,clicking,treats ect,but it hasn't been working.
any ideas?

Hmmmm. Try taking her to a quite place with no distractions. Start with clicking for her looking in your direction, then at your eyes, then for holding. You can add a cue. Then try moving into places with more distractions or add distractions. Or you can try using a piece of food of high value and luring her attention to your eyes. I think there is a video. I'll try and find it. Hope it helps.

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Do you have great stationary attention? Before I would start any heel work I would make sure my dog WANTS to pay attention to me despite distractions. So I practice standing still and rewarding attention when food is on the floor, toys are flying, I'm in a field full of squirrels, etc. Only once you have perfect stationary attention would I think about heeling.

Once I start heeling I would then walk on the number of steps I know I can do without loosing attention. Maybe 3 steps, reward, play like crazy. Once I get the point where I am confident in my dog's heeling ability, I'll start to "correct" for lack of attention by immediately side stepping, changing direction, or playfully goosing my dog and running away. I want to teach my dog's that shouldn't look away because I'm unpredictable. I make their mistake bigger in a playful manner. But that will only work if the dog WANTS to play with you and WANTS to work. I won't train my dog unless they're begging to be trained. It all comes back to that stationary attention work, with distractions as a really solid foundation.

Reward her for little things. This'll build her confidence up, and once she learns that she gets really yummy food for doing simple things, it should give her more drive.

Also make sure the treats are adequate - follow the three S's. Soft, small, and smelly! Some good treats are cut up hotdog, the food from Natural Balance (obviously cut up), etc. Be creative.

Thanks guys,back then she was a wee little puppy,now she's almost 8 months (godness,i just worked out her age then,i was thinking she was 8 months about 2 months back )

She pays attention now,and is coming along quite nicley

What do the dogs do to let you know they want to be trained?

Hahaha when ever I enter the fridge now, and close the door I tend to see the dogs all sitting by the fridge - they come running lol when they hear the fridge door because they know thats where the treats are for training. Bella tends to sit and give me a "are we doing some training mum huh???" lol

lol, my dog can tell "time".
If you train your dog at same time every day, like 5pm every day,
is good chance, i'd bet, that before too long, your dog will come pester you for his "lesson" at 5pm.

the same way your dog lets you know it's his dinner time, or time for his walk, etc etc.


If you take your dog to a park, or some place that your dog REALLY LOVED, at say, 2pm, watch the next day, at 2pm,
watch to see if your dog comes up to you, with pleading eyes, or nose=poking, or whatever, at 2pm, as if to say, "It's 2pm! It's 2pm! Are we going to that park again? huh? huh? Are we? It's 2pm! come on, let's go!!"

I am not like Fickla, i do sometimes train my dog if he pesters me, but more often i train my dog when i feel like it, ----------but, either way--------- i use tons of enthusiastic praise, tons of it, and my dog ADORES his lessons, and gets VERY VERY tail-waggy if i even pick up my clicker.

Re: eye contact for heeling, i just sort of made up my own way to teach that, but, it worked.

http://www.dogtrickacademy.com/members/forums/threads/easy-cheesy-way-to-teach-heelwork.4339/


Using that really too simple method, NOW I have a dog who heels in perfect position, off leash, while looking up at me.

BUT, after i'd started working at it, i DID tweak my idea a bit, so DO READ POST #29, about where to hold the cheese. It's not in your mouth after all, it's in your hand on your waist, and jsut ever so slightly back a bit, NOT towards the front of your waist, but towards the back of your waist.

I need to get a video to show off this dog. His turns are flawless now, even a stationary turn, he keeps his front paws still and moves those back legs around to face whichever way i am turning to, and i did NOT ever teach the elephant trick, nope..........although everyone says, you have to teach an elephant trick to get a perfect turn in heelwork, my dog didn't need that.


i just stupidly went right into teaching a heel, and it worked, my "Easy Cheesy Method".

I'm like you tigerlily.

I train Missy when I feel like it too. She doesn't beg to be trained as I throw in training sessions pretty much every time I go out the door to the park or when I'm walking her, to keep her thinking and on her toes, not knowing what to expect next.

I was just curious what Fickla's dogs or anyone's dogs (like Buddy, etc.) does when they want to be trained.

Yes, me too, i can't speak for Fickla, or how she can tell when her dogs want to be trained, but, i'm guessing she refers to what dogs do when they want attention.
I'm curious now too!

but we'll have to wait for Fickla to say what HER dogs do that she interprets as "wanting to be trained", who knows? maybe the way some dogs bring their leashes to their owners, maybe her dogs bring her the clicker?? (that would be the coolest!)

hehehe When I get dressed/put Socks on Brody get really excited and runs to the front door thinking we are going for a walk because I usually throw socks on when I'm about to go for a walk. I feel bad for him when we aren't going for a walk because he gets so excited.

I was referring it more in the context of a training session rather than when lounging around the house But I suppose my dogs do bring me toys and stuff at home and I do know the look that they really would like to go for a walk or something!

If I go to a park with the intention of training my dog and they won't even look at me I'm not going to beg them. Instead they go back in the car and I'll either grab another dog to work, or they'll just wait a few minutes in the car before I try again. Of course, when they were younger and before they had all that attention work training I wouldn't punish them by removing the chance to work as that would be unfair. The dog has to first understand that training/attention is fun before you can use the removal of it as consequence. So with that novice dog I would patiently stand in one spot with my dog on leash to limit his possibilities, and wait. Rewarding any glimmer of eye contact with either a treat/toy/or the chance to go sniff for the dog who doesn't want anything else at that moment. But I'm still not begging as I really want the dog to CHOOSE to work/play with me versus me having to call them to me at every distraction. Basically with attention work the distraction should become an actual cue for the dog to look at me.

So back to the original question, I know a dog is begging me to train when I have their undivided focus. I train with a ton of energy and play so it should be fun for the dog and it doesn't take that much foundational attention work for the dog to want to choose me over the environment.