Your Attention Please!
Focused attention, or eye contact, is not just a flashy, obedience ring stage prop. It's difficult to get your dog to comply with any commands if he's not paying attention to you. Using compulsion based training, it can often take months to get sustained eye contact, and very often sensitive dogs shut down due to the scores of collar corrections they receive as their handlers strive to increase the duration of attention.
Arm yourself with clicker and treats and in only a few minutes not weeks or months, you can have a dog believing that the eye contact game is one of the easiest ways he's ever thought of to make you click and treat.
As with any new behavior, begin in a distraction free environment. Get your dog sitting close in front of you. You can accomplish this by holding a treat in front of his nose then bringing it in close to your body and then up and slightly back over his head until he sits. Then move your hands behind your back. Now - the hardest part for new handlers - wait! Some dogs will look to either side to see where the treat went; some will even get up and go around your back looking for it. If the dog gets up out of position, say nothing, just lure them back to a sit in front. For most dogs, almost immediately they will at least glance at your face, looking for a clue. Be ready to mark that glance with a click and treat.
Keep repeating, clicking any eye contact or glance at your face. Watch for the light bulb to go on. For most dogs it doesn't take long at all. "Oh! You want me to look at you? I can do that!" When this happens, start delaying the click for just a fraction of a second. Progress to a couple seconds. If, at any time, the dog looks away before you click, wait until he looks back then click and treat immediately.
There is no definite "correct" time to begin adding the cue for this, in my opinion, but I begin when the dog is eagerly offering the behavior for 2-3 seconds at a time. Pick a word you can remember and use it consistently. Some people prefer to use the dogs' name to cue the behavior.
Now you can begin gradually increasing the duration of the behavior. I like to use a "keep going signal" - "Good watch, good dog". See if you can work up to a solid 15 seconds then add a light distraction. As with shaping any behavior, as you increase one criterion, make the others easier. So, if as a distraction, you start practicing in the backyard instead of the kitchen, drop the duration back to a second and gradually build back up.
Work on eye contact with the dog in heel position. Remember, you're changing the picture here, so again drop the duration and slowly build back up.
When all of this is getting pretty strong, I like to follow the "watch" cue and several seconds of eye contact with another known cue, a down for example, or you could ask for a few steps of heeling. The point is you don't want the dog just staring blindly; you want him focused on you; waiting for the next cue.
In no time at all you'll have a dog that not gives you eye contact but true attention!
© Kelly Randall, 2000