Dog training, Attention

 Having your dog pay attention to you is the number one ingredient to dog training and living with your dog as a family member. 

How to capture your dog's attention varies with each dog. To get attention, you have to experiment, vary your approach, and make it rewarding for the dog to interact with you.

Have you ever sat down to have a conversation with someone and what you heard is how much more work needs to be done, how you could have done something better, what is wrong with the world, or other complaints? Did you want to keep listening and focus on that person, or did your attention wander and you started focusing on things in your environment,, what you were going to do next, what you could have for a snack? 

What keeps your attention? A happy friend with exciting ideas for adventurues? Someone telling you how wonderful you are? Someone offering to cook for you? Someone with a quick reprimand and a solution to keep you out of trouble? Someone teaching you something interesting? Someone sharing your interests?

When we work with a dog, we need to find what they are interested in and how they want to interact with people. Sometimes you have to be really goofy to gain attention, reward the attention, and frequently repeat catching the dog's attention until the dog is in the habit of looking to you to see what you will do next. Other times your requests for attention have to be soft and quiet, but you still get to reward the attention and get the dog in the habit of paying attention and not being overwhelmed. Your reward will also vary depending on what the dog finds rewarding. It is hard to believe, but not every dog likes the same thing. My dogs Tippy and Roudy will do anything for any kind of treat and know if there are treats in the area. Peanut just craves words of praise and a gentle rub. Ellie loves her ball being thrown. Jessa likes a smile and a cheerful voice.

Try this: Reward your dog every time he looks at you and see quickly he looks at you more. Your goal is that everyt ime you say his name, he looks at you and focuses on you for an instant. Once he looks at you every time you say his name, you can start delaying the reward seconds at a time until your dog keeps his attention on you for fifteen seconds before you reward him.

Uses: You can catch your dogs attention when he is reacting badly to another dog, encounters a person who is trying to get his attention away from you, wants to chase a squirrel or lunge after speeding golf cart, when he is afraid of something, or when you know something is going to happen that your dog will react to. Catching your dog's attention is the foundation of any other training. No one can learn if they are not paying attention to the teacher. 

Tippy my hunting helper

Tippy has usually has a solid stay. When told to stay, he usually does. He is becoming a very useful hunting companion because of this skill. I like to take photos. I have been practicing taking photos of animals. He loves to focus on the wildlife (and dogs, cats, whatever moves). He especially likes squirrels. On our daily walk around the park I bring my cameras and practice. There are a couple of squirrels on our route that are very good models. Tippy points them out, he freezes to watch them while I take a couple pictures. Then the squirrel runs away and we move on. Yesterday, the battery on my zooming camera died about halfway through our walk, before I got to one of our regular squirrel buddies. When we got to him, he was in his yard finding something to eat. Tippy stopped and watched. I waited. Tippy sat down and watched the squirrel find something in the grass, investigate it, then bury it, find something else, eat it, find something else, bury that. I waited 5 minutes while Tippy watched the squirrel. When I decided to move on, I said, "ok Tippy, Let's go" I was not prepared for the reaction, neither was Peanut, neither was the squirrel. He launched from his sit and ran for the squirrel. Poor squirrel went "Yikes" and dashed up his tree and whipped around to the other side and high into the branches. Tippy really enjoyed his surprise. Today when we walked past the squirrel in the yard, he went straight to his tree. He watched us from the trunk. I don't think he wanted a surprise again today. 

Dogs-- Connection

One of the goals of working with your dog every day is building a sense of connection. When you and your dog connect, your dog will look at you, follow you, be aware of where you are and what you are doing, and mirror your emotions. And you will do the same with your dog. How to build a connection depends on the dog and on you. Some pairs take time to build friendships and connections and have to get to know each other first. Others form that instant bond. Some never form connections, but do learn to work with each other. 

Tippy is the little dog I moved to Texas with me. We have been training together for 3 years. He is a bossy guy, but we have mutual respect and love working together. We got our connection in training class when he learned to work for treats. All the sudden the light went on in his brain and he learned working, showing off, and forming a partnership was fun. We have been together most of the time since he came into the rescue. He was one of "my" pack and went lots of places with me. I knew in the trials, he was sensitive to my emotions and could tell if I was nervous about being in the ring or happy about showing off what he was able to do. His performance reflected my emotions. When let myself be nervous, he will shut down, look around for the trouble, and not preform, leading us to not qualify. When I get myself to be excited and thrilled to show off what my dog has learned and show everyone what a dog who was almost killed because he was a biting guard dog can do, we score high with a smile and a happy wagging tail. What I didn't realize is how he connected to me other ways. We had a 3 day drive to Texas with me pulling my camper and my mom following in her car. I usually get nervous driving. I had my 4 dogs in crates in the van with me, all my stuff that I chose to move in my camper, van, and mom's car and I was pulling the camper on the highway for the first time. Traffic and highways make me nervous because I can't control the other drivers, I can't control the wind blowing the camper, and I constantly run worst case scenarios through my mind. Listening to books reduces some of the nerves but I tend to hold my breath going through cities, or when being passed by trucks or rvs, or when in construction zones. Tippy's crate was the top crate, right behind my head. He panted when I held my breath, every time when I was nervous. On the second day, I realized he was doing this. I tried just holding my breath, not nervous, he didn't pant. Just when I was nervous. He was a great reminder to breathe. Even when there was a concrete barrier on one side of me and a tractor trailer on the other. 

You can't force a connection. Pressuring a dog to give you one won't win one. You have to appreciate that individual dog's personality, good traits, annoying traits, and the way the dog thinks. What does the dog like to do. Do it with the dog. Don't push your expectations on how the dog should interact onto the dog. Not all dogs will kiss you in the face when you cry. Some will shove their heads under your hand, others will guard your back. Connection building takes time, possibly treats, or long walks, or playing tug, or throwing a ball, or cuddling on the couch, or swimming, or car rides, or training classes, or whatever you and the dog like to do together.