Training the Foundation Behaviors – Watch!

If you have a spouse or a child, you have probably started a conversation with him or her only to hear minutes later, “What?  Were you talking to me?”  How do you know if the recipient of your verbal wisdom is even listening?  Generally, that person will be looking at you, giving you eye contact, not locked in on the TV or absorbed in reading the paper.  So why not apply this concept to training your dog? 

The uses for “Watch!” are endless.  “Watch!” can help the dog attend to the handler while heeling, refocus the dog on the trainer instead of the squirrels trying to interrupt agility practice, or distract the dogs from barking at the toad that is here to kill us all.  Attention is one of the first basic cues all owners should teach in order to build a great training foundation.  After all, you can’t teach her if she’s not paying attention!

 I love clicker training because it is dog friendly, scientifically sound, and effective.  Teaching the dog to attend to you begins by what we call “loading the clicker.”  It’s really very easy. Set a small bowl of soft, super-yummy treats next to your chair, have the dog sit or stand by that chair, click the clicker, then give your dog a treat.  Repeat until the dog begins to automatically look for the treat after hearing the click.  No clicker or a sound sensitive dog ? You can just use the word “Yes!” in place of the click.  Now that your dog is eagerly anticipating her treat after hearing the click, you are ready to teach the dog to “Watch!”

Okay, up and out of the chair!  With a smile on your face, hold a treat in your hand near your face.  The dog will look from the treat to your eyes, wondering why you have failed to recognize that all treats belong in her mouth, not your hand.  The second she looks at your eyes, click and feed her the treat. While it is best to have the dog look you in the eye, some dogs will avoid it as this is often an invitation to fight in the doggy world.  If your dog indicates discomfort with eye contact, settle for a look at your chin.   Practice repeatedly and when she begins to spend less time worrying about the treat in your hand and more time looking into your eyes, turn your back on her.  She should run around to be in front of you again – after all, she has learned that eye contact is rewarding!  Be sure to click and treat when she comes to face you and looks into your eyes.  Practice, practice, practice!

It’s time to add the word “Watch!” to cue her to look into your eyes.   Give your cue word, turn your back, then click and treat when she runs to where you are facing and looks into your eyes. Are you still smiling?  It’s important!.  Practice, practice, practice!  Once the dog is excellent at this, you can use play or any other fun activity like tug or fetch to reward the dog.

Once you have a 90% success rate, cue “Watch!” without turning and lengthen the time the dog must hold eye contact.  Treat the dog for longer and longer eye contact.  When you have achieved a prolonged stare,  begin to work on distractions.  This is extremely important for dogs who will be entered into show events, where there will be guaranteed distractions from loud noises to loose dogs.  Chris Bach, developer of The Third Way Training System, a system that uses guidance and positive techniques rather than force and punishment to train dogs to the highest level (check out her website www.trainthethirdway.com),  suggests dropping a rock.  If the dog maintains eye contact, click and treat.  If the dog looks at the rock and then back at you, click and treat.  If the dog stares at the rock, pick it up and try again.  Using games like this will teach the dog that attending to you is much more rewarding than anything else that happens.   Be sure to do these proofing exercises in many different situations and locations.   Once you have duration and distraction conquered, work on “Watch!” from a distance.  Start a foot back and work up to 100 feet away. 

An important reminder:  as you add new criteria, like the addition of distraction, temporarily relax previous requirements.  In other words, don’t expect a 3 minute watch when you first add distraction. Are you still smiling?  I hope so. This is a game – make sure you and your dog are having fun!

Jan Casey is a reward-based dog trainer and owner of Smiles and Wags Pet Services in Cookeville.  You are welcome to submit training questions to her at jan@smilesandwags.com .