THE EYE-CONTACT GAME
at PlayTyme Papillons
It is good to have your dog give you his attention. If you don't have your dog's attention, how can you teach him anything? YOU should be the center of his universe, and the giver of all good things.
You want to "shape" the frequency of eye contact by rewarding those times when he chooses to look at you. As you know, what is rewarded will be repeated, and you will experience your dog giving you
his attention more and more.
Start with your dog on a leash with your foot standing on the end (for dogs with really short attention spans). You just want a reasonable expectation that your dog will stay in the general vicinity
with you so that you can teach him something. With your dog sitting in front of you, have a bunch of bite-sized treats ready. Get your clicker in one hand and a treat in the other. Have the rest of
the treats nearby, but not really obvious to the dog, and not where he can get to them without working for you. Here you go:
Show the dog the treat (this becomes the "signal" to watch).
Move the treat out to your side at an arm's length or less.
When the dog's eyes follow the treat, do nothing. He may stare at it for a long time.
Sooner or later, he will wonder what's up with this, and look to you questioningly.
The instant his eyes meet yours, click and hand him the treat. You must pinpoint the instant he looks at you, because he might instantly look away again. That's why I like to use the clicker-it's fast. You could use a verbal reward marker, like "YES!" instead. It's important that you don't move your hand to give him the treat before you MARK the behavior you wanted: EYE CONTACT. His eyes will be on that treat again if you move your hand. That's ok, though if you've already marked the desired behavior with the click or the "yes."
Next time, wait a half-second before clicking his attention. Require that he look at your eyes steadily for a brief moment before marking and reinforcing the
behavior. Each time you play the game, wait a little longer and a little longer before you mark the behavior. Count the seconds in your head. Just smile and look back at him. If he looks away too
soon, you can break off the game and look away, too. Then start over and when he looks at you, begin counting again.
When your dog will look at you for an eternity, begin adding small distractions, and require him to pay attention, even though there might be something else going on. After he has looked at you for
several seconds, move your hand. If he breaks eye contact to look at the hand, start counting all over again. He will learn to stop falling for your "fake-outs." He will learn that the fastest way to
get the goodie is to "tune out" everything else, and focus only on you.
Notice also that we have not named this "trick" yet. We don't shout commands and proceed to punish everything the dog does that is not the correct response. How can you expect a dog to give a correct
response to a command he doesn't even know yet? After we teach the behavior we want (eye contact), we then name the behavior. Something like "watch me" or "ready" is fine. You give this verbal cue as
the dog is watching you, so that he learns that the cue means what he is doing. Then, when he is not watching you, and you want to start the "game," you can ask for eye contact with the cue
word.
This exercise has many benefits. Your dog will pay more attention to you in his everyday life. He will learn not to "help himself" to things, but to look to you for permission. He will have a point
of reference for maintaining a heel position. He will be less likely to miss cues given to him, because he'll be watching you more, even without a cue to do so. In general, he will be more in tune
with you and "tuned in" to you.
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