# Eye contact?



## gldnboys (Mar 15, 2012)

I would suggest starting with a solid "watch me", or "watch" command while you and he are stationary. It'll help you build up his attention skills. The instant he looks at you, say "yes!" and give him a treat. Keep on working on this exercise until he's able to give you attention even around distractions, starting with mild ones at first.

The same goes for heeling: give frequent rewards whenever he looks at you as you're heeling. He should start to offer this behaviour on his own before long - no need to keep prompting him. Don't use food treats to lure him; rather, offer them to him as a reward for attentive heeling (still using "yes!" as a marker). Once he is doing this reliably, you can start to vary the timing of the rewards: give him a treat after only a couple of steps of heads-up heeling at times, while other times, you can wait until he's heeled several steps in between rewards.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

Try putting a treat under your shoe, and keeping a higher value one quietly in your hand/ Let Joey do any behaviors he wants to "self serve". He can dig at your shoe, sniff and snuffle, whatever. Eventually he is going to be like what the heck and look up at you. Immediately click or say YES to mark the behavior and reward. Quickly , you wont even be able to entice him to look at your foot, he will just look at your face. There are 100s of these attention games.Once he looks at you reliably, name the behavior "look" or "watch". ou want your dog to operate under the belief that everything he wants comes from you, not from efforst he makes to get it himself. If there is a steak on the counter, you want the dog to come stare in your eyes to beg for it, rather than at the plate itself.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - FE105: Get Focused!


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