How to Get Your Dog’s Attention

“My dog just doesn’t listen!” If you find yourself saying that often, this episode’s for you. I’ll explain how you can teach your dog to look at you instantly when you ask – and to check in with you often, just because, without your telling him to.

Teaching Your Dog to Look at You  

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First, let’s teach Zippy to look at you on cue. To do this, we set up a pattern that gets him to turn his attention away from you, then turn back. You’ll mark the moment when he turns back to you and immediately reward it. The mark isn’t a command or a cue – think of it as a little flag you plant to tell your dog what he’s done right.

Of course, Zippy won’t start out knowing what the mark means, but after a few reps he’ll learn to associate it with the reward you immediately give him. For your mark, you can use a clicker or a short word. A clicker is usually better, for reasons I explained in my earlier episodes on clicker training. It would be a good idea to read or listen to those, because they’ll help you use this method more effectively. If you decide to use a word as your marker, pick a short one that you can say the same way every time. Use a pleasant tone.

To teach your dog to pay attention to you, you also have to pay attention to your dog.

Here’s what you do:

1. Assemble a stash of 10 or 20 tasty, fingernail-size treats. Bring Zippy to a quiet spot in your home and make yourself comfortable. Without saying anything, show Zippy a tiny treat and then toss it gently on the floor right behind him or to his side. After he eats it he may spend a few moments looking for more. That’s fine – keep quiet and just wait. Sooner or later, he’ll look at you. As soon as you see him turn toward you, mark it with a click or word! Immediately feed him a treat.

2. Again toss a treat behind Zippy, wait for him to eat it and get around to looking back at you. As soon as he turns to you, mark that movement, and feed him a treat.

Repeat this pattern 5-10 times. By then, your dog will probably orient to you quickly after he eats the treat. Your mileage may vary, though, depending on how hungry or tired your dog is, how fast-moving he is in general, and how good the treats are. Chicken will almost always get better results than, say, carrot sticks.

Pick a Cue to Mean “Look at Me”

Your second session can take place after a short break, or hours later – it doesn’t matter as long as you and your dog are up for it. In the meantime, pick a cue that you’ll use to mean “Look at me.” It could be the word “Look,” or “Banana,” or your dog’s name. Be aware that if your dog has spent years without having his name mean more to him than random noise, it will be harder to teach him that, after all this time, that sound is suddenly relevant. In that case, it’s better to choose another word.

For your second session, set up exactly the way you did for the first. Do a couple of warm-up reps and watch your dog’s body language closely. When you feel confident that you know exactly when he’s about to turn to you, you’re ready to teach Zip his cue. Just as he’s about to turn to you, say that cue. Over your next several practice sessions, Zippy will associate the sound of the cue with his own behavior of turning toward you. The cue now becomes a signal that if he turns to you at that moment, he’ll net a tasty reward.

Practice in Lots of Different Situations

You’re not done, though! So far, you’ve been practicing at home, in a quiet place without a lot to distract Zippy from you. Good smells and oblivious squirrels turn attention into a whole different game. To build up your dog’s “attention muscle,” try practicing in these situations:

• in the hallway of your building (if you live in an apartment house)

• in your front yard or on your stoop (dog on leash, please!)

• toward the end of a walk (when your dog’s worked off some energy)

• with your dog on leash and a favorite toy on the floor just out of reach; when your dog turns to you, give him the okay to grab the toy, and play with him

• with your dog on leash and a dry biscuit on the floor just out of reach; when your dog turns to you, mark and treat, then give him the okay to grab the biscuit

• when your dog has just barely gotten interested in a pile of garbage (reward lavishly for attending to you now!)

Watch your dog and figure out which smells, sights, and sounds fascinate him the most. Many dogs find fire hydrants and shrubbery attractive, since these items tend to draw a lot of pee-mail. As you approach an interesting hydrant or shrub, ask your dog to look at you, mark, and reward with the okay to go sniff. Feel free to get a treat in there, too.

Reward Spontaneous Check-ins

Attention that your dog offers spontaneously is golden. Say you’re walking down the street — does Zippy glance at you without being asked? Mark and treat the attention that he offers you. If he’s playing in the park and breaks off his play to come to you or even to look at you, mark and treat. The more you reinforce (strengthen) looking at you and checking in with you, the more your dog will do these things, and the stronger his habit of attentiveness will grow.

Bonus Game

Good old “Find It” is one of my stupidly easy favorite ways to amuse a dog. Toss a treat, dog finds it and snarfs it up; toss another treat, dog finds it and snarfs it up; et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. If you use a treat your dog halfway likes, I can pretty well guarantee you that you will be bored loooong before Dogalini is.

“Find It” also works as a variation on the attention exercise you just learned. Play while you’re taking your dog for a long, relaxed stroll. Toss a small treat on the ground ahead of you, making sure your dog sees you do it. Just don’t throw the treat so far that Dogalini pulls your arm out of its socket! Depending on your dog’s age, energy level, vision, and smelling skills, she will sashay or trot or run or pounce up to the treat. Or she may have to hunt a while before she finds it. (Yes, it is okay to give her a hint.) Once she eats the treat, keep walking. As soon as your dog looks at you again, toss another treat and let her find it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Every time your dog looks at you, she gets to hunt for a treat. In other words, she gets not only the treat itself, but also the fun of searching. Play regularly and you’ll see your dog start to keep an eye on you, hoping for another round. The more often you play, the longer you can stretch the average interval between treat tosses. Whereas the watched pot never boils, the watched human will toss a treat. Eventually.

“Find It” is especially effective during the pre-breakfast morning walk or the just-got-home-from-work pre-dinner walk, when Dogalini is likely to feel a bit peckish.

By the way, did you notice how in order to teach your dog to pay attention to you, you have to pay attention to your dog? Yes, that’s the secret decoder ring of dog training, right there.

You can follow me on Twitter, where I’m Dogalini. I’m The Dog Trainer on Facebook, and you can also write to me at dogtrainer@quickanddirtytips.com. I welcome your comments and suggestions, and though I can’t reply individually, I may use them as the basis for future articles. Thanks for reading.