ATTENTION!

Now that I have your attention, I had better make it worth your while!

You want your dog to pay attention to you? You had better make it worth his while as well.

I often see dogs check in and look at their owners and there is no one looking back. Desirable "good" dog behaviour gone unnoticed. After a while the dog will check in with their owners less and less often and look for opportunities elsewhere instead. No doubt, undesirable "bad" dog opportunities...

Missed opportunities for owners!

No long training sessions or commands needed. Just watch out of the corner of your eye while you are going about your daily activities. When your dog glances at you, quickly catch that wonderful desirable behaviour in the act! Promptly mark it with a "yeah" or a "yes" and then immediately follow it with some type of reinforcement (treat, toy, game, chance to follow you, life reward, etc.) Keep the element of surprise in your reinforcements. Quickly root for the leftover ham, toss the empty water bottle for him to fetch, tickle him and have a wrestle ... all the while giggling happily and being merry.

If a behaviour is reinforced it is more likely to be repeated. If looking at you is worthwhile to your dog he will not go looking for his own adventures.

Did you read to the end of this blog post? Guess I made it worth your while. Drop me a note so that all this blogging is worth my while too :0)



Our workshop teaching you beginning attention exercises and progressions:
http://pawinhand.blogspot.com/p/step-one.html

Marin Humane Society has a couple of great articles on training attention. You have to sign in but the library of excellent articles is worth it!
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/behavior/handouts.asp

Dog Scouts of America also has a good article.
http://dogscouts.org/Indirect_Access.html