"Look at that" is fabulous. It's been really helpful with Willow especially in certain circumstances. For example, there are two sets of dogs behind gates that we regularly walk past. They always bark and lunge at the gate. At first, this scared her and she'd try to run away, but then she changed and started barking back and pulling towards them. By using the "look at that" technique, now every time we go past them, she will glance at them, then look at me, keeping quiet and to heel nicely all the way. By doing this in an increasing number of stressful (or exciting) situations, she is learning that whenever she comes across something like that, that her best course of action is to register it, then look back at me. It's easier with the stressful than the exciting, though! It certainly is very much like "look at me", but I think the problem with that version is that people often use it to try to stop their dogs seeing something they are going to react to. That doesn't help in the case where the dog does see it before you do. Whereas "look at that" teaches the dog that when she sees something that she wants to react to, she refocusses herself on you, without any need for a cue.
This thread has been incredibly helpful! Yesterday (before I saw the video) we tried 'look at me' I wasn't too sure how to go about it so I (probably incorrectly) incorporated it straight into the walk instead of practising at home first, it was actually successful though although that may be due to the fact that I was saying his name prior to giving the 'look at me' command which probably got his attention rather than the command itself - either way a much better on lead walk. We also discovered Dexter does not like water at all (??) he will go out of his way to step around every single puddle its hilarious. I'm worried we are moving too fast because at almost 12 weeks he is picking everything up extremely fast we may be getting fasely over confident about his abilities and im still waiting for the crocopup and not listening to a word you say stage! we went for a walk with another dog and his recall was about 90% perfect every time even though the other dog was a complete nightmare. We are trying different locations and he does get distracted I think im calling out to heel too much I hope it doesn't ruin the cue but sometimes it out of my mouth before I can stop myself. I am definitely going to try the 'look at that' and concentrate on some more lead work. I would say the 'heel cue' is working when he is not distracted (new smells and sights) should I go back to only saying it when he has finished with his distraction and is returning to heel position?
That video and the threads on here are so helpful. I'll definitely start the 'look at that' at home and gradually increase the distractions. Thank you all so much. My Dexter loves the heart shaped puppy treats from pets at home, the great thing is, they aren't very large but are soft enough to break into smaller size, he can get three to four treat rewards from one. I alternate between his kibble, the heart treats and the odd larger treat, that way he sometimes gets a jackpot. I'll definitely keep up the treats for longer. Today he jumped up to do his grab my sleeve But I had a bare arm, I don't know who was more shocked, me or him. His canine did draw a pin prick of blood but he straight away took his mouth off my arm, mind you, went straight for my t-shirt and trousers . I think this does prove that he's trying to play tag with my clothes and not bite me. Still away to go but he is improving. Today whilst playing with a group of dogs and with a lot of distractions, I was able to get him to come to me, which I do every so often anyway by using his name, not ready to do the recall whistle on this yet, I treated him but was also able to get him focused on me to do some basic commands that he's very good at. He was excellent and with 5 other dogs hairing around, I was impressed and very proud of him.
Don't give a cue if you know your dog isn't going to respond - it poisons your cues, and before you know it, the wonderful cues that worked so well just stop working at all because you train the dog to ignore them. You need to work on getting the behaviour again in the more challenging circumstances, so go back to where you were before you added a cue but in the more difficult place, and yes, add the cue again as he carries out the behaviour.
