I posted a week ago about our fab pup Jessie, who's almost 9 weeks, because she's super confident and rarely follows me in the garden! - she much prefers to do her own thing in spite of amazing treats, whooping etc. etc.! Some replies I received suggested Click for looking at me and building on that - which I'm keen to try but don't know how! Please can anyone tell me how to do it - and then how I build on it? Thank you!
Have a look at the video I did on this thread: http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/young-labrador-crazy-to-get-to-other-dogs.13977/ I am still using this technique here (with a 3 year old dog), plus an attention getting noise (which is clicking my tongue) that has been trained. Just watch your dog, any look towards you, click. Even if you get just a part head turn at first. You will see in the video how my dog gave me some attention and then ended up back with me, sitting in front of me and then at heel (you won't get this at first, but this is what you build towards). Do get the book "control unleashed - the puppy programme" - if you read this book it will help you a lot.
Hey, we have a Jessie! She is 17 weeks old and always a super confident little madam too! She's been happy to be off since we got her at 9 weeks! We haven't been clicking for attention. Our puppy trainer showed us "watch". Hold a treat in your hand, bring it up to your face whilst saying "watch". Once they look at you treat. I do this when I need to get her focused again, especially if we have passed some exciting dogs etc. I also highly recommend treating all the time she is around you. We've been doing this for a few weeks now and she sticks to my side like glue now, a vast improvement! Every time she comes close to you treat her. Amazing how focused she becomes with food involved! We use a mixed bag ig kibble and a higher value treat like meat or cheese! Good luck. Xx
We teach "Look at me" indoors first, then in the garden (after a good play when we know she's likely to succeed) then out and about - first on boring walks, slowly doing it in more challenging situations. The most challenging for Twiglet is around pigeons. She's getting there - but only just - at ten months old. Some things take a lot of time and effort and have to be worth it to bother with. With my pet, Tatze, I don't put anything like the effort into her training. She's trained to be safe around people and dogs and to return whenever called - and that's about it her job is to be a good puppy sister, which she does very well. .
With the clicking for attention, you are just 'capturing'. You can then put that on cue (look at me, or whatever noise you want). I vastly prefer capturing for this, as it traslates to uncued check ins later. I barely use my 'watch me' cue - I have an 'attention' cue, but it doesn't involve eye contact (I don't want my dog to leg it if I look away!).
Similarly to Julie, I treat the "look at me" very differently to an uncued check-in. I think it's incredibly valuable for your dog to do this uncued, rather than having to call the dog all the time. It keeps them close on a walk because they want to be with you - checking in with you is rewarding for them. Clicking even a head turning slightly in your direction to start off with will very quickly lead to her looking at you more often. Then you slowly increase the criteria to require her to come closer to you before she gets the click - but take weeks over this, not minutes. It's also a really good tool for teaching you to pay attention to your dog. So many people ignore their dogs when they're out with them, which is sad - you should be walking with your dog, not just trudging round in separate worlds. Clicking for attention means you have to be watching your dog every second, to ensure you capture each turn in your direction. Good luck
