WATCH ME
A progressive game, don’t move forward until your dog is comfortable with he stage you are already on, if your dog isnt getting it give a quick sharp ‘ no’ or ‘ahah’ and restart, only try a very maxium of 5 times if the dog cant get it then revery back a step where the dog will get it, reward that and leave the sesssion for today, frustration helps nobody
with step one do not give any correction or telling off (at this point your dog has no clie whats being asked so is not purposely choosing to disobey) just simply wait and keep trying to lure the Behavior
Start simple stand completely up right in front of dog with favourite treat in hand , hold treat in from of your face and as soon as the dog makes eye contact (looking at you not the treat ) with you give the command you want I use ‘watch me’ give the rest and a big huge fuss make sure this happens right on cue
Do this a few times until the dog is looking at you quickly then begin to move the treat further from your face (you may need to use your other hand to make a quick gesture to your face . I like to keep hand signals as I have non verbal brothers but also older dogs often go deaf and it’s nice to have easy communication set up for that instance
Once your dog is getting that quickly you can now start delaying the reward and therefore asking the dog to keep the focus longer and longer if that’s going well start turning your face away from him/her and then giving the command and gesture (bring the treat back close to face at first and once s/he is getting that you are asking the same but a/he now needs to also move their body position begin to move it away again )
Then begin to ask for focus in your chosen command whilst you wave a toy or treat to the side of you , start small and slow but build up, try to even get to a point of throwing a ball whilst keeping the dogs gaze on you
Now you can move on to asking the dog to maintain focus whilst moving, do this by getting the dog by your side facing the same direction, give the command and take one or two steps, if the dog moves give a quick ’no’ or ‘ahah’ replace and try again, dont push to the point of frustration
If your dog take well to this you can move on to hiding your face under a blanket or hands and see if your dog can work out how to still get the eye contact
In this game you are now making your dog the one who wants the eye contact and focus and making him/her feel it’s really positive so in fitter when you give the command think how the dog will want to respond and in how many situations this is helpful , from drawing attention away from other dogs in confrontational situations, keeping focus away from cattle to keeping focus off guests or passerby who may be scared and even during agility to help the dog take cues from you for the next move
I SEE GAME
Once your dog has got the watch me command you can develope this into the “I see” command
in this game again you begin easy hold a treat or toy close to your face but slighty to the side
give the “watch me command” and then turn your head to look at the toy, the moment your dog does the same you say”I see” and again a nice big fuss loads of praise and give the reward
Just like watch me you can progress this, first progression is increasing distance and varying sides you hold the reward
then you can have the toy or treat on the floor , again increasing the distance from you and eventually you will be able to hide the rward and have your dog follow your eyeline to locate , keep hiding places simple to begin you can slowly increase the difficulty
TOUCH GAME
For this you can either use your hand or a touch stick which can be bought cheaply online, the game is simple hold out hand or stick infront of and close to dogs nose, the second the dog touches the stick or hand give the command”touch” and lots and lots of praise, repeat this a few time until the dog is touching quickly
Then you can increase the distance slightly hold out the target you have chosen and give the command touch the dog should move forward to touch you may have to wait whilst the dog figures it out, again whilst learning anything new do not punish mistakes just wait for dog to figure it out if s/he cant then you rewind a step
Next step when this is solid you can move on to getting the dog to jump to reach touch, to move from other side of the room etc
this game is great for tuning your dog in to watching for for hand signals with commands and as any of these games building obedience without the dog even realising