# Won't pay attention - No eye contact



## BarleyMob (Feb 15, 2010)

I have a 4 month old mini aussie and he is full of energy. I've been doing a ton of reading on the breed as well as training the puppy. I'm using the clicker to train. To start off my training, I want my puppy to pay attention. I came across this game of holding a treat in my hand, out to my side, shoulder height. The puppy goes after the treat and eventually is supposed to look at me in the eyes and then I click and give treat. 

The problem is, the puppy never looks at me in the eyes. He just stays focused on the treat in my hand. I tried luring his eyes in with my other hand, but he looks at the clicker and then goes back to the treat in hand. Any advice on how I can get my puppy to look at my eyes or to pay attention? 

Thank you,
BarleyMob


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## Elana55 (Jan 7, 2008)

Get treats that are little tiny bits of hot dog or steak or string chesse.. 1/2 dime sized. Put the treat in your MOUTH and make sure he knows you put it there. When he makes eye contact, click and spit the treat at him. If you can keep several treats in your mouth that works best.. you can keep up a steady click/treat at the onset of training this. It takes practice for you to have good aim and for him to catch the treat. Be patient. 

Eventually, your dog will offer to look at you more and more.. so now build duration. You can do this by either having the treat in your mouth and when he looks at you, you WAIT to click and treat (but not too long.. so he does not look away). The other way is to click when he looks at you and then wait a little bit before delivering the treat. 

Sptitting food at the dog sounds gross but it really works to get them looking at your face and being excited about it. Yup.. even MY face.


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## BarleyMob (Feb 15, 2010)

Thank you for the quick reply. I use cheese hotdogs for his treats and he loves it. Do you actually put the treat in your mouth and close your lips or do you hold it between your teeth so you puppy can see the treat the whole time?


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## MegaMuttMom (Sep 15, 2007)

We taught Cherokee to look by holding the treat by our eyes.


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## Elana55 (Jan 7, 2008)

I do both.. In fact, I will hold it in my mouth and then show it to my dog and cover it again.. so she KNOWS it is "in there" and all she has to do is wait... 

and keep her eye on my face because you NEVER KNOW when that treat will come OUT. 

If she misses it, I do not let her get it off the floor either. I pick it up and put it in the tret bag for things I need her to do and be fed from my hand. The ONLY source of treats is ME that way.


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## RedyreRottweilers (Dec 17, 2006)

I do not put food in my mouth to teach attention, because I want the dog to learn to look at my face in the knowing absence of food.

I start with food in both hands, small soft easy to eat treats, show the pup I have food in both hands, and then I stand normally and wait.

I ignore all bumping, sniffing, or nibbling of my hands, I just wait, while watching the dog carefully. Most all dogs will pretty soon glance at your eyes. As soon as this happens, I mark it, and empty all my treats out of both hands to the dog.

Then I load up again, show the dog I have the treats in both hands, and wait. Most of the time they look quicker the second time. Then I look for every glance to reward the dog for looking at my eyes. I try to reward with alternate hands or in random order. Dogs almost always catch on to this game quickly.

By teaching it this way, the dog learns that if there are strong rewards present, (and later, he will associate it with distractions too once proofed) that the way to these rewards is to look at my face.

Once the dog is consistently looking at you for 15+ seconds, I start giving this behavior a name, which is the name of the dog.



I prefer to get as far away from luring with food on a behavior as quickly and as early as possible when teaching behaviors.


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## MegaMuttMom (Sep 15, 2007)

RedyreRottweilers said:


> I do not put food in my mouth to teach attention, because I want the dog to learn to look at my face in the knowing absence of food.
> 
> I start with food in both hands, small soft easy to eat treats, show the pup I have food in both hands, and then I stand normally and wait.
> 
> ...


This is the way I would have done it if I had Cherokee as a young pup. We got him at 7 months and he was extremely timid and eye contact was very intimidating to him. He avoided it at all cost. But, he liked to stare at treats  Once he was comfortable staring at the treat near our eyes, and we had named the behavior (we use the word look) we worked on removing the lure. Now, he loves to gaze into our eyes and that is very gratifying.


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

RedyreRottweilers said:


> I do not put food in my mouth to teach attention, because I want the dog to learn to look at my face in the knowing absence of food.
> 
> I start with food in both hands, small soft easy to eat treats, show the pup I have food in both hands, and then I stand normally and wait.
> 
> ...


I did it this way, too  I also threw in a clicker, and clicked when my dogs' eyes met mine. Another fun game for the OP's pup once they get the "dog zen" game is "look at that" from Control Unleashed. 
Also, for Tag, when teaching him his name I kept a clicker and treats at my desk, and waited til he was distracted with something else and "forgot" about the treats at my desk (doesn't take long with a 9 week old puppy). I turned off fans, radios, TV's, etc, so the room was silent. I'd say "TAG!" out of the blue, and 99% of the time he'd look up and at me. click!


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

MegaMuttMom said:


> This is the way I would have done it if I had Cherokee as a young pup. We got him at 7 months and he was extremely timid and *eye contact was very intimidating to him. He avoided it at all cost.* But, he liked to stare at treats  Once he was comfortable staring at the treat near our eyes, and we had named the behavior (we use the word look) we worked on removing the lure. *Now, he loves to gaze into our eyes and that is very gratifying*.


Isn't that the coolest feeling when they realize eye contact is a GREAT thing, and actually offer it because they _like_ it?


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## BarleyMob (Feb 15, 2010)

So today I finally got great success with my little guy. I was expecting my puppy to stare into my eyes right from the beginning. I was expecting to much from him. So I first started to mark when he would just look my way. He started to get it and I raised the bar and waited until he looked towards my eyes. He started with just a glance and after about 10 mins he was staring into my eyes and just waiting for me to reward him. I'm so excited because this is what i've been reading and watching for on youtube. 

I know I have to work everyday on this to get it consistent. My question is, when do I start to add a cue in?

Thanks everyone for all the help!

BarleyMob


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## TooneyDogs (Aug 6, 2007)

BarleyMob said:


> I know I have to work everyday on this to get it consistent. My question is, when do I start to add a cue in?
> 
> BarleyMob


If you're going to do competition obedience you don't add a cue. 
It's the dogs responsibility to watch you...not yours to constantly remind him to pay attention. Obviously, there are times when you do need a cue and you can use anything you want....the dogs name, a snap of the fingers, a Watch Me/Look command...pretty much anything that suits you.


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

TooneyDogs said:


> If you're going to do competition obedience you don't add a cue.
> It's the dogs responsibility to watch you...not yours to constantly remind him to pay attention. Obviously, there are times when you do need a cue and you can use anything you want....the dogs name, a snap of the fingers, a Watch Me/Look command...pretty much anything that suits you.


I found using the dogs' name the easiest for me. Watch me was annoying to say (seriously, it was!) and I had already taught Dude to look where I was pointing when I said "look!" 
If the OP ever wants to do rally (or obedience for that matter) snapping your fingers is a no-no. (Finger snapping in this household is "knock it off right now" )


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## TooneyDogs (Aug 6, 2007)

LazyGRanch713 said:


> I had already taught Dude to look where I was pointing


Actually, that isn't something you _teach_ dogs. 

That's one of the two abilities that dogs already have and share with humans that no other animals in the world possess....the ability to follow our gaze/direction and to fast map.

Of course, both of them have do have to be honed/cultivated/matured to our needs and Agility draws heavily on the direction skill.


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