FIND MY EYES 

In this segment, we begin formalizing our eye contact work just a bit. We're going to begin asking our dogs to make a conscious choice to take their eyes off of a distraction and to find our own (eyes). By setting the dog up this way (as you'll see demonstrated in the video) we can be sure that the dog is truly beginning to understand the behavior that we are instilling. We call this the 'Find my Eyes' game.

Simply put, this focus exercise strengthens a dog's understanding of, and commitment to eye contact by playing a simple game designed to set the dog up for maximum success while already introducing them to some proofing opportunities. This video gets a bit advanced with the work toward the end, but we'll do a good job of breaking down the pieces moving forward. Here's a brief intro.

 4 min 43 sec

Check out Raine working through the same game. There's some good handler tips in here so pay attention to the coaching. For the first few reps, don't worry about using a cue to prompt the dog to come off the hand and find the eyes. After the dog is actively choosing to look away from the hand and toward your eyes, you can begin adding a cue. I use "Watch". You can use what you'd like.

RAINE PRACTICING 'FIND MY EYES' GAME

 2 min 43 sec

Here we watch Lori and Baxter working through the same game. This is Baxter's second session, you'll notice he's caught on quick. In the beginning of the clip, Lori is simply proofing one hand, her left. As Baxter gets better at finding her eyes, she begins drawing both hands from her nose, and eventually even adds movement to those hands. These are advanced proofing steps and exactly where we are taking this training.

Once your dog has mastered one hand that's not moving, begin adding a bit of movement to that extended hand. This is our first proofing step. You can use "good" to keep your dog encouraged on your eyes as you add movement to the extended hand. Always use your terminal bridge to end the exercise and release your dog to food.

Coaching tips:

'Having your dog sit before you initiate each repetition is a good way to stabilize your dog and reduce 'hand chasing'. Feeding from the opposite hand that you're proofing with (drawing away from your nose) is a good way to keep your dog honest and not watching the moving hand.

LORI AND BAXTER, FIND MY EYES, 2ND SESSION

 1 min 11 sec

 LET'S WATCH SOME MORE TEAMS...

Ann and Norman are working on the same game. Notice how Norman's head seems unsettled, almost bobbling like, back and forth between the food hand and Ann's eyes. Ann takes care to make sure Norman settles in on her eyes prior to marking and feeding. She also feeds from the non-baited hand in order to keep Norman a little less interested in the moving hand.

ANN & NORMAN, FIND MY EYES

 1 min 3 sec

Here's a great visual example of how to begin adding movement to the extended hand - helping to proof your dog's eye contact. It's hard to hear in the video, but Miegs is encouraging her dog with her duration marker "Good" while her hand is extended and River maintains eye contact on her eyes. When she's challenged him enough, she terminates with "Yes" and allows him to release to his reward. We'd like to begin proofing this work as soon as possible. So be sure to continually raise criteria as your dog becomes good at the pieces.

MIEGS AND RIVER, PROOFING THE MOVING HAND

 1 min 4 sec

We can't forget about the small dogs! In the beginning of this session York was having a hard time finding  his owner's eyes. Often, this beginning work can be more difficult for small dogs, especially those with tall owners, because of the distance between themselves and the target objective (eyes). In this case, I'll often bend over to bring my face closer to the dog's, provided they are comfortable with someone leaning toward them. Closing this distance can make them more successful in the beginning. Once they start learning the game, I can then return to an upright position.

YORK, LEARNING 'FIND MY EYES'

 19 seconds

 A LITTLE BIT OF HANDLER TROUBLESHOOTING

Our last video is more of the same. But you'll notice the handler's body language is a bit confusing for Bow in the beginning. Instead of releasing Bow immediately to the food reward following a successful eye contact rep, Elaine draws him into a sit each time, instead of feeding him. This inhibits Bow a little bit. The handler will also begin prolonging the eye contact behavior a bit, instead of releasing immediately, so that we can be sure he's confidently performing the correct behavior. Remember, raising the bar (increasing criteria) is an important component of good training.

ELAINE AND BOW WORKING OUT THE KINkS IN 'FIND MY EYES'

1 min 27 sec