LET'S FOCUS ON THE FOCUS!

Time to move away from the boring sit-stay stuff and into some heeling skill-building. The work we do here will have a big impact on later training steps we take. We'll be spending a fair amount of time on this subject, going through a lot of video to support our training, so no hurry, no stress, and let's start staring at our dogs.

The first step in this process is fairly simple and fairly informal. All we need is some good timing and to remember our correct use of markers and food management mechanics. The following videos will make sure we get started on the right track.

Worth noting:

• remember to mark with your terminal bridge when your dog makes eye contact so that he or she knows the behavior is over and reward is on its way.
• keep your hands by your side or behind your back in the beginning so your dog is not too distracted by them
• adding a little movement after the mark will allow your dog to explode slightly to chase the food, which sometimes increases their motivation
• you can use verbal help to encourage your dog to look up at you if you're having trouble capturing it without
• we won't add a cue to this work for awhile so don't worry about naming it yet
• keep your body and hands still while you're trying to capture eye contact, dogs are easily distracted by movement so we don't want to complicate this process too much in the beginning

PRACTICING THE EYE CONTACT GAME WITH EL

 3 min 34 sec

Watch a beginner team work through an initial session of this eye contact game. This is the first time these two have practiced this skill and with a little coaching, they catch on quick. Your initial session might look something similar to this.

BRIAN AND GYPSY WORKING ON INITIAL EYE CONTACT

 1 min 30 sec

We documented a number of other teams working on the beginning pieces of this game. You'll see various dog and handler teams simply trying to capture and reward eye contact. As you practice with your own dog, keep good handling tips in mind:

QUICK COACHING TIPS...

Have food in left and right hand, hands behind back, terminal mark when dog makes eye contact, move and feed from variable sides (feeding from both hands will ensure your dog doesn't develop a bias for one side of your body). Keep sessions short and exciting.

VARIOUS TEAMS PRACTICING EYE CONTACT GAME

1 min 52 sec