What do you do if your dog just refuses to listen to you? This is such a frustrating thing, but so many people struggle with it. As a result, I’ve decided to create a list of three things you can do to keep your dog’s attention! This is by no means exhaustive, but is a way to start.
Keep in mind that as Dr Dunbar says, “When your dog is looking away from you, it is a training opportunity about to happen!” Rather than letting your dog’s distraction get to you, get excited by what you and your dog might be about to learn.
1. If Your dog is staring away from you and won’t look at you
If this happens, it is likely that the environment you’re in is too overwhelming for your dog. Firstly, it is a good idea to try and get further away from what’s distracting your dog. If you cannot move without actually picking up or dragging your dog away, just wait! Rather than trying to force your dog to pay attention, wait for them to do it themselves! Keep waiting, even if it takes a while initially…this can take anything from two minutes to twenty, so be patient and enjoy having an excuse to do nothing. 😉
Your dog will learn much better if they figure it out than if you try to lure them. Take time to wait it out. When your dog is focussed on something else, you need to really pay attention because they’re going to look back at you at some point. Keep holding on, don’t tug the lead, just let them look. If they should glance up at you, praise your dog with your voice immediately and give them a treat if they’ll take one.
Pretty quickly, your dog will learn what you want.
2. Preventing your dog from getting fixated on things
Teach ‘watch me’ so that you can get your dog to focus their full attention on your face until you tell them they can relax. This is a great skill to have for when you’re at the park, or on your walk. If your dog is looking at you, they can absolutely not be looking at everything else!
3. Once you’ve got your dog’s attention, keep it!
To keep your dog engaged at the teaching stage of training, you want to use an excited tone to praise your dog for EVERY step they make in the right direction.
At higher levels of training you can use a very quiet voice to get a heightened level of attention from your dog. A little whisper voice makes a powerful reward for your dog once they’re used to the concept you’re training.
There are so many other ways to get your dog staying focussed on you around distractions, so if you need help on what to do, reach out to a dog trainer in your area who can train your dog to listen to you.