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Controlling Your
Dog
Positive "treat
based" trainers believe that if your dog is watching
you it is much less likely to notice what is going on around it,
thus keeping it more calm and much less likely to get into
trouble!!!
 The
first step in this type of training is to teach your dog the
"watch me" command.
Teaching the "Watch
Me" command:
1. Call your dog by name.
2. Wait for the dog to make eye contact with you.
3. Say "good - watch me" in a friendly, pleased voice.
4. Give your dog a treat while you have eye contact.
5. Repeat!
If your dog is not making consistent
eye contact, move the treat, or your finger and thumb, to the side
of your head next to your eye in order to get his/her attention to
your face. At the very second you notice eye contact being made
say "good - watch me" in a friendly, pleased
voice.
Your timing is crucial. You MUST
get the "good - watch me" response on time with the dog
making eye contact in order to get your dog to understand what you
want. Then repeat this several times over a couple of minutes.
Once you have your dog's attention, you can move on to the next
part of the training.
Now call your dog by name and add "watch me" and as soon
as your dog makes eye contact say "good - watch me" and
reward your dog with a treat.
 You
can reinforce the "watch me" command even when you are
not training. Simply saying "good - watch me" and reward
your dog every time it makes eye contact with you. An example of
this would be when your dog is watching you make lunch or supper,
or when it wants to go outside. Another good time might be when
your dog is laying on the floor in front of you. As you get out of
your chair or off of the sofa your dog will most likely get up to
see what you are doing. So when it makes eye contact with
you, you can simply say "good - watch me" and then
reward with a treat.
Over a very short time your dog will give you a large amount of
eye contact. The command "watch me" will become an
automatic attention command to your dog. Eventually you will be
able to decrease the amount of treats you give as a reward until
your dog executes the "watch me" without expecting a
treat..
Once the "watch me" command is in
place, you can use it to teach your dog a wide variety of commands
and tricks.
I know, it sounds simple doesn't it? Well, that's because it is!
Believe me, it can make such a difference to your training. Being
able to get your dog's attention when you want it can be critically
important someday and may even save your dog's life.
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