6. Attention "Watch Me"

Watch me! Chances are if your puppy isn’t looking at you, they’re not paying attention or listening to you. This trick is to help teach them to give us their attention rather than whatever it is they’re paying attention to.

This is a great command to get your puppy’s attention while training, building another foundational word that you can add to your puppy training arsenal. The first thing many puppy trainers will tell you when learning something new is to get your puppy’s attention. You need them to be listening to you to teach new tricks - crazy right?

Training them to look at you on command can prove to be incredibly useful while training other tricks (or it can serve as an awesome life hack for amazing puppy photos).

The Training

• Start by luring them over and holding a treat to their nose to let them know that you have one.
• Slowly bring the treat up to your face - they should be watching and staring directly at you.
• Once your eyes meet theirs, say “yes” to mark the behavior (you could also use a clicker here).
• Reward them with a treat and some praise.
• Repeat the steps, this time alternating the hand in which you give them the reward (ie: if you were luring & rewarding with the right hand, use your right to lure and your left to reward this time).
• Start repeating the same steps using an empty hand to get their attention and rewarding them with the opposite once they look at you (rubbing your hands in their treats might help!).
• Once your puppy starts to catch on, you can start to add in a verbal cue, such as “watch me”.

The Tips

• Try introducing distance throughout the process. Your puppy might start staring at your hand rather than you and that’s perfectly fine at a young age. However, we want them to realise we want them to look at you, not your hand to get the treat. Try this:
  1. Slowly move your arm away from your body, giving them a choice to stare at you or the treat.
  2. Eventually your puppy will look at you to get their “well deserved” reward. As soon as your puppy makes eye contact with you, say “yes” and reward them.
  3. After a few repetitions, your puppy should start to realise that they have to look at you to get their delicious treat. You can also try throwing their toys around as distractions when they’re ready.
• We mentioned eye contact, which is typically an important component in dog training; however, not all dogs are comfortable with it and see it as a threat. Try to teach them that it’s a good thing! Eye contact can help build trust and a better bond with your puppy.
• If your puppy or dog isn’t food motivated, try bringing a toy or their favorite tug rope to the training. You can either reward with their toy and letting them have it for a few seconds or passing them treats alternating with some food here and there. Every dog is different - don’t get stuck on one method and get frustrated. Always try to find something new.
• If you ever catch them glancing at you during a walk or checking in on you, reward, praise, and give them lots of pets. This behavior might not happen very often at first, but when it does, we want to encourage it and create a great habit. If you ever start seeing this behavior in your puppy, you’re doing a great job.

Disclaimer

The video and/or my content cannot guarantee that the learning method is right for your dog. The information I give is based on my knowledge and opinion of different learning types and is not directly endorsed by professionals. The methods shown within the video are meant to be used for demonstration purposes and do not guarantee success with all dogs. If you have any specific questions or concerns regarding the information, please reach to us through our Contact Page and we can get in touch.