AttentionDog offers eye contact on cue
The prerequisite to every other cue: a dog looking at something else cannot hear you. Build it in silence first, then add distraction one notch at a time.
Also known as: Watch Me, Look
At a glance
- Tier
- 0 · Foundational
- Time to fluency
- 2–4 weeks
- Practice
- 6× per week, 5 min each
- Equipment
- Small soft treats
How to teach attention
Lure
Bring a treat from the dog's nose to your eyes
- Hold the treat at their nose, then move it to between your eyes
- Mark the instant their eyes meet yours, not a second later
- One second of contact is a win at the start
- Build duration in half-second steps
- Start somewhere boring like a hallway, not the yard
Hand Signal
Two fingers to your eyes
- Same gesture every time, same hand
- Show the gesture, wait, then reward from your other hand
- Rewarding from the signal hand teaches them to watch the hand, not your face
- Fade the lure before adding the word
Verbal Cue
Say the cue, then reward the look
- Say it once. Repeating it teaches the dog the cue is 'Watch, watch, WATCH'
- Say the word before the gesture, so the word predicts it
- Reward longer looks more heavily than glances
- Practise while something mildly interesting is happening
Success criteria
- Unlearned
- No eye contact offered
- In progress
- Holds 5 seconds on the word alone, indoors
- Mastered
- Looks away from another dog to you, on cue, outdoors
Common mistakes
- Rewarding from the hand that gave the signal
- Staring back at the dog. Many dogs read a hard stare as a threat and look away
- Going straight to a busy park before it is fluent at home
- Asking for 10 seconds when the dog can only hold 2