- Maybe you're trying to get your dog to check in with you
for information more often,
or you're just trying to teach your dog
to pay a little bit more attention to you.
Well, in this video I'm gonna show you
exactly how to teach your dog to look at you on command.
I'm Ken Steepe, this is Hippy Shake.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
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At our training facility,
we help more that 500 dog owners who are just like you
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to have a well-behaved four legged family member.
When I was a student at McCann Dogs
I was always so impressed that the instructor's dogs
would look to them for information so often
even in like a really busy environment,
so today after I teach you how to train your dog
to look at you on a command
I'm gonna show you a couple of ways
to reinforce those random times
when your dog checks in with you for information,
so that they start to do it more often.
Let's begin this skill by making it easy
for even the most easily distracted dogs to be successful,
so begin this by sitting down in a chair.
Get one of your dog's favorite treats,
and then put it on your dog's nose.
Say look at me,
and then draw the food up towards your face.
Now at the moment that their eyes meet yours,
I want you to yes and reward them,
but something that's really important about this exercise
is that you want to reward them in a direct line
between your face and theirs.
So often I see people trying to get this right,
and they're rewarding their dog
with their head pointed away.
It's really important and keep this in mind
throughout every step along the way
that we're rewarding our dogs while they're looking at us.
Now make no mistake about it.
I understand that when I say looking at us
we know what they're actually looking at,
but when I show you how to fade the food out of this skill,
you're gonna start to see your dog
doing an interesting thing.
And remember, keep this short and sweet.
You're gonna yes the moment that their eyes meet yours
and then you're gonna reward them in a direct path
between your face and theirs.
And at this point we're ready to move on to standing up.
Now your dog has more opportunities to make a mistake here,
so make sure you keep this exercise short and sweet.
You're gonna put your food on your dog's nose,
say look at me, draw the food up towards your face,
and then yes the moment that their eyes meet yours.
Your dog may get distracted at this point,
and that's no big deal.
You're just gonna put the food on their nose,
repeat look at me, draw the food up toward your face,
and then reward them.
I can't reinforce this point enough,
but during this exercise make sure you've drawn
an imaginary line between your eyes and your dog's eyes
and anytime that you're rewarding him,
reward on that line.
Now during this step of the look at me skill,
you're gonna reward several times,
and maybe over the next day,
or the next couple of days,
you're gonna reward your dog multiple times
just for looking at your face.
And once you feel like your dog understands
what you want from them when you would say look at me,
you could start to draw this process out a little bit.
You can hold the food at your face for a little bit longer
maybe two or three seconds, then yes, and reward them.
Now don't challenge your dog too much at this point.
Remember, this is still a brand new skill to them,
so if they're looking away
then you're probably holding the food at your face too long.
Just take a step back and shorten the period of time
between the look at me and the reward.
Once you're getting your dog's attention
for several seconds at a time
it's time to make this a little bit more challenging.
We're gonna remove the food
from the lure during this exercise,
so with no food in your hand
you're gonna put your hand on your dog's nose.
You're gonna say, look at me,
draw your hand up toward your face,
and then the moment their eyes meet yours
you're going to say yes,
but here's where things get a big more challenging.
You still need to reward your dog at this point,
so reach into your pocket or your bait pouch,
or wherever you've got your treats,
and then grab a piece of food.
Bring that food up to your face,
and then reward them in that straight line.
Now, it's really important that we're yessing the moment
that they're looking at our face.
That buys us the time to get that treat out
to bring it up to our face,
and we're still rewarding in that direct line,
but be really sure
that you're not rewarding from your bait pouch.
That's a part where people often sort of go astray,
and their dog finds it really confusing
because now where are they being rewarded for looking?
When you get that food out
of your pocket or your bait pouch,
bring it up to your face,
and reward on that imaginary line.
Now, like all dog training exercises
this is all about repetition,
so do this part of the exercise multiple times.
With an empty hand you're gonna say look at me,
draw the hand up towards your face,
yes, and reward your dog.
And you can also start to build some longevity into it.
Give them a little bit more time
just like we did with the food.
We really want to rehearse that great behavior
of them looking at your face,
and then being rewarded from your face, to build value.
When you're getting a great look at me
for several seconds in a row
with no food in your luring hand,
then you're ready to try a test.
Allow your dog to get a little bit distracted,
still in the sitting position, but let them look away
and then say, look at me, and see what happens.
If your dog looks up at your face, immediately yes,
bring that food up and reward them.
Now if they don't look at you,
and they're still a little distracted, it's not a big deal.
You're just gonna repeat look at me,
and then guide from their nose
up to their face with no food in your hand.
You're gonna have to put in a little bit more work
on the look at me skill at that point.
Now that you've trained your dog to have a reliable skill
of responding to the look at me command,
I want you to start to build it into their everyday life.
I see a lot of people do a great job
of maybe they're working on their sit or their stay,
but when they return to their dog, they'll yes,
and then reward from their face.
When we have puppies in the house,
we always have treats all over the place
and often on us in our pockets, or whatever.
When our dog checks in with us,
when that puppy looks up at our face, I'll always yes,
and reward them in that straight line.
It's a really great way to reinforce
checking in for information,
or just the act of looking at you,
and it's a surefire way to get them to do it more often.
Now there is a time when I don't want
you to use your look at me skill.
Sometimes, people feel like if they have their dog
looking at their face as another person approaches,
or another dog approaches
that their dog's more likely to be successful,
you know, not jumping up or remaining in that sit,
but it's actually quite the opposite
because your dog needs to know
that there's someone approaching.
Imagine if I were to say to you
whatever you do, don't look behind you.
There's somebody coming,
but I don't want you to look at them.
It just creates this uneasiness.
Now, you can always reward your dog
for that beautiful sit in at your side,
but it's really important
that you don't insist that they look at you.
Your dog should be allowed to check out what's going by,
and who's coming toward them,
and you should be able to reinforce them
for making a great choice
by not going to visit those people
or not going to jump up.
I'm excited for you to have this skill
in your dog training tool belt,
and I'm real excited for your friends to see
how often your dog's checking in with you for information
rather than being distracted
by all of the other things going by.
Now if you have any questions about this exercise
make sure you let me know in the comments below.
Beside me is a playlist
with other grade one dog training skills
that I think you're really gonna find helpful.
And if this is your first time on the channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button.
We publish new videos every single week
to help you have a well-behaved four-legged family member.
On that note, I'm Ken, happy training.