All good things come with trust, calmness and love between you and your dog. Teaching your dog to be calm in your presence and give you his enthusiastic attention will make your training easier. Gee, it will make your whole life easier.
So, grab a bag of small, soft, delicious and healthy treats, make your dog an offer he can't refuse and enjoy a calm moment looking into each other's mesmerizing eyes, free of stress, full of concentration.
Teach by example, calm yourself
Make sure the factors around you that create stress, anxiety, annoyance, are at a comfortable distance, not too far to go unnoticed, not so close that they make your dog crazy; keep yourself relaxed, breathing rhythmically, speaking in a calm natural voice, think airport-announcer voice.
Remember that your dog will copy and multiply your demeanor, if you are excited, he will get excited, if you are tense, he will get tense, if you mellow down... you get the idea.
So, just as promised, here are the three steps to train your dog to calm by watching you:
- Put your dog in a comfortable position which he can keep for at least five seconds, like sitting or lying down on the floor.
- Show his or her favorite small treat right in front of your eyes so he or she watches you and say "watch me".
- The split second your dog watches you, say good and reach out to him or her with the treat.
Build time, build patience
Repeat a few times, no more than ten and then take a break to keep the experience fresh and interesting. Do this exercise several random times during the day and once your dog's concentration improves, wait a second from the time you say watch me and the moment you give the treat; then make it two seconds the next day, then three, then four and finally five.
Build closeness, build tolerance
After your dog waits patiently his or her seconds per treat, you can let distractions get a little bit closer or just a little louder, like people walking, kids playing, turning the vacuum cleaner on in the next room. Say watch me and give the treat immediately once your dog pays attention to you even for half a second.
Give it a day, then you can move distractions a tad closer, and so on. Just don't rush, won't you rather have a super concentrated dog in a week than a half concentrated dog tomorrow?
The scientific base of this exercise is in the conditioning of behavior with rewards, by which you pair a specific act with a natural satisfactor like food, eventually the dog will enjoy the act of watching you like he was eating the treat. So it will be wise to keep it all pleasant during training and leave corrections to a different time and place.
Do you want to know more about building a great relationship with your dog? Ask the Mesa Dog Training Examiner.
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