Teaching a dog to make eye contact is extremely useful with a variety of
applications. It is a good habit to encourage especially in puppies who
often have the tendency to be rambunctious, particularly in the
presence of delicious food/treats. Use this exercise to help build their
focus & attention while demonstrating that rewards in their
environment are unlocked through you. Ideally, we should always
establish eye contact before giving them any obedience cue.
This
is also a great exercise for anybody that is new to clicker training. It
can be a little challenging at first to time your clicks and deliver
the food rewards perfectly, so this is a good place to start and develop
your skill.
Be sure to repeat each step outlined in this video
several times before raising the criteria and moving on to the next one.
Some dogs are more persistent and require extra patience before they
start to offer eye contact. This is where clicker training is awesome
because it allows us to mark the exact millisecond when the desired
behavior happens thus making it very easy for the dog to understand
& learn. Always use high-value food rewards & always reward
after each click so that it does not lose value.
Finally, food
rewards should be understood as a stepping stone to teaching something.
This means that eventually, there is no need to reward your dog with
food every time as they learn to offer the behavior by default.
