Rewarding Attention
Now that we have got your dogs attention we want to start rewarding his or her efforts to pay attention to you. If you've previously tried using food and it hasn’t worked it’s because you dog was motivated to pay attention to something else more than it was motivated to take the food. The corrections used in the previous lesson have solved that problem.
Now your dog is paying attention because there is a consequence of not doing so. At this point, most dogs will happily accept food rewards and using them helps to confirm to the dog the behaviour that we want instead.
What this video explains is that if each and every time your dog looks at you it receives a high value treat then he or she is more likely to look at you again in the future.
Be sure to reward each and every bit of eye contact your dog gives you no matter how small.
As the video progresses we ask you to look for missed reward opportunities, how many can you see?
It’s very important to be aware that whilst we are giving food your dog may still need the odd correction if it looses focus.
Once your dog is working to pay attention, walking in the correct position and has lifted its attitude you should be ready to move on to the next lesson.