Techniques for regaining attention

· When walking

o Stop abruptly, wait for dog to look at you. Reward.

o If this does not regain attention, when dog turns attention towards something other than you IMMEDIATELY release slack in leash and QUICKLY walk in the opposite direction-this should result in the dog being spun around quickly and needing to make effort to catch up to you. Generally after performing this maneuver a few times, the dog will be eager to pay attention to you.

· Do not talk constantly to the dog-you will become background noise and when you need to praise/command/correct, your voice will be ineffective. Also if you are telling your dog where you are and which way you may be going next, it will have no need to pay attention to you.

Spend a few days feeding your dog the first handful of food at every meal one piece at a time, and ONLY when it looks at you. The piece of food will be a reward for its attention. A dog is surprisely eager to pay attention if that is the only way it gets to eat. Also do not leave food down for your dog all the time. It needs to depend on you for food or it will not need you-and certainly will not pay attention to you.

Practice these techniques with minimal distractions. As your dog is consistently focusing on you rather than the environment add distractions one at a time. Distractions include:

· Change of location

· Additional noise

· Level in activity

· Other people

· Other dogs