How You Can Train Your Dog To Focus On You Employing A Clicker.
A basic training technique that teaches helpful control to your dog is showing him ways to focus on you. Clicker training will help you to try this easily by simply bolstering the action when your dog investigates you naturally.
The following stages will help you to tune your dog into a clicker and also use it to teach him focus on you. This is a great training strategy to use with Labradors and other food motivated dogs.
- Make preparations for each session with a clicker fair number of tiny treats. Small is better because the dog will just get a taste of the treat which is incentive in itself.
- Press the clicker and right away give the dog a treat and repeat this a few times. This is named “tuning in”.
- Ultimately the dog will expect a treat each time he hears the sound. You can test this by his reaction to the sound. He should look to you instantly for reward on hearing the sound regardless of what else he is doing. This will take 1 or 2 sessions of 10 minutes or so at a time.
- When the dog is satisfactorily tuned in to the sound only click when he's looking at once at you. Evidence this by keeping his attention for varying periods of time and swapping by quantity of clicks used whilst he is taking a look at you.
- Introduce your focus word; it can be anything apart from needs to be consistent. “Look, watch”, or “focus” are all options.
- If you're having difficulty getting your dog to look at your face you can slowly move the treat to behind your head. The dog’s eyes should follow it and when he's looking without delay at you then click-treat.
When your dog is taught to focus effectively this can be beneficial in many scenarios. It's an acceptable way to control your dog without putting any unjustified stress on him.
I hope that this has given you some revelations into how to train a labrador, and you continue on your journey. Good luck!
For more positive dog training information, methods, strategies, how to train a Labrador or any other breed of dog with reward and reinforcement, then visit The Dog trick Academy today!