# How do I teach my dog..(the 'watch' command?)



## Powerfulmind (Aug 19, 2013)

To pay attention to me? We've been working on "look" for weeks and she does fine with me. With cats. With the other dogs, but if my husband does it.. nope. And she's "his" dog! I don't understand! She also can't look outside of the house. How do you transfer the command from inside to out like.. at petsmart? She doesn't pay attention.. at all. Nothing gets her attention.

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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

How have you been working on it so far? Has your husband been actively training it too, or just using the command that you've trained? How old is your dog and how long have you had her?

Even if she's practically perfect in low distraction environments, it's much more challenging to get a dog's attention in a high distraction environment like Petsmart. Rather that tell her to "look" when she's probably not going to do it, I'd rather just stand there and simply wait for her to look at you, then mark ("Yes!") and reward it. You could start in the parking lot right outside the car, and when she's consistently looking at you for a reward, take a few steps closer to the store and work on it some more. Gradually work up to actually being in the store. And again, wait for her to offer it, don't ask for it. Giving your dog commands and having her blow you off because there's too much interesting stuff going on is only teaching her that she does not always need to comply. 

The more you reinforce attention, the more attention you'll get, even if you don't actually give her the "look" command. This is called a default behavior, and it's something I work on a lot from a young age. For my dogs, a sit and "watch" (my attention command), is a default behavior, so if I'm with them and I'm just standing there doing nothing, they automatically sit and look at me. This has been heavily reinforced over a long period of time, so they know it can work to get them stuff they value - it's required before I open the door to let them out for potties, before I put their food bowls on the floor, before I throw a ball, etc.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

WHat treats you using? How fast are you rewarding? How old/big is the puppy cause alot of time it helps to be at their level (on the floor?) when starting this.

Do NOT do too much too fast or have too high expectations. And remember it's normal for backslidiing in training to occur the first year or so with normal puppy maturity.

Is she beeter in dog classes? Is the instructor able to help?

http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...0-intro-clicker-training-perfect-puppies.html


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## MichaelE (Dec 15, 2012)

I would start with the dogs name followed by the command. Use a clicker and treats if necessary at first.


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## Stevenzachsmom (Mar 3, 2008)

You asked about teaching the watch command, but then said you are working on the look command. To me, they are two totally different things. When I want my dog to watch, I want him to watch me. When I want him to look, I want him to look at something in the near or far distance - not at me.

I teach him to focus on me, by hand feeding him. I put a piece of kibble on the floor and hold up a finger for him to wait. He looks at the kibble. I put my hand near my eyes and tell him to watch. He looks directly at me. Then, I tell him to touch (nose to hand) and release him to have the kibble. 

For look, I point and tell him to look. It can be inside, out the window, or on the next block and he will look. It also helps to tell him to look at something specific - bird, cat, etc.

As for obeying commands at home and not in other places, that is very common. Work on getting the command rock solid at home and then work on it in public places with distractions.


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## SuperG (May 11, 2013)

I used "eyes" as my verbalization of the command to look at me. I'd physically point at my eyes in the beginning and I most always took advantage of meal time to start this procedure. Moving the lure towards my eyes with the verbal command also helped. If she looked me in the eyes she got her food. Eventually, I would lower the bowl a bit from eye level and of course the dog was fixated on the bowl but I would ask for "eyes" and the moment she broke her stare at the food bowl and looked me in the eyes....voila'..she got her food. Little by little the process continued until the food bowl is on the floor and she is on a sit/wait and I ask for "eyes" and she completely looks me in the eyes and boom..."okay" dinnertime. Ultimately, I can say "eyes" and she looks right at me...no treat or food bowl required.

On walks, I'd make "odd" sounds at times and most always the dog would look up at me to investigate the source....."eyes".."good girl". Anytime the pup made eye contact it was always reinforced..."eyes".."good girl" treat/loving whatever...

I have read many an article describing the ups and downs of eye contact with a dog but it seems the only downs might occur when a human is meeting a strange dog for the first time....and eye contact might not be the best idea until one has the dog figured out a bit. By watching other dogs interact and specifically watching eye contact amongst other dogs, it is rather interesting and has made wonder if eye contact with humans is somewhat problematic for some dogs at first. I believe dog on dog...a dog which looks away from another dog's eyes is somewhat submissive and a gesture which avoids confrontation...perhaps this bleeds over to human/dog eye contact in more submissive dogs....???

SuperG


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## ayoitzrimz (Apr 14, 2010)

Try the Balabanov method (called that because that's where we learned it, not because it was invented by Ivan). Worked for us. The biggest thing is timing really and building up the length.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Stevenzachsmom said:


> You asked about teaching the watch command, but then said you are working on the look command. To me, they are two totally different things. When I want my dog to watch, I want him to watch me. When I want him to look, I want him to look at something in the near or far distance - not at me.


Some people use "look", as in "look at me", instead of "watch", or "watch me". I assume that's what she's referring to. I don't think it matters what word she uses as long as she's consistent about what she expects when she says it.


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## MichaelE (Dec 15, 2012)

True. When I want Lisl to watch, I say "who is that?" The term doesn't matter to the dog.

Not that I have to say that to Lisl very often. Everything is under her microscope when out and about. Though when I want her to watch someone particular, I tell her.


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## David Taggart (Nov 25, 2012)

What happens straight after you gave your command? If nothing happens - don't wait anything from her. Showing your tongue, moving your head side to side or pulling faces doesn't always work. "Look!" - and start running. "Look" should be associated with the movement first. "Look" and throw the ball. "Look" and start chasing pigeons yourself. The next time "Look" and don't move anuwhere, your dog will look into your eyes, her immediate response will be "What is there? Where to run?" Draw the ball out of your pocket and thow it for her, point your indicating finger in the direction of some birds, point your indicating finger to the window if you see a dog there.


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## Stevenzachsmom (Mar 3, 2008)

Cassidy's Mom said:


> Some people use "look", as in "look at me", instead of "watch", or "watch me". I assume that's what she's referring to. I don't think it matters what word she uses as long as she's consistent about what she expects when she says it.


Understood. But she used "Watch" in her title and then said she was teaching "Look". I agree any word can be used, but it isn't consistent if she is using two different words for the same thing. When I use watch and look, they mean entirely different things. When I use stay or wait, I mean two different things.


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## Powerfulmind (Aug 19, 2013)

I don't remember putting "the watch command" in my title.. but I do use look as in "look at me" I never say watch. She just seems to have selective hearing.

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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

SuperG gave some good advice.

She probably hasn't generalized the command in different situations yet. 

David Winners


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## OriginalWacky (Dec 21, 2011)

David Winners said:


> SuperG gave some good advice.
> 
> She probably hasn't generalized the command in different situations yet.
> 
> David Winners


That's probably exactly it, dogs are not very good at generalization. She may do well with a command in the living room, and then fall apart when you try it in the kitchen, because everything she thought was right has changed. She thought she was doing good because when you are both in the living room, and facing the window, she hears that word you say and is supposed to look at your eyes. But in the kitchen, she might not think it applies yet. You have to almost re-teach it. And then re-teach it outside. And then re-teach it at puppy class. Most likely, she'll figure it out faster the second time. And then faster the third time. And you may not have to re-teach it after that, but you may need to refresh it a bit here and there. 

One of the things I learned about training was the four D's of training: Difficulty, Duration, Distance, Distraction. These should be self explanatory, but just in case, I'll tell you how I think of them. (Of course, other people may think of all this in different ways, that doesn't make them wrong, just different.)

Difficulty: Anything can be made harder. So she sits in the living room when you tell her to. Will she sit in the bathroom? On a different surface? If you sit down on the floor? If you turn your back on her? In the back yard while you climb a tree? (Okay, that's silly, but you get the point - it's harder to sit on a slippery bathroom floor than it is in a living room.)

Duration: Well, easy, but hey. She sits for 2 seconds every time. Awesome. Now how long will she sit before she loses interest? Puppies have a short attention span, and expecting them to sit for a full two or three minutes is pretty tough. But you can probably work on a few more seconds here and there, and build up from there.

Distance: This one kinda has two parts. One is how far away can you be from your dog and have her sit on command. The other is how well she will stay sitting while you walk away from her. Both involve distance, in different ways. Again, you will need to work your way up from being right there to being across the room, across the yard, across a football field, whatever you need. 

Distraction: These can range from super easy to OMG NIGHTMARE distractions, and the dog is the one who decides what level a distraction is. Some dogs could care less about other people and so people are a fairly easy distraction to work with, but are super interested in other animals, so those are a tough distraction. Some dogs are only distracted a little bit by things, others are distracted by the teeniest breeze blowing by. 

So, when we are training (okay, when *I* train), we only increase one D at a time. And to help the dog learn, I will ease up on the other D's when I'm increasing one. So if I've upped the Difficulty, I'll lower my criteria for Distance, Duration, and Distraction just a little bit to set her up to succeed. So I'm not going to expect her to sit on the bathroom floor while I'm five feet away like she does in the living room, I'm going to do it from two feet away and give her the chance to get it right. As you're going through training, you'll be able to increase the D's more quickly as she gets more into learning, but when you're in the beginning stages, it might help to think of the four D's.

Wow, sorry for turning this into a book, and I hope it helps a little bit?


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## blackshep (Aug 3, 2012)

I don't know if I taught my dog the proper way, but I'd tell her 'watch' and would wait until she locked her eyes on mine and quickly say "YES!" and reward. Then as she got better, I would say 'yes' right away to mark the behavior, but wait a little longer before rewarding with food, with her watching my face the whole time. 

Rinse repeat. Eventually they put two and two together.

And then like the other's said, you have to start to change the location, to a different room, then to the outdoors, then to a park, but far away from other people, then move closer etc to slowly up the distraction factor. My dog still get's a bit distracted somewhere like the training hall, but we just keep working at it.


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## hwtan (Jan 20, 2014)

my rescued gsd has been training obedience at meal time.

the food bowl on a high table

with him sitting next to me.

i say "look", when see the eye ball moving slightly toward me, i click and feed (from the bowl)

just repeat this, he will eventually look at you before he gets the food.


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## Scout's Mama (Oct 30, 2013)

Just to throw another element in the mix, how do you add "urgency" to the dog's response to training. That is, as an alpha how do you ensure that they respond on your time and not their own? In adulthood, Shadow would perform a command before I finished giving it, but I don't remember what we did to get that, and our old trainer moved three states away.... anyway, is that a bonding/maturity variable or a training/reinforcement variable?


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

OriginalWacky said:


> So, when we are training (okay, when *I* train), we only increase one D at a time. And to help the dog learn, I will ease up on the other D's when I'm increasing one. So if I've upped the Difficulty, I'll lower my criteria for Distance, Duration, and Distraction just a little bit to set her up to succeed. So I'm not going to expect her to sit on the bathroom floor while I'm five feet away like she does in the living room, I'm going to do it from two feet away and give her the chance to get it right. As you're going through training, you'll be able to increase the D's more quickly as she gets more into learning, but when you're in the beginning stages, it might help to think of the four D's.


:thumbup: I've always thought of it as the 3 D's - any time you add distance, duration, or distractions you're automatically increasing the level of difficulty, so for me that "D" goes without saying.  But anyway, you're absolutely right about working on only one of those things one at a time, and lowering the criteria for the others, and also generalizing to a variety of situations.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

Scout's Mama said:


> Just to throw another element in the mix, how do you add "urgency" to the dog's response to training. That is, as an alpha how do you ensure that they respond on your time and not their own? In adulthood, Shadow would perform a command before I finished giving it, but I don't remember what we did to get that, and our old trainer moved three states away.... anyway, is that a bonding/maturity variable or a training/reinforcement variable?


I would say it is primarily a matter of relationship. When the dog is worked regularly and the act of working with the handler is rewarding, the likelihood of maintaining engagement increases. The dog gets into the habit of engaging with the handler because good stuff happens when you are working together. That good stuff includes the mutually rewarding act of cooperation and having fun together, not just treats.

This is reinforced by the reward schedule, but I believe that willing obedience is built through a combination of trust and partnership, communication, rewards and proofing behaviors.

David Winners


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## Scout's Mama (Oct 30, 2013)

David Winners said:


> I would say it is primarily a matter of relationship. When the dog is worked regularly and the act of working with the handler is rewarding, the likelihood of maintaining engagement increases. The dog gets into the habit of engaging with the handler because good stuff happens when you are working together. That good stuff includes the mutually rewarding act of cooperation and having fun together, not just treats.
> 
> This is reinforced by the reward schedule, but I believe that willing obedience is built through a combination of trust and partnership, communication, rewards and proofing behaviors.
> 
> David Winners


Makes sense, thanks!


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