Teaching Your Dog The “Watch Me” Command
By Michael Albee
Teaching Your Dog The “Watch Me” Command
“One Of The Most Useful Commands In Dog Training”
Make sure that your dog is watching and paying attention to you by teaching your dog the “Watch Me” command. When your dog is paying attention to you it is less likely to be distracted by everything else going on around it,
Teach my dog to “Watch Me” helped her a lot. When we are out in public or walking in the neighborhood she is much more focused. (Except for when she sees a squirrel or a rabbit). She is much calmer and much less likely to get into trouble!!!
When she does become distracted a quick correction “Watch Me” is all it takes to get her focused again.
GETTING STARTED
Teaching your dog the “Watch Me” command consists of five simple steps:
- Call your dog by name.
- Wait for the dog to make eye contact with you
- Say “good – watch me” in a friendly, pleased voice
- Give your dog a treat while you have eye contact
- Repeat !!!
Another option to this training is to hold a small treat next to your eye. When your dog gives you eye contact, give the dog the treat and reinforce the behavior with the verbal Que.
If your dog is not making consistent eye contact, move the treat slightly so it will draw your dog’s attention. At the split second you notice eye contact being made say “good – watch me” in a friendly, pleased voice.
Timing is crucial. You MUST get the “good – watch me” response on time with the dog making eye contact in order to get your dog to understand what you want. Repeat this several times per minute for several minutes. Once you have your dog’s attention, you can move on to the next part of the training.
“WATCH ME” 2.0
Now that you are done teaching your dog the “watch me” command it’s time to put it to use.
Put your dog on the leash. Have it sit down next to you. Call your dog by name and add “Watch Me.” As soon as your dog makes eye contact say “good – watch me” and reward your dog with a treat.
Reinforce the “watch me” command even when you are not training. With your dog in close proximity simply give the dog the “Watch Me” command. Reward your dog every time it makes eye contact with you by saying, “good – watch me” and then give a treat.
An example of this would be when your dog is watching you make lunch or supper. Another might be when it wants to go outside. Actually anytime that you move your dog will look to see what you are going to do. So when it makes eye contact with you, you can simply say “good – watch me” and then reward with a treat.
You will find that in a very short time your dog will be giving you a lot of eye contact. In a very short time your dog will automatically give you eye contact.
Eventually you will be able to decrease the amount of treats you give as a reward. Your dog will begin executing the “watch me” command without expecting a treat.
Once the “Watch Me” command is in place, you can use it to teach your dog a wide variety of commands and tricks.
I know, it sounds simple! Well, that’s because it is! Believe me. It can make a huge difference to your training. Get your dog’s attention when you want it can be critically important. It may even save your dog’s life someday.
REMINDER:
As with all training, keep your sessions short. Training sessions should be kept under 10 minutes in length. Finish each session with your dog correctly doing a behaivor.
Always do something that your dog likes to do when the session ends. Playing with the dog’s favorite toy or going for a walk will keep your dog interested in training. Because there is a “fun time” following the training, it will make the dog more willing to train well.
NEED HELP?
There are several variations of this training that will get the same results. If you need help teaching you dog “Watch Me” you can contact us and we can give personal instruction. Contact Us.