Getting her Attention

[jjmcintosh]

Can anyone recommend a good way to train on getting a 5 month old puppy to make eye contact OR am I expecting too much. I find that Chloe sometimes just doesn't pay attention, I can call her until I am blue in the face and it won't phase her. Other times she is very quick to respond to "come" or "Chloe NO". How can I solidfy the response so its consistant? It is making training her extremely difficult. Maybe I am the one that is not doing something right. How can I make understand that we are training and not playing, where do I draw that line? Any experience or help would be great. We are getting ready for obediences class in another two weeks and I would like to be at a good starting point with her because she can be off the wall, you know puppy behavior.

 

[Tulsa-Dan]

Try this exercise. Hold a tasty treat between your eyes at the top of the bridge of your nose. Call the dog's name. As soon as the dog looks you in the eye, mark (click if you clicker train) and then give them the reward and lots of praise.

After the dog will readily look at you when called, take the treat, hold it far away from your face and see that the dog is looking at the treat. Call her name and when she turns from the treat and looks at you, praise and reward.

This is one of the first things any good training class will teach you. If a dog doesn't know its name and doesn't respond to his name, you've basically got a wild dog and no chance of proper training.

I also suggest you get enrolled in a training class ASAP to help you help your dog with these and other essentials that you and your dog will need to develop a good relationship and to have some control over your dog's behavior.

Good luck.

 

[Cami]

I would suspect that when you say "Chloe No" that you are using a different tone and that is what she is reacting to. You can try and get her interested in a treat and hold it up to your face and when she looks at you say "watch me" or similar, and then praise and treat.

You many need to put her on a leash and do some of the come exercises so that she doesn't have a chance to ignore you. A dog shouldn't be asked to do something that you know they won't respond to. If you keep allowing them to do the opposite of what you want they are learning the wrong behavior.

The classes will help you to learn how to teach her to be a well mannered girl. Boxers and puppies in general have a very short attention span. Don't make the training segments to long or boredom is sure to follow. Try to train while playing, this worked well with us. If she likes to play fetch when she starts to return the item to you say come while she is heading your way and when she gets there praise and treat.

It takes persistance and patience and a little creative thinking but it can be done.

Good-Luck

 

[Jan]

No you are not expecting too much. You could try putting her on a leash and then she will realize that your working and she needs to pay attention.

To teach the watch command, you take a small smelly treat and slowly raise it up to you eyes. Wait for her eyes to focus on yours and mark it with a yes. When she readily focuses on your eyes you can give it a name, like watch or focus. When she readily looks at your eyes, you can build on this by then moving the treat off to one side. Her eyes will follow the treat. Wait for her eyes to come to yours and mark it with a yes. Be patient, the eyes will come back. Remember to give her a treat everytime she gets a yes. It won't be forever. You can build up to having a treat in each hand. Always give her the treat from the hand she looked at last.

If she tries to jump up after the treat, put her leash on and step on it.

Good luck

 

[jjmcintosh]

Thank you all, I guess this is reassuring. I am not too far off base then. I just need to keep working on it. I do use different tones when saying "Chloe NO", and that works, sometimes it might take 2-3 times, but she does know better. She does know her name, well. She responds to fetch amazing for a 5 month old: I can throw her tennis ball 30-40 feet away and she will return it to me, sit and get ready for the next.. all the way back I am making a very dramatic production while yelling the "Come" command. She gets tons of praise. The eye contact I will have to work on with treats.

I think I was just getting frustrated with the lack of attention, or her attention span so short, I thought I was doing something wrong. Obedience start Nov. 20th.

Thanks all.

 

[jbbtlr]

We are learning in puppy school that you are not suppose to tell your dog NO. They hear it all the time and will become custom to it. We were told to either smack your hand together loudly use something like "eh, eh" or "hey" something other then no. We started using "eh, eh" with Koda and it works great. When he doesn't respond to that I usually clap my hands loudly then say "eh, eh" and he'll usually stop what he's doing.

The treat between the fingers up between the eyes with the command of watch me, or whatever you use works really well.

Good luck!
Jeanette

 

[kactus]

since we stopped using the NO word with bailey weve seen a good improvement. the other thing is that if you are using her name while telling her NO she will accustom her name with a telling off, then when you call her shes less likely to come as she will thing that she is about to be told off. ONLY use her name when good stuff is happening, treats, food play etc and it should mean that she is quicker to come see or pay attention. i think all boxers seem to have a degree of selective hearing. sometumes bailey cant seem to hear me when im right in front of him, yet he can hear the fridge open from the bottom of the garden!!!!!