Find my Face

Let’s start with teaching your dog to find your face, no matter where he is, as a default.

That means that you won’t need to ask him to give eye contact, that he will learn to choose to focus on you.

If your dog is looking for your face, think of all the behaviours, that you don’t like, he can’t do!?

Today’s Games

Time Allowance:
Practice for 1-2 minute sessions and then take a break. Have a few  sessions today and tomorrow.

Try fitting  each short session into your routine; for example, while you wait for the kettle to boil, during the ad break of your TV show or while you wait for the computer to start up.

Family Participation:
Kids are often great dog trainers. Teach each child how to play this game safely – have your child sit in a chair to practice.

If your dog is mouthy,  jumpy or likely to get over-excited it might be best for you to get the behaviours established and then bring in the kids to help with practice.
Always supervise child-dog interactions and make sure children learn to leave the dog alone when eating his rewards.

Top Tip for Today’s Training Game:
Observe your dog really closely during this exercise. We are going to reward little steps toward full-on eye contact.
If your dog has trouble, go back a couple of steps and work at the last point your dog was successful.

You will need:

• Training Mix

Beginner Level Games:

Teaching Find my Face:

• drop a treat right at your toe
• when your dog bows their head to eat it, watch them closely
• say YES! as soon as you see their head raise
• drop another treat right at your toe
• say YES! as soon as your dog’s head raises toward you
• drop another treat right at your toe
• say YES! as soon as your dog’s head raises toward your face
• drop another treat right at your toe
• say YES! as soon as your dog’s face meets yours
• drop another treat right at your toe
• say YES! as soon as your dog makes eye contact
• drop another treat right at your toe
• repeat

Soon your dog will be zipping his face back up to your’s after eating the dropped treat.

Link

Make it a little more challenging:

Start adding some movement, so it’s a little harder for him to find your face:

• drop a treat out to your side a little
• say YES! when your dog finds your face

Switch sides back and forth and vary the position of the dropped treat within the arc in front of your feet.

Link

Advanced Level Games

Drop the treat behind you – can your dog find your face?

Try adding some movement:

• drop a treat and while your dog eats it, take a step away from your dog
• wait for your dog to find your face, say YES! and repeat
• you can build the number of steps as your dog improves

Link

Find my Face, on leash

Try practicing on leash too and build in the number of steps you take – your dog can’t pull on leash if he’s finding your face 😉

Link

Well done!

That’s a great first day of our last week done!