How to teach your dog to focus on you
Capture voluntary check-ins through the day, optionally add a 'watch me' cue, and pay more in harder places. Where sources disagree, explained.
At a glance
- Base difficulty
- 2/5 (before adjusting for breed, age and size)
- Source agreement
- 3/5 · moderate (how well the sources agree, not a clinical trial)
- Sources cited
- 7
- Session length
- Brief and frequent; Zak George: ask for attention frequently throughout the day.4
- Research updated
Step by step
- Mark and reward voluntary eye contact/check-ins throughout the day. 1,4,5
- Optionally add a 'watch me/look' cue: lure gaze to face, mark, reward, then add the cue. 5
- Add distractions gradually; reward bigger for harder environments. 4,5
- Garrett: dogs that lunge/bark while waiting their turn are not a required part of training; options are tolerate, manage or train waiting calmly.3 3
When to move to the next step
- Raise value of reward with distraction level7
Difficulty by age
Difficulty is on a 1-5 scale, estimated for 50 breed and mixed-breed size profiles. Breed adjustments are generalisations capped at ±1 level, because breed explains only about 9% of behavioural variation; your individual dog matters more.6
| Age group | Typical difficulty | Range | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puppy 8-16 weeks | 2/5 | 1-3 | 50 of 50 profiles |
| Adolescent 4-18 months | 2/5 | 2-3 | 50 of 50 profiles |
| Adult ~18 months-7 years | 2/5 | 1-3 | 50 of 50 profiles |
| Senior 7+ years (giants often from ~6) | 2/5 | 1-3 | 50 of 50 profiles |
What changes at this age
- Puppy: Start day 1.
- Adolescent: More distraction; shorter.
- Adult: Same.
- Senior: Same.
Common mistakes
- Demanding eye contact by looming
Troubleshooting
- Dog won't look: lower distraction5
Where the sources disagree
Support is the share of the weighted sources that took a stance on the question.
Known gaps in the evidence
- Thin evidence (3-4 sources)
Sources (7)
Source weight (1-5) averages the source's renown and the evidence quality of the specific page; see How plans are made. How plans are made
- Karen Pryor Academy – Teaching Foundation Behaviors: Name Cue · weight 4.5
- Susan Garrett blog – ItsYerChoice vs Leave It · weight 4.5
- Susan Garrett blog – Wait Watch Work · weight 4.5
- YouTube: Zak George – How to Train ANY Dog to Pay Attention in 2 Seconds · weight 4
- AKC – Watch Me command · weight 4
- Morrill et al. 2022 Science – Ancestry-inclusive dog genomics (PMC)
- AKC – The Three Ds of Dog Training · weight 4