Engagement Training
Simple Version
Mark and reward your dog whenever they look at you. Increase distractions and duration of engagement.
Fall back on building engagement if you’re having any other problems with training.
Importance of Engagement Training
Learn why it’s so important to have a dog that engages with you and understands their markers.
Overview
Having a dog that gives you automatic attention or sustained engagement is the key to successful dog training. It is one of the first things you should be teaching your dog.
Lack of attention tends to be the reason many owners give up on their “impossible dogs”. Training a dog to have attention is no different than training any other behavior.
We will not be teaching an “attention” cue as this is done using their name and the “Look” command. Engagement is going to become your dog’s default behavior in which you don’t have to ask for it. If they are with you they should be paying attention, you can give them a release like “OK” to let them know they are off-duty and you can use their name to bring them back into engagement.
You will build this characteristic by Free Shaping the behavior once your dog is conditioned to the markers.
Step One
Free Shape Sustained Eye Contact
Start at home with no distractions. Have plenty of treats on you, either in your pouch or pocket.
Go about your business as normal but be extra aware of what your dog is doing. Any time they look at you mark and reward. Even just a small glance in the right direction as we are free shaping this behavior.
The dog does not need to be near you, as long as their head turned in your direction, mark and reward it.
By the end of day you can work up to longer lengths of staring before marking and rewarding. Instead of marking as soon as they look at you, mark after one second, then two, and so on.
Do this step as often as you can for 3 days and you’ll have a dog that’s giving you their undivided engagement. AND they are learning their marker sounds too!
Step Two
Proof with Distractions
Setup controlled situations to test (proof) your dog’s attention in a variety of situations. Starting in the kitchen or living room is probably a calm place to start.
Pick a distraction and reward them for maintaining eye contact with you while the distraction is present.
If they break position or lose attention, do not say or do anything. They will learn quickly that engagement earns them rewards and everything else does not. Remember, we aren’t asking anything of the dog, just free shaping the behavior that looking at us is how they activate us to get a reward.
Here are some ideas on how to add distractions:
Have a helper make noise in another room
Have helper walk into the room
Have helper walk closer to dog
Have helper stand next to dog
Have helper lean over dog
Have a helper touch dog’s shoulder
Only add higher and higher distractions very slowly. The smaller the progressive slices you reward, the better the behavior will be. Don’t go from a noise in the other room to your helper walking up and touching the dog.
Gradually raise the criteria until a helper is dancing around or eating something right next to the dog and the dog is still staring at you. Weird stuff = look at owner
Step Three
Outside with Low Distractions
Now head into your backyard with your dog either on a long 10-15ft leash or off-leash if you have a fence.
Walk around and do whatever you like, and mark and reward whenever your dog looks at you.
Soon going out in the yard becomes a cue for them to look at you.
Remember, we are free shaping, so it’s ok if the dog runs off and does other things but they will only get rewarded for looking at you.
Step Four
Outside in New Areas
Begin in a fairly neutral area like the sidewalk in front of your house. Use a long leash if you are able to and let your dog wander about.
Mark and reward any eye contact and build on it’s duration as you’ve done before.
Move on to more exciting areas very slowly and gradually and only when you are getting good attention in the less distracting setting.
Engagement Games
Activate - Deactivate Game
Mark with “Free” and move backwards and create a reward event with lots of praise, pets, movement, treats.
Then deactivate and remain still, you can also wait for a “bad” behavior like jumping to deactivate. Wait for your dog to give you an auto sit or to find your eyes with theirs and then immediately activate with “Free” again and create another reward event.
Your dog will learn that they can turn you on and get something out of you by giving an auto-sit or by giving calm eye contact, so they will offer that more than jumping or barking.
Alternatively, you can also deactivate by turning your back towards them. When they get into your field of view and make eye contact you can activate again. This teaches them to seek you out and check in more often.
Up Down Pattern Game
Pattern game for attention and to work on your marker timing:
Toss a treat on the ground, when the dog lifts their head after eating it mark “Free” and toss another treat at their feet.
Slowly start marking “Free” when they make eye contact with you instead of just lifting their head.
Once they’ve caught onto the game you can start tossing treats in other directions and varying how long they need to stare before hearing the marker.
This teaches them it’s rewarding to check in with you, then you can play this game with a distraction in the distance, over time they’ll see a trigger/distraction and realize the best thing to do is play the pattern game of looking at you, then the trigger, then you.
Stop & Go
When you are outside try just standing still with them on leash and wait until they check-in with you.
Mark right away and feed them when they look at you. You can toss a treat or hand feed.
Repeat until you get sustained engagement then you can say “OK” or “Go Sniff” or something to let them know they can carry on. You can follow them along for a little bit.
After a minute or so, try to get them to check in with prompts like their name or kissy noise. If you get no response then plant your feet and wait until they check-in, repeating the previous steps.
Attention Trilogy Game
This game get’s it’s own page: Attention Trilogy Game
It combines their name, recall and building on eye contact, as well as chaining other behaviors together.
Focus on making sure your markers are conditioned and your dog enjoys engaging with you before trying this out.