I have read many books and seen many dog trainers that teach a ‘focus’ command. This is a command where the dog is to look at you when you say it to receive further instruction or to perhaps not pay attention to outside distractions. I never train a focus command and find it to be irrelevant.
There are three reasons why dogs disobey their owners:
1- Lack of focus. The dog doesn’t know how to focus on the owner as the leader of the family and source of commands.
2- Lack of communication. The dog doesn’t understand what the owner is trying to tell him.
3- Dominance. The dog understands what is wanted but decides to do what he wants to do.
The first one, focus, is very important. I find it unnecessary, however, to actually teach a ‘focus’ command. If a dog truly looks to you as the leader he has a natural focus. What that means is that you don’t have to ASK for his focus, it is already there. I almost never use the dogs name or a focus command before telling the dog to sit, lie down, heel, etc. It is the trainers job to teach the dog that those commands can come at any time and that the dog should pick out those words when they are said.
Use sound training techniques and you will find that you don’t need to ask for your dog’s attention before giving a command.
One Comment
I’ll keep that in mind. I’ve thought about training the “watch me” command. But I’ve never worked on that enough, and I don’t really think it’s necessary. I do say my dog’s name before commands about half the time. Doesn’t seem to really matter either way.