Training For Attention. Part II
SHAPING ATTENTION
In one of my early articles, I mentioned that the formula for success in obedience competition is the combination of three "A"s -- attention, attitude and accuracy. While all three are important, I don't believe you can attain attitude and accuracy until you have mastered attention. Before beginning to train any formal obedience, you should find a way to get and maintain the your dog's attention. To accomplish this all you need to do is be more exciting than the external environment, and this tends to be the problem. My observations of many handlers in the ring are that they are far less interesting than a post would be -- at least, from the dog's point of view, a post has interesting smells. Before you can expect your dog to ignore external distractions in the ring, you must condition him to make you his center of focus. There are all sorts of methods that can be used to condition a dog to pay attention. I'm going to offer a shaping process which employs the variable schedule of positive reinforcement which I discussed in an earlier article. Your positive reinforcement can involve a clicker, or you can use a more traditional approach.
In training for attention, you are conditioning the dog to believe that you are the source of all things wonderful, and, by paying attention, he won't miss any of those wonderful things. Ideally, we want to instill this before the dog can discover that plates of chicken and other wonders might be ripe for picking outside the obedience ring. It is more difficult to condition attention into a dog that has already learned that it's okay to be inattentive than into a shiny, new model.
Most of us expect our dogs to respond to their names by looking at us. You can teach a pup to respond to his name at dinner time. If you say the dog's name, and give him his bowl when he looks at you, he quickly learns that you are a source of desirable things. Early attention training is done efficiently as part of your normal daily routine. Almost any puppy will learn to respond to you quickly if they think that they will get a treat. Fill your pocket with food (and a clicker if you are planning on using one in training.) When you notice the pup looking for something to do, call his name. The instant that he looks at you click and treat, praise and treat or play with the pup. Thus, the pup learns that responding to you is a good thing to do. Refrain from calling the dog when he is busy sniffing some wonderful smell in the garden that might be more enticing than you are until you are really sure that the pup will respond. I would suggest not using the pup's name when you want to reprimand him. He should focus on you for something wonderful at the sound of his name. In my own training, I put the specific word "READY" to the action of looking at me. This allows me to remind the dog to focus on me in the ring every time I tell the judge that I'm "READY" to start an exercise. (when I want the dog to focus away from me such as before the utility go-out, I don't respond to the judge with "READY"; I say yes instead.) A word of caution, puppies put through this conditioning program tend to spend a lot of their spare time following you around hoping for a handout! You can apply this method to older dogs as well. I have used this approach to build relationships with adult dogs who have came to me for training. Once the dog has learned that looking at you is a good thing, you can start to shape attentive heeling.
When I first got into obedience training, we attempted to teach our dogs to pay attention during heeling by jerking on the training collar every time the dog looked away. The theory here was to associate looking away with a negative consequence which the dog would try to avoid. Unfortunately, because many of us didn't give our dogs much in the way of positive reinforcement when they were attentive, our collar corrections really didn't neutralize the distracting environmental stimuli. Since we hadn't shaped a desire to be attentive, our performances were marred by inattention. I have learned that it is worth my effort to be patient and to cultivate attentive behavior.
Once your dog is willing to focus on you in the hopes of getting a reward, you can progress to heeling. You won't even need a leash for this. If you are going to work in an unenclosed area, attach a long, light line to the dog's collar that can drag along behind the dog for safety. At first, hold food very close to the dog's nose to get movement in the heel position. At this point, I would not worry about how beautiful the heeling style is -- you are working on attention and can improve accuracy later. For heeling, I want the dog to develop a reference point on my body (not necessarily my face) on which to focus his attention. Once the dog knows to walk at your side, you should move the food to a position in the line-of-sight of the reference point. Make sure the reference point is a spot that your dog can comfortably look at when heeling. At first, the dog might try to jump to get the food. Ignore this behavior and reinforce the dog only when all four feet are on the ground. Heel for a few steps and positively reinforce the attention. Slowly increase the attentive duration. If the dog looks away, DO NOT try to regain the dog's attention either verbally or physically. Timing is important here. Stop your movement as soon as the dog looks away. Be patient and observant. When the dog looks back at you, apply positive reinforcement and begin moving again. The dog will learn over time that looking away really isn't as reinforcing as paying attention. Since you are not using a leash to force the dog to stay with you in this exercise, what do you do if a distraction causes the dog to wander away? Do not say anything to the dog. Briskly walk away from the dog in the opposite direction -- don't creep away looking back over your shoulder. Most dogs are not going to want to play by themselves, and your dog should quickly lose interest in the distraction and catch up with you to see what you are doing. As soon as the dog returns and shows you attention, give positive reinforcement and continue the exercise. Don't try this for the first time where the dog might find a distraction that is highly rewarding. The dog to needs to learn that if he wants to get something wonderful, it will come from you not the environment.
Start with short heeling sessions and lots of reinforcements. Gradually increase the duration of expected attention and the level of distraction. After the dog gains some experience, stop being a vending machine and put your food out of sight. Give your reinforcements on a variable schedule. Vary your reinforcers. It's always a good idea to have several different types of food treats. If one type of treat isn't reinforcing enough, pull out something better. If the dog has ignored a really difficult distraction, reinforce with your best treat. Intersperse physical praise, if your dog likes petting, and verbal praise with your food treats. If you are upbeat and unpredictable, your dog will be too interested in you to care about anything else. Teaching attentive behavior is not tremendously difficulty. It does, however, take time and patience to make it a habit.
Direct suggestions, comments, and questions about this page to Arlene Courtney, courtna@wou.edu.
Last Modified December 23, 1998