Ask A Dog Trainer: How Do I Get My Distracted Dog To Focus On Me?

You are trying to teach your dog to sit. You’ve tried every trick in the book and he just won’t put that rump on the ground. He’s turning his head every which way, he’s staring off into the distance, he’s rolling around on the ground, he may even be lunging and barking at the bird that just flew by. Sound familiar? If your dog acts like this, it’s time to stop training. When we are training our dogs, we are usually focused almost solely on getting them to do what we want. Whether it’s as simple as a “sit” or as complicated as weaving through poles, our attention is stuck on, “Is my dog doing what I want?” If he isn’t obeying, you may move on to the next method, or just stop trying altogether, thinking, “This dog just can’t be trained!” What you need to do is stop and realize that you do not have your dog’s attention, so she is not going to learn anything that you try and teach. You need to fix that before you can do anything else. Getting (And Keeping) Your Dog’s Attention For the most part, dogs are, by nature, easily distracted. They get interested in smells, other animals, toys, people, food, etc. Sitting still and paying unwavering attention to a human that is trying to get the...