Hi
I have been ill and away from the board and training my dog for awhile.
Feeling a bit better now and trying to get Macy - my 1 1/2 year old lab back in the groove.
She is actually doing pretty well, although there is definetly room for improvement. I have a couple of questions, but I will start with this one on how to make her focus on me. Such as having good eye contact with me. For instance walking in a heel position - someone told me that she should keep making eye contact with me as we are walking?
She does some but not very much. Just not sure how to teach her to focus better.
I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks
Sharon

Have you looked at the Leerburg videos? On the information page their are pictures of the dogs walking at heel and looking at the owners faces.

In the puppy video, Ed shows giving cut up hotdogs to the puppies from his mouth to get the dog to look at your face for another treat. I also heard this from a local K-9 trainer. I tried it and it seems to work.
If you start using other items such as a ball or toy to motivate the dog, you should hold the item on your left side at about shoulder height so the dog is looking in the general direction of your face. The trainer I talked to also tries to hide the item after a period of time (under a hat or in a shirt pocket) so the dog doesn't only respond when he can see the item.
Also, lots of praise when they look at you. I noticed that my 10 mo. GSD is easily distracted and I really need him to be looking at me to stay focused.
All these things seem to work for my dog...you can give it a try.

My shepherd is about five months now. He's pretty good at looking at me/into my eyes regularly. I started with the hotdog from the mouth thing. Then I moved onto putting the treat in my hand and using that hand to point to my nose and telling him "Bruce, look at me." From there he's learned "look at me" means to look at my eyes and he gets a treat, regardless where my hands are holding the treats. I switch around which hand holds/gives the treat so he no longer looks/predicts for the treat, but keeps looking at my face and waits. Now we're at "Bruce" and he looks at my eyes. The past few days I notice he glances at me pretty regularly when we're not doing these exercises and I treat him when I can. If I don't have a treat I give him lots of verbal praise which he seems to also enjoy.

I don't know if I'll ever figure out the eye contact while heeling. It's more me than the dog. I'll trip and kill myself if I walk and not watch where I'm going. I've never required any of my dogs to keep eye contact while heeling. For me it's never been a problem. They just "know" to key into the verbal cues/body posture I guess. Not a problem I've encountered, so nothing I need to fix. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Maybe I just have dumb luck. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the help! - I will give your suggestions a try. I have the Leerburg video on Basic Dog Training - I will have to watch it again. Thanks Again - Sharon

Your Puppy 8 weeks to 8 months was the video I think it is in.

Here's how I started my dogs to watch my face.The first day I bring the pup home it begins.It's feeding time.While my wife places a bowl of food on the floor,which the pup can see and smell. I place the dog in a sit position and gently hold it there.The pup really wants to get to the food.I then blow on the dogs ear which causes the dog to turn its head in the direction the "blowing" is coming from.The instant the dog looks up at me I give a release word,such as "free".I then immediatly release the dog who runs to the bowl.The dog quickly learns that to get released and get what it wants they needto look where that "blowing was coming from.This has worked with every dog I have ever had.Then extend this to other situations, such as getting out the back door(for a walk). Good luck Ken M.