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Teaching Eye-Contact with a Clicker
By Lisa Laney, Dip. DTBC, CPDT, CBC

As with most other behaviors we will teach our dogs, we will teach them the behavior we're looking for and teach them to respond on a hand signal, before we introduce a verbal cue.

Step 1

You are holding a piece of food in one hand or the other, up and away from your body like your holding a torch. Click/Treat
(C/T) the dog for looking away from the lure and making eye-contact with you.

Be patient! Do not speak to, or otherwise prompt your dog – he'll soon figure out that when you put your hand up and he looks at you
(instead of at your hand) he gets the click and brings the treat! Before you know it, he'll be responding with direct and immediate eye
contact when you put your hand up.

Keep practicing this for the week, and we'll move to the next step in the lesson next week.

Step 2

Once you are getting quick and consistent eye-contact when you hold your hand up, you're ready for the next step.

Hold your hand up as usual, but when he looks at you, bring your hand down behind your back. Wait for your dog to look at you again. When he does, c/t.

Continue this and begin to move your hand up to the original position less and less, so that soon, you can move your hand behind your back and have the dog make eye-contact…essentially it now becomes the signal to the dog for the behavior. Let's face it, no one wants to walk around like they have an imaginary torch in their hands, so keep working to create the behavior of eye-contact when you move your hand behind your back.

Now that you've got the dog consistently making eye-contact when you move your hand behind your back, you're ready for step 3.

Step 3

We're ready to add the verbal cue now. Select one word like "watch", or "look". Say the dogs name and watch or look (whichever you've chosen) immediately before you move your hand behind your back - c/t the dog when he complies! Remember to say the verbal cue (dogs name and watch or look) first then follow with the signal (hand behind your back) within one half second. Stay at
this step for a while, and be sure that the dog has learned that both the hand behind your back signal and verbal cue are attached to the same behavior.

At this point you can begin to have some fun going back and forth between the verbal and the signal for the eye-contact behavior. If
at any time, it seems that the dog is not clear on the verbal, and does not follow it with eye-contact, it may be that you didn't spend
enough time pairing the verbal with the signal. Simply back up a step, and work more on teaching the verbal cue by repeating Step 3.

Step 4

Once you've gotten solid behavior that is consistent, begin to add more duration and then some low-level distraction. For
example, ask your dog to "watch" then withhold the c/t for a few seconds. Vary the duration – sometimes you will ask for 3 seconds,
then 5 seconds, then 2 seconds, then 8, etc. This will help build more committed eye contact. For adding distractions, start slowly by
asking for the watch and then moving around a little bit in front of him, his eyes should follow you! When he's doing really well and
you're getting reliable responses, begin to add position changes, such as standing next to the dog and asking for the behavior. C/T
for correct responses, especially when the exercise gets more challenging!

Step 5

Once your dog is reliably responding correctly to your cue for eye contact in different environments and circumstances, begin to
reduce the amount of c/t's you give for it. Begin to intermittently c/t for responses (start at about 75% of the time and wean down from there). At the same time, selectively reinforce (c/t) the best/quickest responses. It is really important that this be a
gradual and intermittent process. If the c/t are reduced too abruptly, the behavior can fall apart. At the same time, if the c/t
are too patterned, your dog will figure it out and will only respond consistently according to that pattern.

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