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Mary Mazzeri

Carpentersville, IL

847-426-5089

IACP Certified Dog Trainer/Instructor CDT

I train dogs for a living. Most often, I train people to train their own dogs. Occasionally I train a dog for someone else, like Lisa the service dog. Lisa is a yellow Labrador retriever that I selected from a Labrador rescue at 11 months. She wasn’t a bad dog, just a little over exuberant and out of control. Lisa lives with Diane now. Diane is 40ish, a speech pathologist who works with special ed. children. Overcome with polio at 9 months of age, Diane survived but the virus left her very weakened. She is confined to a power wheel chair. Diane worked full time at Easter Seals until this past year when her condition deteriorated. To maintain her independence, Diane employs a few part-time helpers around her home but hates to ‘bother’ people.

I met Diane when she asked me to help her train a Springer mix. When I met the dog I knew something was very wrong with it. The dog had a very sullen attitude. He would ‘glaze over’ and ‘go off’ unexpectedly according to Diane. He had taken control over Diane and her condition. The dog was found to have a Rage seizure syndrome and eventually had to be euthanized after attacking Diane irrationally. Diane was pretty devastated but consented to letting me try to find her the ‘right’ dog. One of the criterions I use in picking a service dog is attention and voice responsiveness. Because physically disabled individuals have corporal limits I look for a dog that has a natural retrieve, will to please and drive. In addition to this, Lisa the Labrador had a special quality that I knew would make her a great service dog. Lisa paid attention. She sought out eye contact with people and had a very open, gentle and soft expression. It was the window to her soul. Because she had the ‘right stuff’, Lisa serves not only as Diane’s companion, but also as her arms.

Working with clients’ problem dogs over the last 30 yrs. I have seen see a pattern emerge. Those dogs that are dominant or demanding generally ignore their owners’ requests and only give eye contact when they want something. For the obedience competitor, the dog that pays attention knows where to be and what to do. It heels more accurately. In advanced training, eye contact is essential for the various signals it must learn to interpret. But for the average person with a companion dog, learning to watch its master serves a more utilitarian purpose. The dog that watches its owner is demonstrating proper pack behavior. The pack leader –Alpha deserves attention. It is a signal of respect. Like Lisa, this is an open, gentle, soft expression. Looking to the Alpha is one of many social signals that indicate the dog understands hierarchy and is showing proper deference. This is a healthy attitude for a companion dog to have.

In my kindergarten classes (9-18 week old puppies), the puppies learn to watch their handlers’ faces even in the presence of the other puppies. The focus indicates a willingness to yield rights and interests (when called upon to do so) to the alpha. Dogs that don’t respect their owners are easy to spot. They blow them off and look (or go) the other way when asked to do something. These dogs don’t always develop serious problem behavior, but they’re seldom as content and fulfilled as those who look to their people for leadership and know what is expected of them. Dogs like to have a sense of ‘purpose in life’, something which pleases ‘the boss’. If you ever do any formal training, the attention habit will make your learning experience easier.

In order for a dog to be attentive to the ‘leader’ the leader needs to learn how to lead, how to talk ‘dog’ to a dog. Here’s a simple, fun exercise to introduce the attention command.

Dogs are curious creatures. They react to sights and sounds fairly easily. To take advantage of their natural curiosity, start by being the most interesting thing going on. I recommend starting this ‘game’ in a relatively distraction free environment. The objective is to get the dog to make ‘eye contact’. Experiment with vocalizing subtle sounds that are attractive to your dog. (Hey, I don’t know what they are, I’m hoping you know J .) My dogs like it when I make sniffing noises, they also like my special whistle, clucking, meows, whining, and a host of other odd noises. I vary it to keep them interested.

So walk past the dog who doesn’t have anything else to do anyway. Start making one of these noises and when the dog looks up with "Huh? What the???" and your eyes meet, praise him with "Good! Ready." Expect only a few seconds of eye contact and you should be the one to break off the eye contact and walk away. (I would want your dog to break off eye contact if it was challenging you, but this is not that kind of eye contact.) The dog is being rewarded just for looking at you. If the dog initiates respectful eye contact without being asked, it should also be praised and the "Good, Ready!" label should be applied.

Attentiveness can be taught in a light, informal context. To introduce the "Ready", or "eye contact on command", follow the three steps below. This is a great exercise to practice at home to get your dog to "look and listen"! It can be done at anytime, several times, briefly during the course of the day.

Step 1:a. Start with your dog within 10 ft. b. Alert your dog by shaking a toy, showing food or making a sound -- when he alerts, bring the object up to your chin. His eyes should follow the lure, resulting in eye contact.

c. The INSTANT your dog makes eye contact, say "Ready?" in a pleasant tone of voice. Praise and, if you’re using a treat, give it to him while it is still making eye contact.

d. Release (A release is a command that gives your dog permission to break off eye contact or to let it know that it is done with any command, such as "Free" or "All Right" etc.) If you use a favorite toy, let the dog play with the toy AFTER you release him. Play this game for about a week.  

Step 2  Begin sequence as in step one, EXCEPT: When your dog makes eye contact, keep quiet and slowly lower the lure to your shoulder, away from your eyes. (Your dog should not be able to make eye contact and look at the lure at the same time.) IF your dog follows the lure (in your hand) with his eyes, wait quietly. He will eventually look back at your eyes (at least to question what in the heck you are doing!). The INSTANT he looks back to your eyes, treat or give your release command and "reward" with a tossed toy. (IF your dog maintained eye contact when you moved the lure, reinforce that too!)  Step 2 will do two things: 1) clarify that "‘Ready’" means "eye contact", not follow a lure, and 2) change the status of the lure from a bribe to a reward. 

Step 3  When your dog is playing the "Ready game" (step 2) consistently, quit using the lure. Start with your "treat" out of sight, so that it is used as a reward only. Give the "Ready" command and wait for your dog to respond Praise/release and reward when he does. Begin to reward randomly to strengthen performance: This means don't give your "treat" every time. 

Finally, practice the "Ready" exercises in different situations so that he learns to focus on you in distracting conditions. I also do ‘proofing exercises’ later on to show the dog that "Ready" means to actually look away from something to maintain eye contact with you. I do add a correction later if the dog chooses not to listen. The correction can be a quick collar snap followed by lifting of the head and held until dog makes eye contact.  Always end this exercise with a release and some kind of reward. This can be a word of praise, a treat, a tossed toy, an ear rub. Varying the rewards keeps it interesting for the dog and it teaches him that pleasing you is also enjoyable for him. It makes you a leader worth watching.