[MeganFex]

I keep reading threads where people talk about certain commands such as focus. I had no idea that people used that command until now. I would like to know what it is and what it's used for. Also, I would love to know how to teach it to my puppy. I would love to have peoples advice on what to teach her and if you have any suggestions on certain commands I should teach, please tell I am open to any suggestions.

[Chels_girl]

Focus is when your dog looks at you and concentrates. It's incredibly easy to teach. Have you ever used or heard about clicker training? I think it's easier to teach with a clicker.

[MeganFex]

Well I have heard about clicker training but have never used it because I dont know anything about it.

[skelaki]

Clicker training is a tool that can be useful especially for something such as focus training. The clicker marks when the dog does something right such as look directly at you (focus) but first you must teach the dog that the sound of the clicker means something good. I believe this is callecd "priming" the clicker, and is done by clicking and treating the dog until it associates the sound of the clicker with a treat. Once the dog does that, you would click and treat each time he looked directly at you when you gave your "focus" command.

I've never actually used a clicker so if that's incorrect I'm sure someone will correct me. In the past I've used my voice as a marker but am wondering if a physical clicker would be a better tool and if so, why and how?

[rosemaryninja]

If you're interested in clicker training, you can try the following links:
http://www.clickersolutions.com
http://www.clickertraining.com

I would start with the absolute essentials. These would be sit, stay, leave it, come -- four commands that can literally save your dog's life.

Once you have the basics covered, you can look into other more "fun" types of training. Targeting is really fun to explore and you can use it to teach your dog anything from a shaped retrieve to opening the fridge door and grabbing a drink for you.

[GreatDaneMom]

if you dont want to use a clicker, here is a way you can do "focus"...

put treats in both hands, hold them up next to your head on either side. the dog will look at the hands back and forth and whatever. when the dog LOOKS RIGHT IN YOUR FACE and NOT your hands mark it with "yes, good girl" and DROP a treat. dont hand it to them because then their attention isnt steered away. dropping it means they have to look away before they can look back at you to get another. do this over and over. when they are used to that put your hands behind your back and do the same thing. once they have that, start saying their name with it. it will go *say name* look in face "yes, good girl" drop treat. this will help them to "focus" on you and learn "when i look at you, good things happen". focus is important because without your dogs focus, you cant ask them for something (ie, sit, down, etc)

[blunder]

For the average pet owner focus is used to keep the dogs nose from going to the ground when taking a walk. As we all know, the moment a dog lowers it's head it's brains all run out it's nose, and you have lost the dog. The best way to prevent this is to have the dog focus on you instead of all the goodies laying about.

[Line-of-Fire]

We use "look at me" for our dogs. Its usually when Paul starts getting unruly and won't listen. I MAKE him sit down, hold a treat to one temple, and say, "look at me!" once he's focused and calm, I give him the treat. Sometimes he does it without the treat now.

[GreatDaneMom]

Originally Posted by Line-of-Fire

Sometimes he does it without the treat now.

its always important to phase out treats. you should be able to phase out treats within a week or two from when the command is learned

[Lonewolfblue]

Another thing is that Focus isn't really a command. Some may use it, but many others use things like 'Look at me' or 'Watch Me'. I've been working on it with Betty, and the way I've been working on it is while we are doing some heeling practice. I would start with 1 or 2 steps, do a 180, 1 or 2 steps, 180, etc, etc. Then I would slowly work out to 3-4 steps, 6 steps, 8 steps, etc. And I would mix them up as well, like doing 4 steps, 180, 2 steps, 180, 8 steps, 180, 6 steps, 180, etc. So the dog doesn't know when you are going to turn. I would use 'This Way' every time I made the turns. When she started looking at me, I would say 'Good Watch Me'. Now she does it a lot, but isn't perfect yet. And since she's getting good at it, I'm picking up the pace as well, walking faster, turning faster, and doing Sits and Downs as well. So she really doesn't know what I'm going to do. This is getting her to watch me more and more with a smile on her face. And yes, I do occasionally use treats, but I'll do longer sequences before the treats are given, and sometimes I don't give a treat til we do the whole sequence and reward her for a job well done.

[Xeph]

Because everybody else has explained it so well, I wanted to share with you the end result of "Focus". Some people use "Watch Me" or "Up here", but since I train in German I use "Achtung!"

[Lonewolfblue]

Although it's not quite perfect yet, but here's my Betty's focus. The laptop recorded in flip mode, so it looks like she was on the right, but she was really on my left.

[GOOGLEVIDEO]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2926036923471025889[/GOOGLEVIDEO]

[GreatDaneMom]

Originally Posted by Xeph

Because everybody else has explained it so well, I wanted to share with you the end result of "Focus". Some people use "Watch Me" or "Up here", but since I train in German I use "Achtung!"

ugh! im actually thinking about teaching my dogs commands in German. Since they already know the hand signals now, i figured i would add in the german command. i wanted to name them german names as well.... but i couldnt find any that really fit them... lol