Eye Contact in Five Seconds (part 1)
by August Farley with Azima Jones
How does that idea grab you? Seconds, not minutes, days or weeks. We are not talking proofed or polished eye contact, but we do get from the dog a clear “I acknowledge you” response. This is quickly followed by a “Is this what you want” response. We never cease to smile when a dog hits this stage of understanding.
There is a very simple, yet elegant, exercise, described below, that the authors do with all their Puppy, Pet Obedience, and Competition training to start the wonderful two-way communications process that eye contact gives the dog-handler team. This exercise may benefit the handler the most because it teaches her to be effective with the timing of rewards and punishers while using a method of training that keeps the dog actively motivated to perform.
Eighty percent of the dogs and handlers achieve immediate success. In a class setting there are usually one or two dogs that have problems for reasons explained below. The most exciting part of this exercise for an instructor is watching the owner’s response when she has been acknowledged by her dog.
SIT IN FRONT
To start the eye contact work for all puppies and dogs, we teach a food-cued sit in front. To properly use food to cue a front, the hand is held higher than the dog’s head but close to the handler’s body as if zipping one’s pants. If one holds the food above the dog’s head, it causes the dog to rock back away from the handler. We are looking for a close, committed sit.
Obviously the animal must be food motivated. If it is not motivated, it is difficult enough to get the sit much less eye contact. A dog that is motivated by food will actively work for it, not just be willing to eat it. Most dogs not motivated by food are overfed or improperly fed, but some do inherently lack a vigorous appetite. The handler may also run into problems if the dog is nervous, shy, or extremely submissive. For most of these dogs success will come as they become more comfortable with the front position.
If the dog has a high object prey drive, balls and toys can also be used to motivate any induced behavior. Since the drive level may be higher than with food, many handlers get frustrated with the energy created. Therefore, we recommend they start with food.
INDUCED EYE CONTACT
As soon as the dog has a stable sit in front we teach an induced, not visually cued, eye contact. The sit is food cued as explained above. Then the handler puts her arms behind her back. Nothing is said; absolutely nothing! When the dog makes eye contact, it is praised and rewarded with the food immediately.
DOG ERRORS
What can be expected to happen before eye contact occurs? Because the food goes away, the first thing a dog may do is look for it. Usually he just glances at both sides of the handler’s body before looking up (having hands behind the back rather than at the side makes the context more black and white for both dog and handler). In a few seconds the dog will look demandingly into the handler’s eyes saying, “Well, where is it?” As instructors we always feel the same thrill as the handlers when the two-way communication starts.
Sometimes the dog will get up to look or to find something else to do. The handler just brings the food back and re-cues the sit in front. The dog must be food motivated for it to continue to work. Other dogs, especially those that have started training but have been continually cued by food, tend to avoid the issue by looking around or dropping their heads. Handlers must wait this out; saying nothing. Even these dogs will eventually take a peek at the handler’s eyes. Praise and reward must come immediately thereafter.
The dog quickly learns that front position with dropped arms means the “game” has started, i.e. the sooner he makes eye contact, the sooner he gets rewarded. For competition dogs part of the purpose for teaching an induced eye contact is to channel the intensity or drive for the food or ball into the front position. More on this concept will be detailed below. For pets a committed front is more than half the recall. A good recall depends on a dog enjoying and understanding being in front.
HANDLER ERRORS
What are the major handler errors? Most are impatient and want to do the work for the dog so they make noises, call his name, lean over to look in his eyes, touch him, etc. Patience is the key word. For inducive training to work at its best, the dog must stumble upon the learning rules himself. The handler cannot do the learning for the dog. The handler merely sets up the situation for the dog to learn.
The second error the handler may make is to see the eye contact but not react quickly enough to reward it; she ends up rewarding no eye contact. As an instructor it is not always possible to see the dog make eye contact with the handler, but there are usually facial cues. When we see these, we ask if the dog made eye contact. If the answer is affirmative, we can then point out that the dog received no feedback at the right moment. It only takes a few repetitions for the handler to begin to react appropriately. The dogs are usually patient because the food is holding them there.