Look At Me: The Command and Ques You Should Be Teaching Your Dog

Caution: I am not a professional dog trainer, just a dog mom who wants to have happy, healthy pups in my life.

Eye contact wasn't exactly something I paid attention to while training my first 4 month old pup, Zion (now 2.5 yrs). I did notice he looked at me a lot in new experiences and just hanging out with him he would watch me (see photo above). It wasn't until I started training my new dog Lassen that I realized how important eye contact can be to help create a safe way to experience the world and to allow them to show you what's going on in their heads. Here are the 4 reasons why I am consciously teaching my dogs eye contact.

It shows them that you=good

I personally use the que, "look at me", but you can use whatever works best for you. Make sure it doesn't sound like another command, specially as puppies, it is hard for them to understand the difference. For example, Lassen believes sit and stay sound JUST like speak so we get mixed results. Start out easy and just a simple command like sit, wait for them to look at you (in the eye not at the treat next to your eyes). Reward once they do the command and look at you. Just simply waiting for them to do both, signals that it's you NOT THE TREAT is the good thing. Although I love when my dogs have a bit of independence, early on rewarding them for checking in with you or just looking at you will make a drastic difference in the relationship that you and your dog have. We want them to believe that YOU=GOOD

Eye contact can show you their limits

My dogs are, pretty obviously, different breeds and it's been an adjustment to learn how to train Lassen who is significantly more reactive and stimulated. She's not a bad dog, they just learn how to interact with the world different. Including the command "look at me" actually allows my dog to express their limitations and boundaries to me so I can actually help her. This is mostly on walks. Zion can go off and smell the world to feel comfortable but Lassen's limits which are currently on leash and about 6 feet away without issues. I realized this with the look at me, command. She communicates by either listening to me, or not. If she is looking at me, she is within her limits and able to trust that I have everything under control. If she is unable to look at me, she is uncomfortable in her situation and cannot focus on the task at hand. That is the time I need to redirect or shorten the leash.

If there's a problem, they will look to you for guidance

Eventually focusing on their limits will lead to this. We do a lot of hiking which is why we don't do a lot of heel training. I want them to be hiking in front of us so we can see them. Although we don't use the command look at me, we reward what we call check ins during hikes. This may be controversial, but we do not leash our dogs on hikes unless we see other dogs (mostly because we do not know about the other dog). This is two fold: 1) so they have an opportunity to run away from threats if necessary. 2) They can explore the world but are learning the limitations. Those limitations come with check ins and staying in front of us. Check ins are any time the pups stop and look back at us and any time they walk up to us. We reward with praise and treats if needed. I would argue most of the time being in nature is reward enough for them. lol.

Staring=I love you

Have you ever seen your dog just lay down and stare at you? This is a common find on the internet. They are in love with you. It should be something that gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling when you see it. Spending some time focusing on eye contact with your dog can strengthen that bond and make it easier to train and enrich your dog's life. Life can go by really fast and every once in a while you need a reminder of just how important you are to your dog's life. Savor these moments and your life will be happier.