Hello, Steve Mann here. Just a quick video just to give you a little tip on, for me, the number one exercise to teach any dog of any age as soon as possible, and that's eye contact. What I want from the dog is to... really work from an ethos that if they think there's something in it for them or they're a little bit concerned of the situation to look up to you and you'll give them access to what they need now that might be throwing a tennis ball it might be using the treats it may be any kind of scenario, whether you're stationary, it's a great core behaviour for your loose lead walking, the dog can't look at you and pull up the lead at the same time. But also if the dog's a little bit apprehensive, rather than barking and lunging, to put distance between themselves and the scary thing, if they look at you and you're aware of your dog's body language, you can increase that distance by you taking your dog away from the scary thing.
It's a much cheaper, less embarrassing, less stressful behaviour for the adult to have. show you. So, core of eye contact.
If their eyes are on you, there's a much better chance that their ears are on you as well. So, a couple of quick exercises to get you up and running. Packs.
So, the most basic core foundation you can build up simply by perhaps just drop a treat for your dog. And drop another one. And drop another one. This is the easy part.
Drop another one. And now this anticipation when the dog looks at you and says, Oi, where's my treat? You say, Good!
And then you drop another one. And when they look at you, Good! And then you drop another one. Good.
And then you drop another one. Then you can start adding a little bit of movement. So as you're walking, when the dog looks at you, good. As you're walking, dog looks at you, good.
Hop a lead on, you've got your nice smile. in lead, nice loose lead walking. The second method takes a little bit of patience, difficult one for us men, but takes a bit of patience, you're going to have treats in your hand out to the side, let your dog paw your hand, sniff your hand.
Do whatever they want. Plenty of trial and error. And that's healthy. Sooner or later, they're going to glance to you. And when they glance to you, you're going to mark that behaviour by saying good.
And then you're going to give them the treat. They learn the way to get what's over here is to go through you. So you're the conduit. You're the source of all the good stuff.
You're the keys to the kingdom. Happens through eye contact. So treats out to the side.
Good. And when the dog looks, say good and three. Let's do one this way. Hopefully you can see the pathway.
Good. And then one more. Bit of movement, make it harder.
Good! And the second he glances, good and three. There you go, in a nutshell, three minutes, not bad.
Eye contact, it's the core behaviour, it's the spine of everything. So it's the foundation. Seems basic, but you know, who wants advanced? Advanced is simply the basics done well. So work on those and the rest should fall into place.
Good luck. Enjoy your dog.