Best methods for teaching focus? - Page 1

 Please bear with my very long post.  Unfortunately my question needs some background:

My dog (the one in my avatar) has been a huge learning experience for me.  I've had working line GSDs before (SAR and therapy), so when I met this hyper, disinterested-in-people dog at the shelter I thought he was a normal GSD that had just had a rough time.  I had worked at a veterinary clinic before, as well has helping out a breeder, so I temperament tested him myself and my results matched the shelter's: he's not people or dog aggressive, he's not body sensitive, and he doesn't resource guard.  I had no clue about the "hell dog" that would erupt once the "shelter depression" wore off and he realized my home was his home.  He paced, he circled, he got unmanageably excited over everything.  He wouldn't look me in the eye or pay attention to anything for more than a few seconds.  From the way he reacted to being outside (he nearly died from excitement) and household objects (he'd ignore five or six new toys, and me offering to play with him and try to play with his empty food dish instead) I've concluded that he he was badly neglected and kept locked up alone in deprived circumstances. He was somewhere around two years old, since his growth plates had fused, but he still had impeccable white puppy teeth -- and acted like an adolescent when he wasn't being crazy. Edited to add: his problem also wasn't *lack* of exercise.  I know how to keep a GSD fit and exercised (with my previous dogs it was 10 km minimum daily of walking or hiking, coupled with 20-50 minutes running, some fetch, some obedience practice).  To get this guy to calm down I actually had to cut down on the amount and intensity of exercise, since he starts freaking out (circling, mouthing, or digging) if I go for longer than 45 minutes.  I've increased the frequency with which I exercise him, and decreased the duration to compensate.  "A tired dog is a good dog" doesn't work for this guy.  

We've come a long way in the year since then -- his house manners are excellent, he looks at me when I say his name, he makes eye contact, he has the full suite of basic obedience (with come and stay not quite 100% over distance and around distractions, but getting there, and heel still a challenge for longer than a few meters), and he knows a variety of silly tricks that I taught him as a way of keeping is mind busy.  

My problem is that his focus is still fairly short, and he's still easily distractible, and this doesn't seem to be improving much.  Unfortunately I literally live at the back end of nowhere, and there aren't any dog sport clubs nearby that I could go to for help.  (There is Agility, but that's in the category of "too stimulating" for the boy -- when he gets excited he can't focus, and when he can't focus he can't learn.)  

All of this rambling is the contextual background for my question:  what is your favorite method of teaching and improving focus?  (I say teaching because I'm willing to go back to the beginning again and try retraining with a different technique if it will take us further.)  My goal is to improve his focus and therefore his self control, because I want to be able to take him to work with me which requires him to stay when I tell him to and *not* chase wildlife.  His prey drive is pretty high, and I don't need him hectoring up a bear or elk and bringing it back on both of us. So far he won't try to chase after deer, coyotes, rabbits or ground squirrels if he's on leash and I tell him to leave it, but I would like to get him to the point where I don't need the leash.

In advance, thanks for reading and for your replies!

Sounds like he's come a long way with your help :) I have an (extremely!) overly reactive collie...everything keys her up. I know the amount of work that goes into dealing with a dog like that.

Does he like food? I first taught the watch me command with this technique: place the dog's food bowl out of reach...if he's hungry he'll try to get at it, look at it, maybe bark. As soon as my dog glanced at me I would click and then grab food out of the bowl for him. After a few clicks he began to learn that looking at me released food from the bowl.

If his prey drive is high...I know you said that he wasn't interested in toys but sometimes with older dogs (as in, not puppies which are easier to deal with) that haven't been worked with before, they don't understand "play", they don't understand "toy", and it takes the right kind of object to bring their focus. My dog couldn't give a flying flip about balls when I first got him, or tugs. He hadn't been worked with much at all, had been a kennel dog and knew how to walk on a leash. But I knew he had high prey drive so I tried out a puppy rag...he LOVES it. It's more "prey like" than a ball, if you think about the ways you can move it.

Also, I'd keep in mind and you may already realize this, but its worth sayin ;), that since it seems like he hasn't been worked with before, hasn't had much interaction...focus is something that is learned. If you had gotten him as a puppy, most of it would have come naturally from his experience of you as food provider, etc. I think it's incredible that he has come so far in so short a time! You may just have to look at it from a more...scientific (?) perspective...rather than something that comes naturally from training obedience. Try to get him to look at you for five seconds, then reward, then move up slowly, etc. Practice the command in distractions...does he have a watch me command?

Edit:
Hmmm I reread your post and I guess I answered your question...in a roundabout way ha! I guess for specific techniques, you might want to look into clicker training as long as the noise doesn't key him up to much. It's been really useful with my 2 year old shepherd, the one I mention in the above paragraphs....it is more difficult training a fully grown untrained shepherd than a puppy and even though I previously dismissed clicker training as a fad, it has been very helpful in helping me mark the SPECIFIC behavior as it happens. Very helpful if you want to treat focus work as something that should be trained and want to progress in measurable intervals. It also makes your expectations very clear to the dog, once you have imprinted the meaning of the click. Personally, it allows me to measurably progress from 5 seconds to 10 seconds, etc. You can also do this without the clicker and just use your voice as the marker.

Ah, another reactive dog owner!  Until you have one I don't think it's easy to understand just what a challenge they are.

Falco likes food, but not as much as distractions/novelty.  I can quite literally fast him for a day, and then work on training with roast chicken bits and liver (his favorites) and it won't compete with the dog retrieving a ball 1 km away, or the bit of litter blowing down the street 0.5 km away.  He's pretty hypervigilant. :D

The focus and eye contact and name recognition I have managed to teach him has all been taught using the method you describe: holding out a treat so he could see it but not get it, waiting until he looked at me in frustration ("Why aren't you giving me the treat?") and then rewarding him.  I've also worked on using toys as a reward (he's learned to fetch and is very good at it provided there are no distractions, he's learned to tug and is great provided there are no distractions...).  You get the idea!  Basically we seem to have hit a wall where I can get him to focus provided there aren't any more potent distractions for about 2 minutes, but not for longer.  And if there is a distraction I can't recall his attention (or prevent it from straying) in anything like a timely manner.  He has gotten better -- before I couldn't get him to switch focus at all.  Now he does eventually, but sometimes I don't have time to simply restrain him and wait ten or fifteen minutes for him to calm down and return his focus to me.

Maybe the only solution is to just keep doing what we've been doing and wait until he gets better on his own, but I was hoping there might be something I hadn't tried that would help us break the current performance barrier (which hasn't improved in over a month).  He knows "Look" (Look where I'm pointing), looks at me when I say his name (and will hold eye contact for up to 2 minutes), and has up to three minutes on passive attention (i.e. lie down and look at me uncued to get something he wants).  Unfortunately I'm not having much luck teaching longer active or passive attention around distractions.  If he looks at something (like kids playing in the distance) he'll keep looking.  If we're walking he'll keep going loose leash, and if he's sitting or lying down he'll stay in that position, but his attention won't switch back to me of its' own accord. 

Thanks for the feedback -- it's good to hear from someone else that I'm apparently not missing something obvious!

Introduce "Watch me" command and use it every day for EVERYTHING, meaning "Look me in the eyes t get what you want". The dog has to understand the command before corrections are introduced and they will be needed, for a time). It's a process, but if incorporated into the daily life, it won't be long.

You want this ball ? - Watch me.

You want this treat? Watch me.

You want this tug? Watch me.

You want to play the tug of war? Watch me.

You want your food bowl? Watch me.

You want to get out of the crate? Watch me.

You want to go for a walk? Watch me.

You want to get out of the car? Watch me.

You want to do some trainng? Watch me.

You want me to open this door,so you can pass through? Watch me.

You get the idea. There is your focus.

Adding distractions...

This is a bit harder,then teaching watch me without distractions. You will need another person as help.

Say, your dog is doing wonderfuly after a period of time and watches you intently on cue. Okay?

It's time to bulletproof that now and it requires a bit of planning.

Easiest to do it is to play the tug of war.

Play tug with your dog and have fun for a minute with him.

Another person comes by holding a tug too.

Keep playing with your dog and ignoring the other person.

If the dog...

Leaves you and bolts and wants to play the tug of war withanother person - LET HIM. You do NOTHING. Just stand there.

The other person should hold the tug against its thigh and give the dog NO ENJOYMENT WHATSOEVER. If the dog is pulling like mad trying to make something happenng, the other person makes no effort whatsoever to engage the dog. Nothing. A statue holding a tug.

The other person should convey the picture to the dog like this is the boringest, stupidest, least amount of fun person I have EVER met.

Remember, you say nothing, you do nothing, you don't even (seemingly look at the dog. Of course you are watching him like a hawk, but it should appear to the dog you are not.

After a while, the dog is ... wtf is this here? It may release the tug, look up at a person, bark or do whatever.

Eventualy, out of frustration, confusion, puzzlement, whatever - it'll look at you.

The VERY INSTANT that happens, call him up, offer the tug and play vigorously,like you have been waiting for that moment all your life.

Repeat that again and again and again.

The dog will get the message that other people, let's call them distractions are not worth bothering with at all and you are sunshine, my only sunchine, you make me happy when skies are gray and so on...

Then, after a while when that is working well. Kick it up a notch.

Play tug of war with yor dog having grea fun and have that other person, or 3rd person, even better is "actively" trying to get in on the game with you guys, to make it a manage trois. The instant the dog stopsplaying with you and tries to include the 3rd person, that person becomes a post again, the boringest person ever. Dog looks at you, the play resumes.

And so on and so on, you get the picture.

The last kickin' it up a notch, which may or may not be possible, is have another person and their dog play in the immediate vincinity of your dog and you.

It shold be a good person with a reliable dog. They play their tug or war and if your dog tries to join the party, he gets NO enjoyment whatsoever. He is ignored like a dork at a party with swimsuit models. Nothing, totaly ignored.

He looks or comes to you, fun times resume.

He looks or comes to you, fun times resume.

Hope that helps. It's not easy, but it's bulletproof. After the dog has done all that he will look at NOTHING bt you.

Of course this is easier said than done, and it requires real work.

I am also hypocritical a bit as well. My dog that went through this will do everyting exactly as described, but if there is a squirrel, he is off. I will probably never be able to cure him off of that, as that is his favorite activity, so I don't want to be an unreasonable jerk there. You can chase squirrels, fine, I can live with that. Other people and dogs are my main focus.

Oh, also, squirrel chasing is my fault completely, he has been encouraged to do that as a puppy, so Adi introduced it and Adi doesn't take it away.

Hope that helps.

 Thank you!  That does help.  That's a great suggestion for introducing distractions.  I'll have to draft a couple of friends to help out with it.  The finals step with the other dog would be really helpful as well (because Falco loves other dogs and loves to play), but finding someone with a suitable dog might be a real challenge.  

I've been working on the basic "watch", but it seems like he can only hold it for so long (because he gets bored, I suspect -- he's very easily distracted).  Maybe introducing some of the harder stuff in a carefully controlled way will help more than hammering away at the easier levels.  If it doesn't work we'll just go back to basics and try building up again.  

For your own squirrel issue I've actually heard a suggestion that I haven't tried myself (for what it's worth).  You can make squirrel chasing a reward that you do together (on a leash, and yes you have to run after the squirrel with the dog).  Like other cues it's on your say so -- at first you tell the dog to do something easy like sitting and then you reward with a short squirrel chase.  Apparently if you keep doing this at a high frequency, and then taper off (but still keep in in your repertoire as a special reward), the dog will leave off chasing on their own and look to you on the chance that you might reward him or her with a nice group hunt for a squirrel.  As I said, I've never used it myself so I don't know how well it works, but it's something I do intend to try with my fellow at some point.

The way I build up focus or attentiveness is to eliminate verbal commands and go to hand signals only.  This phase only happens once they are very solid on the stay, come, down etc....


Works for me. 

 :D Thank you!  You've just pointed out a hole in my training to me.  I use hand signals first with most things, and only teach the verbal once the behavior is 95% there.  I don't use a hand signal for "watch me", though, neither for active or passive attention.  What signal(s) do you use for this?  

Edited because it's late and I can't think so well myself.  Excuse me please, I also meant to ask if you meant that you don't use verbal cues at all, just hand signals to keep the dog looking at you.  This is something I could see helping Falco in the future, but I'm not so certain how effective it would be right now.  He'll be so focused on checking what's going on everywhere around us (even when it's quiet) that it's sometimes difficult to get him to twitch an ear in acknowledgement of being spoken to.  He'll usually turn and look at me now, but it takes anywhere up to 15 minutes if there's something interesting going on.  I don't dull the cue by repetition, either, it's just that his brain sometimes still runs like a hamster on a wheel when confronted with competing stimuli.

I don't have a signal for watch me.  Here is a scenerio:

The dog is sitting at my side in the heel position.
Leave her on a stay leading with right foot, and hand signal only.  If she moves correct. Walk out to the end of the leash, face the dog.
Return to heel and do it again, until she doesn't move when I lead off with right foot and hand signal. Ending on a positive. Repeat at the next training session.


Or,
The dog is sitting at my side in the heel position.
Leave her on a stay, now I am standing out at the end of the leash.
Wait for her to look away or set her up to have some noise behind her that she will want to look at, give hand signal for come, she misses it, correct.
Leave her on a stay again, wait for her to look away, give signal correct.
In the beginning expect to do this 3 times or so,
As soon as you can see her watching you  a bit longer and ignoring her desire to look away, give the hand signal so she DOES see it and is successful. Reward and stop.

This still isn't helping her lagging on a heel!  But, has really worked on all other commands.

Well, it seems from other posts that people are describing two different methods (more like schools of thought?) for teaching the focus..
Correct the dog if the dog looks away
Reward the dog if it looks at the handler
(or a combo of the two)
I guess I just don't see the point of setting the dog up to look away and then giving a correction before the dog actually knows what is expected of it by teaching the command "watch me". And it's not like teaching it as a command limits you, because there are techniques for fading it into other commands based in learning theory and animal behavior. I forget the order because I'm not to that point yet in "fuss", it's still mostly just a position right now, but you place the words together "fuss watch me" or the other way around (don't remember) and then you start to test if the dog understands the word by itself.

Also, practicing the command "watch me" doesn't limit you to having a dog just focus on you for the command. It reinforces focus at other times as well, through practice.

Another thing: make sure that while at the beginning you are rewarding consistently for a behavior, as you transition into a maintenance phase you should train (at home first) with random rewards. This actually increases the desire to perform a behavior (from animal behavior/learning theory).

I personally like Adi's method and use that...it does take a lot of time and effort! But I think it's worth it.