Dogs and Eye Contact

Dog training is about communication.

I want my dog to sit when I ask:

I lure her into a sit and reward her her for it.
I start to say sit and then lure her into it and reward her.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
After a few more trials she sits when I say sit.

I didn’t teach her how to sit. I taught her what the sit sound means.

In order to be successful, training needs to involve two way communication. While dogs don’t speak in sentences and it is literally impossible for us to get inside their heads they are constantly providing information to to us via body language and their behaviors.

There is one form of communication that we primates use that dogs can use in almost the same way: eye contact. Eye contact means you have my attention. When we call our dog’s name, what we are looking for is eye contact, very much the same way we expect it when we call a person’s name.

When we train behaviors such as wait, stay and heel, we shape our dogs into giving us eye contact. A good trainer never releases a dog from a wait or a stay without eye contact and most trainers are probably more concerned with where their dog is looking during a heel than anything else.

Last week I was out walking one of my dogs early in the morning. I was not feeling well and was really not very connected to Gage at the time. We walked across a long municipal parking lot that is always empty at that time of day to his favorite spot, just outside the entrance. This is a very quiet area and Gage is probably my best loose leash walker, so I can get away with not paying attention.

We got to the far end of the lot and went through the smaller part of the entrance gate for people. The larger part (for vehicles) was closed and locked. After we went through, we stopped. I stood there for a moment, probably still under the influence of Nyquil and definitely inadequately caffeinated. I looked down at Gage. His body was pointed across the entrance of the lot, directly at his favorite spot. He turned and looked me dead in the eye, as if to say Can we go there? I really need to go. We did, and he did.

We brought Gage into our home about 3 years ago. He was already 6 – 8 months old and terrified of everything, especially people. Getting any sort of eye contact from him was very difficult. He now uses it to tell me where to walk him.

Two-way communication indeed.