Teaching Ben the 'Watch me!' command was tougher than I thought. After all, his girlfriend is in our class and he LOVES to stare at her!
As he was sitting in the heel position, before we start walking, I say 'Ben, Watch me!' and if he looks up at me, he gets a 'Good Dog!' and a small treat. if he doens't look, I take said small treat and wave it past his nose and immediately bring it up to my chin. When he looks at me, he gets the treat and praise.
NOW, the hard part...when I started weaning off of treats each time he 'Watched me!'...I started giving him a light tap on the top of his head...to redirect him to me...like reminder..."HELLO there....!!"
It's tough to get their attention when there is so much going on, but once you do...it's priceless.
Once in class, Ben was paying atttention to me during a heeling exercise, trotting happily at my side...he didn't see that he was headed towards a chair that was at the corner! BAM!!..right into it...I saw it and tried to avoid it...but he walked right into it...he got me back tho...herded me into it when we did about turns and walked me right into it!! :)
We're working on attention heeling, now with food...slowly weaning him off food rewards each time he gets it right.