How do I get my dogs attention?
It’s a common question. Normally starts with “…at home they always respond, but they are too distracted at a show…”
Think about it, at home it’s just you and your dog and you have the treats, therefore, you are the person of highest value.
At a show, there are smells, other dogs, other people, other treats. The list goes on and it’s no wonder some dogs loose interest in their owner/handler.
Quite often you see this and there is the lacking bond between dog and owner/handler and where the dog lacks willingness to please it’s owner..
What can you do?
Short term, you need to be the most high value person/thing on the showground. Using high value toys and treats will help.
Long term is more training. Get you and your dog on a one to one basis out to as many distracting areas and do some training. Not always show training, but tricks, basic obedience and have games. Ringcrafts can be great for also practice working on their attention while doing show ring training, likewise any training class you and your dog will enjoy together where there are many other distractions.
Case study
When Giles was younger he would easily get bored in the show ring if he was in a big class. As a pup he was used to classes of 2-3 and was always beaten by his sister, so never got a group experience either. So, when we came into bigger classes, his attention span would go. Standing around was boring!!!
My answer was simply to keep his attention. He loves to please, he loves his tricks too. In the ring I would ask for some quite and calm behaviors which he knew. His interest was back to me. A cuddle or two never went amiss either. This keeps his attention on me and by the time it’s his turn, well it’s just another behaviour I’m asking of him and he does it with a smile.