Train the dog to look at his owner

[astra]

This is the simplest and probably the most important exercise. I suggest that you practice this exercise first since it helps gain your dog's attention, which is crucial for proper training.

To perform this exercise:
1. Have a treat or toy in your hand.
2. Place it somewhere in front of your dog so his head is facing up and looking towards your face.
3. Say "Look At Me."
4. When your dog makes eye contact, say "good girl" and give her the treat.

[flyndog]

You are right! You can't teach if you don't the student's attention. When luring "Look", I like to hold the treat between the index and middle finger of my right hand and bring my hand up to the space between my eyes. That eventually becomes a hand signal for "Look".

[Sophie45]

I use the word 'focus'-same thing-and it has been a great success!
Easy to teach, too.

[Flutterby]

I use "watch me"

[Kona]

Keep in mind that dogs don't speak English (or whatever language you speak at home). Whatever word or phrase that you teach your dog means "Hey, look at me!" is the word or phrase that you'll need to say for the next 15 years to get your dog to look at you. I don't want to have to say "Focus" or "Watch me" for the rest of her life when all I want to do is get her attention. And there's no point in transitioning to a hand signal because the dog has to be looking at you already in order to see the signal.

Also remember that there are no such things as names in the society that dogs evolved to live in. Dogs don't use names to get each others attention or to differentiate one dog from another. When you say a dog's name, she simply associates that sound with whatever activity or reward or correction that it most often occurs with.

Ask yourself this question: what do you want your dog to do when you say her name? Not come to you; that's what the recall is for. Not stop her from doing something inappropriate; that teaches her to fear her name. Not praise her; that confuses her when you say her name and it's not associated with praise or a reward. The whole purpose of a dog's name is to get her attention.

For these reasons, I think the best word to use to teach your dog to look at you and stay focused on you is her name. Start by putting your dog on a leash and having her sit or lay quietly at your feet. When she's not looking at you, hold a small treat close to your face and calmly say her name. She probably won't look at you. Not because she didn't hear you, but because the sound that you made has no strong association in her mind, and you didn't sound particularly excited when you said it. If she doesn't look at you, make the treat a "magnet." Put it in front of her nose and pull her attention to you by bringing the treat up to your face. As soon as she is looking in the direction of your face, say her positive word or phrase ("Good!") and the immediately pop the treat in her mouth. Then calmly look away.

She'll probably think it was a one-time deal and look away herself. When she does, take another treat, hold it close to your face and calmly say her name again. This time she'll probably look at you quickly. It doesn't often take more than two or three repetitions of this exercise for a dog to realise that her name + looking at you = a yummy treat.

What usually happens next is that she tries cutting out the first part of that equation. In other words, maybe just looking at you = a yummy treat. If she looks at you before you say her name, simply ignore her. Calmly look away. If she tries to escalate the situation by barking, pawing at you, or jumping on you ("Hey, I'm looking at you! Where's my treat?"), then she's being rude and she should get an appropriate correction along with with her negative word. As soon as she's looking away, take out another treat and do the exercise again. These short exercises allow her to learn exactly what you want her to learn:

1. When she hears her name, if she turns and looks, she'll get a treat.
2. If she looks at you on her own, she is neither rewarded or corrected.
3. If she tries to initiate getting a reward by using inappropriate behavior, she'll get a correction.

Once these lessons are clear in her mind, then it's time to draw out her ability to remain focused on you. Do this by repeating the exercise: she's on a leash, sitting or laying quietly at your feet, not looking at you, hold the treat close to your face, quietly say her name, she turns and looks, you say her positive word... and then count silently to yourself for three seconds before giving her the reward.

She'll be expecting the reward immediately at this point, so the three seconds of waiting may confuse her or cause her stress. If she looks away before the three seconds are up, do it again but only pause for one second. Once she realizes that she now has to wait just one tiny second before collecting her reward, then make it two seconds, and then three.

She initially learned that her name means "Turn and look at mom and you'll get a reward." Then she learns that her name means "Turn and focus on mom for just a couple of seconds and you'll get a reward." At this point you can start drawing out her attention for as long as you'd like by teaching her to wait six seconds, and then nine seconds, and then twelve seconds . As with all other training of commands, keep the talking to just the words you want her to learn (Name, Positive Word, Negative Word). Anything else at this point will only confuse her ("Come on now sweety, look at Mommy, look this way, what's wrong precious, don't you want your yummy treat?").

Also remember, never use your dog's name as part of a correction ("Junior, bad dog!"), and never use her name in conjunction with any action or process that she doesn't like ("Fluffy, get in the bath!"), at least while the learning process in in the acquisition phase.