Watch me

Your dog meets your eyes and holds the contact on cue — the fastest way to get their attention back before it goes somewhere else.

🐾 · ~7 days · 5 min/session

Learn first: Name recognition

Step-by-step

1. Reward the first eye contact

   Stand calmly in front of your dog with a treat in a closed hand by your side. Say nothing — just wait. The second your dog lifts their eyes to your face, say “Yes!” and reward. Repeat until the looks start coming on their own.

   💡 Don’t loom over your dog or stare hard — for many dogs, especially shy ones, that’s uncomfortable pressure. Stand upright with a soft face.

2. Lure from the nose to your eyes

   If your dog doesn’t offer a look, hold a treat at their nose and slowly raise it to a point between your eyes. Their gaze follows your hand and lands on your face. Mark the moment your eyes meet and deliver the treat straight away.

3. Add one second at a time

   Once the look is reliable, wait one second before you mark, then two, then three. Count in your head and reward before your dog looks away — that way they’re never confused about what’s being paid for. If a rep fails, drop back to a shorter count and carry on.

   💡 Five or six seconds is plenty. The goal is a short, dependable look, not a staring contest.

4. Add the cue “Watch me”

   Say “Watch me” right before you raise your hand to your face, once the movement already works without fail. After a few days, pause for a second after the word — most dogs will look up on the cue alone. Say the cue only once.

5. Fade the treat from your hand

   Make the same motion with an empty hand and reward from your other hand or your pocket. Gradually shrink the gesture to a brief point at your face, and then to the word alone. This way your dog answers the cue instead of tracking food.

6. Use it in real life

   Ask for “Watch me” before crossing a street, when another dog appears in the distance, or before you open the car door. Train first at a distance from the trigger where your dog can still think. Reward generously — this is the hardest version of the trick.

   💡 Ask for the look before your dog locks on to the trigger, not after. Once they’ve fixated, they can barely hear you.

Common mistakes

• Repeating “watch, watch, watch” while the dog stares elsewhere — the cue loses its value.
• Keeping the treat by your face for too long — the dog learns to watch the hand rather than your eyes.
• Jumping from one second to ten in two days — the dog fails, and failures eat away at the cue.
• Leaning over the dog with a hard stare — a shy dog reads that as a threat and turns their head away.

Problems & solutions

My dog watches my hand, not my face.

Hold your hand right beside your eyes and only mark when the gaze shifts to your face, not while it’s still on your fingers. Then put the hand behind your back right after the cue and reward from your pocket. A few reps and your dog works out where to look.

My dog looks away the moment I meet their eyes.

Looking away is a calming signal, not disobedience. Stand side-on with a soft face and reward even a half-second glance without holding it. If your dog consistently avoids eye contact, find a behaviourist who works force-free.

On walks I can’t get even a second of attention.

You’re standing too close to whatever has your dog’s attention. Move away until they can take food calmly from your hand again, and ask for the look from there. Use rewards you never use at home, and count short glances as success.

Reward ideas

Small soft treats fed straight into the mouth so the gaze doesn’t drop to the floor. Outdoors, save the best — chicken or cheese — only for a look given around distractions.