The Inside Scoop On How To Get Your Dog To Obey You Even When You Can’t See It.

Dogs like to see your eyes when you are training them. They also judge you by your facial expressions. This is why if your growl and bare your teeth when the dog does something unacceptable, they will take much more notice that if you yell at them or even use the ‘No’ command.

There may be occasions when you want your dog to obey you even when it cannot see your face, or perhaps can’t even see you at all. This sort of obedience has to depend on voice command only.

When you are training your dog, if he barks or misbehaves in some other way, a good trick is to simply turn your back on him. He doesn’t like this and will immediately come in front of you to see you. That is when you need to repeat the command. It will surprise you how well this works.

But when you use this tip in your training it may make your dog less likely to obey you when your back is turned. So you will also have to use the technique described below in an occasional training session.

You can get more tips on training your dog from the book ‘Secrets to Dog Training’

What I did was to turn my back and have Cooper come from behind me and sit between my legs. I then gave the ‘back’ command for him to walk backwards away from me. To help me know what was happening (remember, my back was turned so I could not see) I did this with me standing in front of a wide screened TV where I could see his reflection. You can see me doing this in the video below (without the assistance of the TV screen).

Click on picture to see video

The real scoop here is that your dog has to absolutely trust you to give it the confidence to do this. The dog must also be good at responding to verbal commands (some dogs prefer to respond to signals).

My Dad had working dogs on a sheep property and they used to respond to a series of his whistles. As a child, I thought this was absolutely amazing. I still think it is amazing – not only because Dad could have so many different whistles for different actions, but that the dogs could hear and understand them. He would also add some words like ‘whoa’, ‘over’, ‘still’ etc.

There are some actions you ask your dog to do in training that for some reason excite him and he may bark or spin in his excitement. This is not desirable and if you really want to stop it, you must not click when he does it (even though he is obeying the initial command).

For example, if you send your dog to a mark, he needs to stand over the mark, not sit. The importance of the mark in your dog training will be available in another course. If you are interested in receiving this second course, please let me know. (email link)

In the video below you will see how Cooper gets excited and barks when doing a trick. I have decided to let this occur as I think in a movie or TV ad that could be an added attraction for that activity. Have a look at the video below and see what you think.

 Click on picture to see video

When you are teaching your dog to do a long drop, make sure that at times you move out of his view. Obedience training encourages this too.  Just don’t leave him for too long at first. Just a few seconds, then build it up to a minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes etc. Also have a friend assist (once you are confident he will not break) by walking past him. When you think he is very reliable at this activity, have your friend walk past with another dog – just ask them not to get too close. As soon as this happens, reappear, click and reward.

For more ideas on how to train your dog, get this book, The ‘Secrets to Dog Training’