Increase Your Dog’s Attention Span

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How To Increase Your Dog’s Attention Span: Use These 4 Simple Tips!

It is difficult to teach anything when your dog’s attention span is low. They need focus to learn commands and obedience.
Therefore, the first thing you need to do before beginning any training is to work on your puppy’s attention span, and everything else will follow.

Here are some of the ways you can improve your puppy’s attention span:

How To Get My Dog’s Attention: 4 Surefire Methods!

1. Use Their Name Positively

Calling your puppy’s name is one way to get their attention. Therefore, start by calling their name and letting them familiarize themselves with it. Once you call their name and they respond, give them a treat.

This way, they will associate their name with a positive outcome and become more eager to respond and receive other cues.
Improving your puppy’s attention span begins with them knowing what to respond to, their names first, and then commands and other cues. Get them to look at you, and you have their attention!

2. Teach Them Patience

The key to improving your dog’s attention span is teaching them to focus and how to overcome their impulses. Your dog cannot complete a task or activity if constantly distracted. Since patience yields focus, start by teaching them patience.

Call their name, have a treat in your hand, and let them wait a while before giving them the treat. Ask them to wait, leave the treat alone, or settle down first, and when they do this for as long as you need, grab their full attention, then give them the treat.

The goal is to keep them focused on you long enough to listen or take lessons without getting distracted by the busy surroundings.

3. Reward Patience & Good Behavior

Do not be afraid to show your dog that you are happy. Let them know that you are happy when they focus on you instead of taking one look and running off. Use a reward system for this so that it yields better results.

Your dog is eager and ready to please you. Therefore, when improving your puppy’s attention span, remember to reward their focus and attention using their favorite treats.

For instance, you can get their treat, call out their name, and when they come over to you, give a command that calls for patience, such as sit, settle down or wait, and once they are fully settled and undistracted by the treat, reward them for their impulse control.

3. Use A Clicker

Improving your dog’s attention span using your verbal commands is not sustainable in the long run. Using a clicker allows your dog to receive cues from other people even when you are not around.

Improving your puppy’s attention span calls for consistency, and the clicker gives you just that without relying on your tone of voice.

Looking To Improve Your Dog’s Attention Span?

While some of these methods sound easy, they require patience and expertise. At K9 Connection, we help train puppies and dogs in Fort Worth on how to focus and increase their attention span. Call us today for professional help!