This is what I asked Silvia and her reply
"How can I keep Tibby interested in working with me?
After one click/treat she will walk away. I took a private lesson this week and our instructor said when that happens I should turn my back and wait for her to find me and make eye contact.
I know Tibby is hungry, because she only eats what I hand feed her (doing tricks, recalls and exercises). It doesn’t seem to matter if she hasn’t eaten all day long and we are working in the boringest place (bathroom) she will look at the wall or sniff the floor and ignore me.
She’s 11 months old, so she should have some attention span.
What am I doing wrong?"
Silvia said, "
Often, the problem is people try too hard to get the dog’s attention. They will bring the best treats, make funny noises, trying really hard to keep the dog’s attention. I think many dogs will understand that as a pressure, as a request to work with you. To this request, they can say yes or no, depending on how good treats one has, how hard one tries and how they feel at that moment. That’s why I prefer to not even ask questions. I will wait for the puppy to come to me herself, asking for attention. If I feel like saying yes, I will do a little something with her. If her focus waders off, that’s perfectly o.k., no hard feelings, no pressure, but the option to interact with me and earn treats is over, sorry, but I have other things to do as wait for the dog to notice I exist. – About what your instructor said, only that I usually give them even longer break (impossible in normal class situation, but definitely possible in our class!), if just coming to you for eye contact is enough, then she can still choose to first check out something and then come back to work some more. As I always say: don’t ask the dog to work with you. Let the dog ask to work with you. Don’t push for more. Let the dog push for more."
