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Checking in with us is one of the most important habits we want our dogs to develop. We start teaching this when they are babies by rewarding eye contact whenever it is offered to us. We want our dogs to offer it easily and without really thinking about it throughout their lives.
What does checking-in look like? Your dog momentarily connects with you through eye contact, without being cued to do so. This behaviour is not cued; it is offered voluntarily by your dog.
There are many reasons to encourage your dog to check in with you. When he is unsure what to do in a given situation, he'll learn to check in with you for guidance. If he needs your help with something, he will know that he can get your attention by looking at you, instead of whining or barking. Connecting with us through eye contact is a behaviour we want our dogs to rely on throughout their lives. Checking in with you is also a great foundation behaviour for loose leash walking and for greeting people politely.
Checking in needs to be captured and reinforced as often as possible during regular day-to-day life, and not something that should be reinforced only during formal training sessions. No matter where you are or what you are doing, if you catch your dog looking your way, capture it and reward it!
We can also encourage our dogs to check-in with us by following us and walking close to us.
You can also play check-in games to set your dog up to offer this behaviour: Watch me! Find me! Walk with me! Notice that in these games, I am not saying a word! I am letting my dog figure out what works to earn the click and treat: looking at me, turning towards me, finding me, catching up to me, walking with me! All these are wonderful behaviours that we want our dogs to develop. Have fun with these games in your house and yard and build the habit of checking in with you!
Watch me! Your dog looks at you and gives you eye contact.
Drop a treat on the ground, wait for her to find and eat it and lift her head, then click when she looks at you or even if she just finds your face.
Then drop another treat on the floor, which sets her up to look back up at you after she eats the treat. In this way you create a loop: she looks, you click, you drop the treat, she eats the treat, she looks back up at you, you click, etc. You can work on this loop for one or two minutes at a time.
Watch me! with Remi:
Drop a treat on the ground, wait for her to find and eat it and lift her head, then click when she looks at you or even if she just finds your face.
Then drop another treat on the floor, which sets her up to look back up at you after she eats the treat. In this way you create a loop: she looks, you click, you drop the treat, she eats the treat, she looks back up at you, you click, etc. You can work on this loop for one or two minutes at a time.
Watch me! with Remi:
Find me! Your dog turns away from other things in the environment to find you!
In this game, we are teaching your dog to orient and turn towards you. So often with dogs we end up pulling them towards us, away from things in the environment. Much better if our pups choose us instead.
Click when your dog looks at you, drop a treat in front of him, and walk around to his tail. As soon as he turns back to you, click, drop the next treat, and repeat.
Practice this in your house and then in your yard. If he takes awhile to find the treat, especially if it's in the grass, just wait. Don't call him, don't try to hurry him up. The point is for him to choose to find you after he eats his treat. Just wait him out!
In this game, we are teaching your dog to orient and turn towards you. So often with dogs we end up pulling them towards us, away from things in the environment. Much better if our pups choose us instead.
Click when your dog looks at you, drop a treat in front of him, and walk around to his tail. As soon as he turns back to you, click, drop the next treat, and repeat.
Practice this in your house and then in your yard. If he takes awhile to find the treat, especially if it's in the grass, just wait. Don't call him, don't try to hurry him up. The point is for him to choose to find you after he eats his treat. Just wait him out!
Walk with me! Your dog follows you and walks by your side.
In this game we are teaching your dog to return to your side as you are moving forward. We want her to want to walk close to you, whether on leash or off leash. It's not a formal heel, but it teaches her that walking by your side is a rewarding place to be.
Step 1: Lure her to your side, click and toss a treat behind you as she comes into position beside you. Tossing the treat behind you creates a loop that sets her up to catch up to you again.
Step 2: Only click and toss the treat after she has walked a step or two at your side.
Step 3: Vary the time your dog needs to walk with you before you click and treat, until you can walk together for longer stretches. But don't make it too hard! And don't always make it harder. For example, if she eventually does 5 steps beside you, then next time click and toss a treat for three steps. Ping pong back and forth between shorter and longer stretches.
In this game we are teaching your dog to return to your side as you are moving forward. We want her to want to walk close to you, whether on leash or off leash. It's not a formal heel, but it teaches her that walking by your side is a rewarding place to be.
Step 1: Lure her to your side, click and toss a treat behind you as she comes into position beside you. Tossing the treat behind you creates a loop that sets her up to catch up to you again.
Step 2: Only click and toss the treat after she has walked a step or two at your side.
Step 3: Vary the time your dog needs to walk with you before you click and treat, until you can walk together for longer stretches. But don't make it too hard! And don't always make it harder. For example, if she eventually does 5 steps beside you, then next time click and toss a treat for three steps. Ping pong back and forth between shorter and longer stretches.
More detailed information on developing check-ins!
If you would like to follow a detailed process for building the check-in/eye contact behaviour in your dog, you can follow the steps below. (Acknowledgement to Nancy Tucker and her Knock, Knock: From Chaos to Calm course at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy for much of the materila described in these steps.)
Teach your dog to check in with you, especially when something changes in the environment. Throughout the day, when your dog happens to make eye contact with you, mark with Yes or a clicker. Feed, move away and mark/treat again.
Do this at least once whenever something changes about the situation when you are with your dog (leaving the house, coming back inside, bicycle appearing, someone coming home, just met another dog and you're walking away, etc.) You can practice this going back and forth between rooms in your house.
There is lots to learn from this wonderful video of a puppy checking in:
Do this at least once whenever something changes about the situation when you are with your dog (leaving the house, coming back inside, bicycle appearing, someone coming home, just met another dog and you're walking away, etc.) You can practice this going back and forth between rooms in your house.
There is lots to learn from this wonderful video of a puppy checking in:
- Every time the puppy looks at the person, the check-in is marked with a clicker or the word "yes". This lets the puppy know what behaviour is earning the treat.
- Food, a toy, and petting are all used to let the puppy know how wonderful it is to look at her person! You can see how much the puppy enjoys all three. It's important to make sure you rward with things your puppy or dog likes, otherwise you may inadvertently punish the behaviour.
- The person never solicits the puppy's attention. She moves around to change the environment and then waits until the puppy looks at her. It is much more powerful if your puppy chooses to look at you than if she looks at you because you ask her.
Once your dog is in the habit of checking in with you, we can add some distractions and a leash and harness, in order to create different contexts. Note that this is different from the "yield to leash pressure" exercise - in these exercises we are not applying any pressure.
Always start in a low distraction area and work your way up to areas with higher distractions.
Step 1: You started inside your home off leash.
Step 2: Now you can take it outside but in lower distraction areas such as a deck or yard. Watch Benny check in with Nancy Tucker in the yard.
Step 3: Now you can practice going in and out the main door of your house - the door you use to go for a walk. Watch Benny check in with Nancy Tucker at the door.
Optional Step 4: Practice getting in and out of the car if this is a time your dog gets really excited. Start in your driveway.
Follow the detailed, step-by-step instructions in this file.
During the learning process, mark and treat every single time your dog checks in with you. Later, when your dog is offering this behavior reliably, you’ll be able to taper the treats and the reward will be to move forward.
Always start in a low distraction area and work your way up to areas with higher distractions.
Step 1: You started inside your home off leash.
Step 2: Now you can take it outside but in lower distraction areas such as a deck or yard. Watch Benny check in with Nancy Tucker in the yard.
Step 3: Now you can practice going in and out the main door of your house - the door you use to go for a walk. Watch Benny check in with Nancy Tucker at the door.
Optional Step 4: Practice getting in and out of the car if this is a time your dog gets really excited. Start in your driveway.
Follow the detailed, step-by-step instructions in this file.
During the learning process, mark and treat every single time your dog checks in with you. Later, when your dog is offering this behavior reliably, you’ll be able to taper the treats and the reward will be to move forward.
Once your dog has successfully gotten into the habit of checking in with you in low-distraction scenarios, it’s time to increase the level of difficulty a notch or two by taking the behaviour on the road.
Ideally, take your dog to a relatively quiet spot to walk. If this isn’t an option for you, work with what you’ve got. Just keep in mind that practicing in an area with lots of distractions might require extra patience on your part. If you work in an area that makes it more challenging for your dog to check in with you, his efforts should also be rewarded more frequently and generously. Big effort, big pay!
Your dog is on-leash for this exercise. Even while you practice the check-in exercises “on the road”, make sure to give your dog ample opportunities to sniff and explore. The point of these foundation exercises isn’t to frustrate our dogs or make walking boring by insisting they pay attention to us and not to their environment. We want them to stay connected with us, yes, but we also want to make sure we meet their needs. A dog whose needs are met is a calmer, happier dog.
Solicit his attention: As you’re walking along, feel free to get your dog’s attention by making noise such as whistling or kissy sounds or saying your dog’s name to encourage him to look at you. When he does, mark the moment and reward with a treat.
Repeat this frequently, maybe every 6-10 steps at first. Every time you deliver a treat, let your dog know he can return to walking and sniffing as he was (for example, you can say, “Let’s go!”).
Give him the silent treatment: After many repetitions of attracting his attention with noises, try staying quiet as you continue walking and see how long it takes for him to check in on his own volition. Be patient, observe him carefully, and when he glances your way spontaneously, capture it and reward it!
If he never checks in with you after you’ve gone quiet, you may need to practice doing more repetitions getting his attention with sounds, or maybe the environment you’re in is too much of a jump from the last quiet area where you practiced, and you need to look for something in between.
Remember that we’re always looking for opportunities to reinforce the behaviour we want (in this case, checking in), so make sure you’re making it easy for your dog to do this.
Watch Nancy Tucker's dog Benni check in with her on a walk.
Ideally, take your dog to a relatively quiet spot to walk. If this isn’t an option for you, work with what you’ve got. Just keep in mind that practicing in an area with lots of distractions might require extra patience on your part. If you work in an area that makes it more challenging for your dog to check in with you, his efforts should also be rewarded more frequently and generously. Big effort, big pay!
Your dog is on-leash for this exercise. Even while you practice the check-in exercises “on the road”, make sure to give your dog ample opportunities to sniff and explore. The point of these foundation exercises isn’t to frustrate our dogs or make walking boring by insisting they pay attention to us and not to their environment. We want them to stay connected with us, yes, but we also want to make sure we meet their needs. A dog whose needs are met is a calmer, happier dog.
Solicit his attention: As you’re walking along, feel free to get your dog’s attention by making noise such as whistling or kissy sounds or saying your dog’s name to encourage him to look at you. When he does, mark the moment and reward with a treat.
Repeat this frequently, maybe every 6-10 steps at first. Every time you deliver a treat, let your dog know he can return to walking and sniffing as he was (for example, you can say, “Let’s go!”).
Give him the silent treatment: After many repetitions of attracting his attention with noises, try staying quiet as you continue walking and see how long it takes for him to check in on his own volition. Be patient, observe him carefully, and when he glances your way spontaneously, capture it and reward it!
If he never checks in with you after you’ve gone quiet, you may need to practice doing more repetitions getting his attention with sounds, or maybe the environment you’re in is too much of a jump from the last quiet area where you practiced, and you need to look for something in between.
Remember that we’re always looking for opportunities to reinforce the behaviour we want (in this case, checking in), so make sure you’re making it easy for your dog to do this.
Watch Nancy Tucker's dog Benni check in with her on a walk.
