question with 'watch me' method

I'm not an expert but no, I don't think it is used that way. The trainer from my Basic one class taught us thsi first for two reasons 1) top get there atention to give them a comand and 2) as a kind of emergancy stop. The emergancy stop is more for if the dog takes off after a sqirl or somethign, you can say "watch me" and the dog shodl turn around and look at you. You can then say come, or once the squirl or what ever is gone, you can 'release' the dog...
 
I'd get a few opnions form others her but thats my take on the 'watch me'

what does she do, exactly, when you pass other dogs/ rabbits etc.?  are you talking about working towards off-leash behaviors, or just having her quietly not-lunge-and-go-nuts-against-the-leash?
 

I appreciate both responses.

mudpuppy - when she sees the dogs and animals she lunges forward pulling on the leash while barking. She does not growl or appear to be looking for a fight, she just gets really excited. My goal is to have her quietly not-lunge-and-go-nuts-against-the-leash.

You have the collar all the way up to the neck to avoid her using her shoulders to help pulling
 
When a dog is has a fixation for something the whole world dissapears around her, i dont think "watch me" would help, the higher the attention is on the thing the higher the correction has to be, i would recommend a painless leash pop at the moment the dog starts to pay attention to the thing

I don't understand what you are proposing, espencer. At first you are saying that a dog won't do Watch Me because it's already in a too-stimulating environment.

Then you say to put a collar on the dog right behind its ears, and then give the dog a leash pop to get its attention.

Okay, that makes sense, the dog is stimulated.

But then on the other thread you sounded shocked when I mentioned the words "choke collar" and insisted that you were talking about a regular collar.

So I just tried to put my dog's collar on behind his ears, as you would a prong or a choke, and it didn't really work, it just slid down because there is no cinching, or correcting, action.

And so, just to make sure I see what you are talking about, I tried a couple of leash pops with my dog with a flat collar on, and unless the collar was tightish and he was physically being jerked (only did that once, he forgave me), I could not for the life of me see what you are talking about. Using any amount of force that I would feel comfortable using, my dog didn't really care, it didn't get his attention if the collar was on as it's supposed to be, with a couple of fingers of room underneath. Even though we were just sitting in the house.

So I can't see how this technique is going to get a dog's attention in a stimulating environment.

I watched that youtube thing you posted of CM, and I noticed that with most large dogs he is using a choke chain or prong. I can see how a leash pop would get a dog's attention if the leash is attatched to a choke, prong or martingale collar--something that has a cinching, correcting action.

I don't get it. Can you clarify what you mean?

ORIGINAL: fisher6000

I don't understand what you are proposing, espencer. At first you are saying that a dog won't do Watch Me because it's already in a too-stimulating environment.

Then you say to put a collar on the dog right behind its ears, and then give the dog a leash pop to get its attention.

Okay, that makes sense, the dog is stimulated.

But then on the other thread you sounded shocked when I mentioned the words "choke collar" and insisted that you were talking about a regular collar.

So I just tried to put my dog's collar on behind his ears, as you would a prong or a choke, and it didn't really work, it just slid down because there is no cinching, or correcting, action.

And so, just to make sure I see what you are talking about, I tried a couple of leash pops with my dog with a flat collar on, and unless the collar was tightish and he was physically being jerked (only did that once, he forgave me), I could not for the life of me see what you are talking about. Using any amount of force that I would feel comfortable using, my dog didn't really care, it didn't get his attention if the collar was on as it's supposed to be, with a couple of fingers of room underneath. Even though we were just sitting in the house.

So I can't see how this technique is going to get a dog's attention in a stimulating environment.

I watched that youtube thing you posted of CM, and I noticed that with most large dogs he is using a choke chain or prong. I can see how a leash pop would get a dog's attention if the leash is attatched to a choke, prong or martingale collar--something that has a cinching, correcting action.

I don't get it. Can you clarify what you mean?

And why do you think that a collar pop will stimulate the dog? actually is the opposite

I have never mention i was "shocked" because you used a choke collar, i just said that i was not talking about one, that a flat collar was enough

Now, like i said before, a collar pop is not a magical key is not like reading instructions "1.- Grab the leash, 2.-Place it at the top of the neck, 3.- Pop the collar, 4.- Wait for the results" no

To make you understand i will give you and example, it is not the same to grab you and tell you "ok now i am gonna clap in front of you" because when i do it you will be like "ok good for you, and?" (thats was exactly the attitude your dog had with you) but is way different that if you are reading a book, having your attention and being concertrated in it i come behind you and clap because at that moment you are gonna jump right?

You cant use collar pops when your dog is paying attention to you (like in your house) because it wont have any effect, but when he starts paying attention to something and you do it you will se the difference, if the dog is too much into the distracting thing somethimes you have to make a noise too then is when he is gonna "snap out of it" and look at you, if the dog is not paying attention to something that is to exiting for him you wont snap him out of anything and the collar pop wont have any effect on him, you understand?

I don't think that a lot of people on this board support leash corrections (or pops) and I've heard good and bad about putting the dogs collar behind the ears- you need to make that decision as to what you believe...but if Anne reads this thread, maybe she could give you a +R method to use if you prefer that route.

No, I don't understand.

Why would a leash pop stimulate a dog?

This is getting silly... I must have something better to do.

Fisher - although I'm doing +R training, I have had two moments of panic where I did give light leash pops (god, I regretted them SO MUCH afterwards) and they definitely got her attention.   I can understand why people do it, but I would never do it again.

Interesting discussion here...so what I am hearing thus far is that the 'watch me' method is not effective in too-stimulating environment and that leash-popping is a better technique to use. I am also hearing that leash-popping is not too popular on this forum. So I am back to square one. []

Hi Mozilla. I have used this technique on my own dogs successfully. The trick is to get her attention before she gets too focused on the things that she reacts to. In order to do this you must pay close attention to her body language and also to the environment so that you can get her attention in time. You won't have to do this forever, this is only for the beginning stage. With plenty of practice in a variety of environments with different distractions her looking to you will become automatic.

I taught my dogs to "Look" long before I had any issues. I practiced this frequently indoors and out with few distractions. Later when I really needed it, it worked almost instantly. I would give the "look" cue as I saw the distraction approaching and would keep her focused on me until they were out of view. I used treats and praise to reward her for maintaining eye contact and gradually extended the length of time she needed to maintain eye contact before she would get a reward. In only one day she was looking to me even without the cue upon the sight of the distraction. She heard the distraction, glanced quickly at the distraction and then automatically gave me eye contact...without me even saying a word.

"Leash popping" a reactive dog (one that lunges on leash) is really the worst thing you can do.  My advice is to get a copy of Ali Brown's book, "Scaredy Dog - Understanding and Rehabilitating Your Reactive Dog".  Unfortunately, the leash pops only make this problem worse.
You can get the book at dogwise.com. 
One way you can teach "watch" is to just get a piece of food and touch it to your dog's nose, then bring it up to your face.  At the instant your dog looks at you, making eye contact, say "watch" and give the treat. 
With any leash reactive dog, you don't try to get their attention when the "scary thing" or "other dog" is too close.  You'll know you are too close if your dog is too aroused to take food from you.  You want to work at a distance first - you'll get what I mean when you read the book.

Hi Mozilla,

I wouldn't call leash popping effective, watch me worked way better for me in a similar situation.

If you get into a situation where you are unable to get her to focus back on you (i.e. the distraction is too close), instead of popping her, simply do a 180 and leave.  As she catches up to you, toss her a treat.  That reinforces staying by your side, which is a good thing for a dog to be doing.