Tips on keeping focus on me, not dogs etc.? For test on Thurs!

Matisse will be doing an obedience test involving a number of different obedience and general good behaviour exercises this Thursday night, so that maybe he can achieve his Bronze, good citizen award! woohoo!
But really i'm nervous... [Matisse is 10 months old now, and i think the youngest member doing the test, and not totally reliable.]

Anyways, one on the tasks is to be able to walk amongst other owners and thier dogs in a small area without your dog pulling to get to the other dogs. It's really to get your dog to focus on you rather than all the distractions... but this is the task I'm most worried about.
Matisse gets very excited when he sees another dog and pulls a lot to see them. How can i keep him focused on me?

I've been advised to keep talking to him, and i reckon this will work in the loose leash walking (no distractions) exercise, but when theres a whole bunch of dogs and people walking about in a cramped space, i just don't know if i can be more exciting to him than them.

Another task is to have a 1 minute conversation with someone and their dog, standing infront of them, with Matisse calmly waiting, not jumping up on the other person or pulling to reach the other dog. Does anyone have any tips on keeping him calm?

Note- no treats are allowed, but you can talk to the dogs.

If anyone has any tips i'd really appreciate them

With the test so soon it's gonna be a challenge. He's not treat dependent is he? (you have not made it so he has to see the treat to listen right?) I would train him a focus command which means watch my face. Make a noise and give a treat when he looks at your face, repeat and once he does it every time add the command "focus" or "watch me" before making the noise (or you can keep the noise if you are ok with that as the command assuming you don't make that sound regularly). Go outside and walk around, tell him "focus" and periodically pop a treat in his mouth as he keeps focus. Slowly cut down on the number of treats until you can do it a few times without giving treats. Remember still a lot of praise even when he does not get the treats. Do you know anyone with dogs that can help you? If you can practice this while someone walks near you with their dog it would really help make sure you're ready.

Now it's easy to practice the second one if you know someone with a dog. Assuming the dog can sit during the test I would put him in a sit and practice talking to the person. If he breaks the sit walk him away, practice a few sits and focuses while you are away and then go back and try again.


Good luck, and hey if you don't do well on those just think about how good she'll be the next time around, she is still a puppy after all.

He's very treat-motivated, but not treat dependant (i think!) If i ask him to do lots of things he usually gets a treat after he's completed everything i want him to do, but does not need to see the treat.

Yeah, i could ask my neighbour or friends, that's good.

Thanks so much for this advice , Matisse knows a 'watch me' command, but it's never been that strong, but atleast it gives me a bit of a foundation for focusing.

Thanks and you're right, i've accepted that it might not have a great turnout, but hey that just gives me an indication on where to work on, plus the test will be repeated in september anyways.

teach him to focus on your face without other dogs around. How I did this was kept treats around the house and always had a clicker, and if he made eye contact, I clicked and treated. Then I started saying "look" when he did it. He's VERY good at it now.

I know other people teach it differently, look in some of the focus threads for other ways, i guess?

Great advice above, I just have a few variations to add:

For focus with distractions, you could teach him to "leave it" when he sees another dog. I teach my dog that "leave it" means ignore that thing and look up at me - so not only will he disengage from the other dogs, he'll also focus on you.

You can also teach him to target your hand. Put your hand in front of his nose, and click/treat when he touches it. Eventually you can teach him to move to get to your hand, and follow your hand. This is a good way to work on focus, because it's really hard to ignore your hand when it's right in front of his nose, and once he touches it he'll usually pay attention to you for at least a few seconds.

I was trying the focus exercise, by sharply saying 'look' and click/treating when he looks at me, and now he's pretty good at it. However, when we were passing dogs he just ignored me, and started pulling towards the dogs. What should i do when this happens?

He's great at 'touch it' (hand targeting) and 'look' when there's no one around but just is completely distracted when he hears or sees other dogs/people. How do i correct him when he ignores me, because although i'm aking him to 'look' he doesn't, and obviously i don't want him to learn to ignore my commands...

(Thanks everyone btw!)

PS- LizzyBeth... How do you teach your dog to disengage from whatever the dog is interested in and look at you?
Matisse knows 'leave it,' and he'll not touch the food or whatever I'm asking him to leave, but doesn't ignore dogs or people or they walk by and i say leave it. He seems to be getting too good at ignoring me now, when it comes to more interesting things coming his way

http://clickersolutions.com/articles/2001/attention.htm

Just thought I would throw in that article. When I would go to dog shows (could also sit inside/outside petco, sit outside of a dog park, etc.) and while all the dogs were in the x-pens I would sit with my dog and when she would look up at me (even for a second) and not the other dogs (they wanted out too ) I would say "Yes" and reward. She learned pretty quickly and even though she knew the "Focus" command at home, I didn't add the cue until she continuously looked at me.

Good thing is there are always other tests and you can take the mistakes he may or may not make this time around and strive to do better.

Good luck!

What I do is a pivot - turn 180 or 360 degrees into your dog, so that you do a circle around him and he just pivots in place. That removes his attention from the other dogs for a second, and you can use that second to throw in a hand touch or "look."

Again, you can do the pivot. Make sure that when you're in a very distracting place, you put your hand RIGHT in front of his nose for a nose touch -like 1 inch away - and when you put it in front of his nose make a big, obvious movement so that the movement catches his eye. If he still doesn't touch, pivot, then try again.

I do it EXACTLY the same way that's described in the link mom2dogs posted. Great article!

Since you are doing clicker training it's easy to capture the focus action without asking for it. Just wait until he looks at you himself. This way he will not learn to ignore your commands. I also like Lizzy's suggestion of turning the dog, that is what I would also recommend, or start training at a further distance from the other dog and slowly move closer over time. You could try walking towards the other dog, ask her for focus before she becomes interested and as soon as she breaks focus stop. If she looks at you (like "why the heck did you stop?!" click and treat and continue forward. If she continues to focus on the dog turn her around and walk away.