What you need, and what you mean when you say focus, depends on what your long-term goals are for your dog.  There’s dog-park focus, rally focus, and intense formal obedience focus.  They are not all the same thing and you work differently for each.  Here’s some pointers for you – take what you can use based on your goals and store the rest for future use if your plans change.

Dog park focus is a dog that is responsible for keeping track of his human.  He checks in regularly to make sure he knows where you are, and comes back willingly when you ask him to.  This behaviour pattern is best started when your dog is a wee puppy.  At that stage, they are still feeling dependant and want to stay close to you.  Playing hide-and-seek is my favourite tool here.  When your puppy is awake, but not watching you, hide around the corner.  Wait a minute until he notices that you’re gone, then call him.  Make a big silly fuss about how clever he is, give him tasty treats, play tug, do whatever your little fuzz ball thinks is really, really fun.  Take it outside and do the same thing (generally in a fenced back yard so he doesn’t get scared when you’re not visible and take off in the wrong direction looking for you).

Take your casual focus out on a walk.  Every time your puppy looks at you, click and treat.  Even if he finds the rest of the world interesting, he’s going to keep checking in to get his rewards before he goes back to exploring.  The key here is building a habit of checking for you, and being rewarded for doing so.  Play these games all through adolescence – the period of growing independence.  Don’t expect to work this with a baby then have it set for life.  If you keep working it diligently right through your dog’s second year – THEN you should have a life-long habit established.

Rally focus is a little more stringent.  It’s “stay right with me and pay attention when I ask you to do something” focus.  In rally obedience, the dog doesn’t need to heel with complete precision, close is fine.  They are generally okay if they look around (provided they don’t tune you out completely).  If you teach and practice the Name Game on a regular basis, you should have sufficient focus to do a nice job in the rally ring.  If you don’t know the Name Game, email me and I’ll send it to you – it would make this article too long.

Formal Obedience focus, ah now that’s a challenge.  For formal obedience we want a dog who is “right there”, and looking at us the whole time we are working without being distracted by all the interesting stuff going on outside of the ring.  This one takes some serious time to build.  There are a number of methods for teaching this, but my favourite is the progressive method that Janice Gunn from TNT Training uses.  Start with a visible piece of really yummy food in your hand, ask the dog to sit in heel position and “watch” the treat.  No jumping up to steal it until you say “get it”!  This is the ground work, don’t rush it.  Work “static attention” until your young dog can focus on his treat when there are unexpected distractions around.  Then start moving while he “watches” the treat.  When he can move around, staying focused on the treat and only jumping up to get it when he’s invited to, you move to the next step.  Put the food on a stick.  A slightly sharpened chop stick works well.  You hold the stick in your left hand so the food is in the same place that you held it before... it’s just not in your hand anymore.  That phase won’t take long, then you put the food stick in your right hand and hold it across your body, putting the leash in your left hand held at your waist so it “looks” like it will in the ring.  Work that way for a while.  Then you need an armband with a stick attachment, put the food on the armband stick and the dog watches at the armband while you do your heeling work.  Finally, the stick comes off the armband and the food is hidden behind the arm band.  By this point your dog should have the idea that he’s to watch your armband, and when you want to reward him, the food comes from the armband.  Depending on your dog (and your diligence), this process could take anywhere from 6 months to two years to get solid.  Don’t rush it.  Work proofing exercises through each phase until the dog is successful before you move on.  Remember, this is the skill that will make or break you in the Obedience ring for the rest of your dog’s career! When you have a new puppy in your house, think about what your long-term goals are for the little gaffer.  Train accordingly and you won’t find yourself having to un-teach something in order to get what you want now!