My problem is when moving my 5 month old puppy up and down the mat I cant get her to look forward, she's looking up at me constantly.
Ive stopped using treats when stacking as they no longer needed.


Im hoping over time if I stop using treats at ring craft she will stop looking up.

Although I am far from an expert on this subject I really would not be concerned about this at just 5 months old.

> My problem is when moving my 5 month old puppy up and down the mat I cant get her to look forward, she's looking up at me constantly.

As a retired judge, frankly as long as the dog is moving forward in a straight line, and back so I can see the going and coming movement, I don't much care where the dog is looking!   It is early days yet tho!

ps   We counted ourselves lucky if the dog actually got his nose off the ground!!

I took Tayo to ringcraft when he was younger. He kept looking at me and the trainer insisted it was because I train for agility. I couldn't convince her that a. you train dogs to look ahead for agility and b. he was too young anyway it was my older bitch who did agility. I more or less cured the problem by training in the living room at home with titbits on the window ledges at each end so he looked ahead for them. Maybe you could put them on chairs at each end of the room in class if the instructor is ok with this. The one at the club I went to wasn't, just seemed to want me to stop agility and shout at my dog. I stopped going. I don't show often and he still looks up at me occasionally as we go round the ring in an isn't this fun way. If judges don't like this then as far as I'm concerned tough as I like to see my dog looking happy.

It's not the looking up that is a problem, it's rather nice that the dog is interacting with you, it's that looking around up at you can throw the front movement off.

One way is to say wait and move slightly ahead of the dog.

Second just don't make eye contact once moving, if you look forward the dog may too.

If he's looking for the right hand that has the treats then put your hand behind your back when moving worked for me, as I do tend to move my arms too much, as my sense of balnce is not great..

I trained Lexi to..*Focus*…it seems to do the trick. Starting of using a similar trick as above mentioned by putting snacks on windowsills xx

my liver n white 8yr pointer still looks at me and bounces round ring we were late startes at showing he was 3yr when we started i had to give up showin heavy due to bad back hip pelvis.it was well known hound lady and her pro handler got us started.i tend to put my right hand up at my side again that was when i showed heavy you put your left hand up to make heavy horse head go stright when showin inhand it does help with my pointer but again am just gratful to get round ring and have fun i show my pointers for fun

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Stephanie Presdee says: use a different cue for walking by your side looking at you and another cue for the straight line required for the ring...practice straight to chair to chair, reward from the chair and add the cue later when the pup gets it.Depending on the breed it depends on the type of lead too and how you hold it .