The Modern Guide to Focus

A dog who can listen when the world gets busy

Families often tell me their dog won't listen outside. Most of the time, the dog isn't choosing to ignore anyone. They simply haven't learned how to pay attention when there's a lot going on, or they're too excited or worried to think. Focus is a skill, just like sit or recall, and it can be taught in small steps.

This guide shows you how to build focus your dog chooses to give, without you ever having to demand it. It starts with what your dog needs before training can work, then covers check-ins, the name game, eye contact as a choice, calm and settle, attention on the move and building up around distractions. It finishes with what to do when focus breaks, and how to use it every day at doors, cafés, the vet and with visitors.

I've been training dogs for over 30 years, and I wrote this the way I'd explain it if we were sat at your kitchen table together.

What's inside

• A "What's going wrong?" finder for the ten focus problems families bring me most

• What focus really is, and why excitement and worry switch off your dog's thinking

• Setting your dog up to learn: sleep, needs, reading your dog, a marker word and rewards

• Catching check-ins, and the name game for dogs who've learned to tune their name out

• Eye contact as a choice, gently, and what to do for dogs who find it hard

• Calm and settle: rewarding calm moments, a settle on a mat and switching off after excitement

• Focus on the move: the follow-me game, changes of direction, stops and starts

• Building up around distractions, the look-at-that game and leave it

• How your body, voice and mood help your dog focus, and practising with other people around

• When focus breaks: spotting it early, the U-turn and sniffing resets

• Building duration, fading the food, and focus at doors, cafés, the vet and with visitors

Pages to print and keep

• A focus level tracker for eight everyday skills

• A check-in counter and a list of your dog's rewards

• A distraction list with the early signs focus is slipping

• A quick-reference page

Why this guide is different

• It treats focus as something your dog chooses to give you

• It works on calm alongside attention, because a dog who's wound up can't listen

• It never forces eye contact, and offers other ways to build focus for dogs who find it hard

• It shows you what to do when focus breaks, as well as how to teach it

• It's built on games plus structure, with reward-based training and no punishment

Who it's for

Families with a puppy, a teenage dog or an adult dog who listens at home but struggles outside, gets too excited to think, or finds it hard to settle. It works for any breed, and for rescue dogs.

What you get

A 61-page PDF and an EPUB in one ZIP file, emailed to you straight after checkout. Read it on your phone, tablet, e-reader or computer, and print the pages at the back.