Why “Watch Me” Is Not a Good Solution for Leash Reactivity

"Watch me" has a number of benefits for obedience training, but it is not the best option for most leash reactive dogs.

“Leash reactivity” is an umbrella term for any dog that displays barking/lunging/growling etc on the leash and in response to a specific stimulus. I work with a LOT of people who have used multiple trainers in the past for their dogs’ leash reactivity without success. While there are a number of different ways to successfully work with leash reactivity, I often times have clients who have repeatedly tried to use the “watch me” (meaning, make eye contact with the owner) command as a solution when in the presence of the troublesome stimuli. And in my opinion, using “watch me” is ineffective for majority of dogs. Here’s why:

👉🏽 It makes the dog miss out on important reinforcement opportunities. If a stimulus is approaching in which the dog has a negative association with, and the owner asks for a “watch me”, and the dog does not look at the owner but DOES turn away from the stimuli, that should be rewarded! Any disengagement from the stimuli should be reinforced rather than wasting precious time trying to get the dog to make eye contact. Usually the goal of working on leash reactivity is to have a less reactive dog. Not a dog that makes more eye contact with you (although yes, that’s nice). Ignoring the dog when they are choosing to be nonreactive or continuing to ask for a different behavior for reinforcement IMO is messy and inefficient.

👉🏽 It doesn’t give a coping skill that can be utilized anywhere and anytime. The owner/handler is required to be present and in visual range. Therefore, it is not a coping skill that the dog can utilize voluntarily, away from the owner/handler. Not all dogs can generalize to that point, but it is definitely possible, and I like to set the dog up for that.

👉🏽 It can increase stress/frustration. When there is something in the environment that we perceive as a threat, we naturally want to keep an eye on its whereabouts. I don’t like spiders, so if there’s one crawling near me, I want to keep an eye on its location. If you tell me to not look at it all, and to only look at you, I am going to be more stressed. Dog’s should be allowed to glance at what they perceive as a threat to obtain info. (But they shouldn’t be allowed to stare because staring gets you in to trouble).

If a dog voluntarily offers eye contact during training then that’s awesome and they will definitely still be rewarded. But - I don’t like to specifically ask for eye contact for the reasons stated above.

Again, there are certainly dogs who worked through their leash reactivity no problem with the “watch me” cue. But, it just doesn’t seem intuitive to me as a natural response, nor has it proven to be efficient/effective overall in comparison to other exercises, in my thousands upon thousands of cases of leash reactivity.

Rewarding any disengagement usually takes you much further!