This post originally appeared on the website of our Master Trainer, Nick Miller. For more of Nick’s daily training insights, visit nicktmiller.com

Amazon earns our attention by delivering products we desire in two days with free shipping. The NFL has earned many American’s attention by delivering a high energy, accessible, yet complex, form of sports entertainment with built in heros and villains for each individual fan. Picasso earned our attention with Cubism and Einstein with E=MC².

Our dog won’t demand the creation of a new art movement or physic’s theory in order to get their attention, but most dogs won’t give away their attention for free. We are in competition with the world for their attention, and we have to be honest if what we are offering them is better than the other dog across the street, the squirrel running up the tree or the chicken bone lying in front of them?

Without first gaining our dog’s attention, we have no platform for communicating our ideas, our expectations and our hopes of what our relationship will look like.  Start by creating value for their attention and then see where the conversation leads. They don’t owe us their attention, and if we demand it before we earn it we will fall short of the full potential of what our relationship with them could be.