GSD wont give eye contact....Help

Hi Everyone, A friend of mine has recently become the owner of a beautiful 9month old GSD, we attend dog training classes together ( my GSD is 3 yrs old and we go to advanced classes to do scenting etc...)http://www.dogsey.com/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif any way while i was watching the beginners class, i befriended the newcomer and owner, the dog would have nothing to do with me, not even a quick sniff, and the more i observed i noticed that the dog did not make eye contact with the owner or trainer, despite using tasty liver/ cheese/tidbits squeaky toys/whistles, the dog showed no interest in any human form, slight interest in other dogs and more interest in birds flying past, http://www.dogsey.com/images/smilies/icon_confused.gif
Any suggestions, would be gratefully recieved, on how to capture this dogs attention and the owner can start to enjoy her dog rather than be ignored by it. Thanks,( ps i believe she has had him from 12 weeks but will check.)

The dog gets to see the owner every day, but classes are new and exciting, there are distractions around, new smells, sounds and sights, I'm not surprised the dog doesn't want to look at the owner, the surroundings are much more fun! You need to give the dog a reason to look at the owner - making it a command can work, so the owner could look into clicker training, if they haven't already, as you can clicker train "watch me". There's a PDF to explain it on here but there are lots of other explanations, not sure how much they vary, but basically she'll need to prime the dog to clicker training, she might want to try some more basic commands until the dog gets the hang of it, then she can start on this
http://www.k9events.com/clickerD_E.htm

Our female, despite being very loving towards us, doesn't give eye contact much, and definately NOT to strangers (akitas are known for being very aloof) infact she hates it and will look away with her nose in the air .

The only way I have success is if I use the look at me command, and still have to place my fingers inbetween my eyes as if I had a biscuit there! (this is how I taught her it) Or if I'm saying one of her faveourite words ie: biscuit, treat, walk, tea, paul etc she will stare right at me, briefly!

My previous GSP took 6 months to make eye contact. He was a Rescue so I`ve no idea why. I kept giving showing him treats, holding them by my face so he glanced at it then giving him the treat.
As I say, it took a while, but it did work.

I'd guess the Dog is lacking confidence , avoiding eye contact can be a submissive sign.

Has she changed his name at all ?

When we trained the "look at me" command (although we trained his name as his command so when we call him he should look at us), we rewarded the dog for looking at our face, not direct eye contact as it can be threatening. We looked at the tip of the dogs nose, as long as the dog gave us their attention and was watching our face, it didn't need to be direct eye contact. Maybe that would work better for this less confident dog?

She needs to learn the "watch me" command, be it by clicker or whatever way, using just treats to get the dog focused, it's a must have command in my book for a gsd. I'm surprised she's gone straight into advanced classes if she hasn't got this command under her belt coz we did it at puppy classes! Maybe she should go back down a class and do the basics with this dog perhaps?

Thanks everyone for your encouraging words and ideas, i have spoken to my friend and the dog does not look at her at all, not at home not at classes or at any other time, she has tried treats with the watch me/ look command but the dog is not interested in the treats/toys or in the noise of the clicker . Its like the dog is in his own little bubble and nothing else exists, very strange ??

ps , sorry they are in basic class, he is 9 months old, i am in advanced and was just watching, and hes had the same name from her getting him as you may of guessed he does not respond to it. oops x