Category: K9 Competition

Heeling video 20 Teaching
 
First Step Of Heeling With FOCUS!

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The First Step is the beginning of your heeling.  It can make or break a performance.  Take Extra care in training the first step!

When heeling, my goal is to have heads up attention from my dog.  This criteria implies that my dog’s head remains up when we do the first step off into heeling.  It is for this reason that I like to practice the first step of heeling separately from other skills.

Once adding starts or the first step from a sit into a heeling sequence, I randomly reward just the start to keep my dog energized, focused, and ready to heel.  When training, if you start heeling from a sit, you must make sure your criteria are being met, OR instead play with your dog and then fall into heeling without doing a sit.

Footwork for the First Step

• Start with your weight slightly on the balls of your feet. The left foot will start the step off to heel. This is the leg closest to your dog and is easiest for him to pick up the cue.
• As you are stepping off, present a treat in your right hand saying “get it” for your dog. Your dog will jump up and slightly forward to the toy/treat.
• Bringing the toy/treat forward and up will encourage your dog to drive off his rear end in order to get the reward.
• NOTE: watch over rotation of your shoulders as you present the dog’s reward.
• Play and engage before repeating the “start”.  DESIRE first.
• Commands for the first step – Say your command and THEN step off with your left foot.  When showing, I actually like to take a breath and then step off.
• When working on starts, watch your line-up to start your training.  That is, a sit in heel is still a sit in heel and should be to your criteria and with heads up focus.
• Keep your weight on your toes and step straight forward on the first step. NO rocking back on your heels before stepping off. Rocking back on your heels can delay your step off and a responsive dog will seem to anticipate commands.
• Make sure to say your command, take a breath, and then step off.  This gives your dog a second to process the command and react accordingly.
• Keep starts FUN! Add games and upward releases on your first step of heeling randomly throughout your dog’s career.

PLEASE add YOUR comments Below!

😉🐶🐶🐶 *****Next video – 21 – Heeling progression – raised hand and wean off of treat in hand

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Heeling video 19 – Left Pivot
 
Handling & Teaching
 
Note in photo you can see Poe’s right rear leg behind me. GREAT REA at work!

HANDLER CUES: LEFT PIVOT FOOT WORK
When doing a Left Pivot:

• Shift your weight to your left leg, look left, and move your right foot perpendicular to your left foot.
• Your dog will learn that this shift indicates a left pivot/turn is going to begin.
• Step 1, move your right foot perpendicular to your left foot and place the ball of your right foot against your left toe (Similar to a T-step).
• Step 2, place your left heel against your right heel making sure to point your left foot in the direction that you will be going or sending your dog.
• Step 3, bring your right foot up against and even with your left foot.

Teaching the Left Pivot

• Have your dog on your left side. With your leash taut and hand low on the leash close to the snap hook with the palm of your hand flat on the front side of the leash.  Leash Reining ….
• Small dog? Use a solid leash.
• To start the pivot, shift your weight to your left leg and rein leash.
• Reward your dog up to a treat or a toy that is under your left arm. Build desire!
• Make sure that your dog is looking up and always watching you when making the turn.
• Play and interact with your dog before trying the pivot again.  This play takes pressure off your dog as well as builds desire in training.
• When training the Left Pivot, reward randomly on the different steps in the turn. I.e. move your first foot and reward, before completing the turn reward, and so on.
• Only add a sit to the pivot once your dog understands how to move on your weight shift and turn while keeping his head up and focused on you.
• Spend extra time working and rewarding the leash pressure skill before putting it into Pivots.

PLEASE add YOUR comments Below!

😉🐶🐶🐶 *****Next video – First Step of Heeling & FOCUS!

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Heeling video 18
 
REA Progression
 
Move To Ground

REA reduce to flat ground & starting left circle

• Review where you left off on your last session before replacing box with paper.
• Replace your reduced box with a piece of paper on the ground.  This is a marker more for you than your dog.
• Continue to have treats in the left hand, palm up.  This is how you would hold your hand/arm when heeling.
• Restart your dog and as your dog gets onto paper, and reward your dog a few times for getting on the paper.
• Once ready and your dog is anticipating going to your side, move hand next to your side and step forward with the foot furthest from your dog.
• With your dog next to you, slowly start to move in a tight circle rewarding and praising your dog in heel.
• While weaning off the box, take your time and do not reduce or eliminate box too quickly.
• Make sure your dog is OFFERING rear end movement before progressing.

PLEASE add YOUR comments Below!

😉🐶🐶🐶 *****Next video – Left Pivots – Handling and Teaching

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Heeling video 17
 
Heeling Progression
 
Wean Off/Raise Hand

 
Weaning off treat hand close to your dog – This process will take time but it is worth your patience and needed to get great heeling.

• Once your dog is moving with his head up focus for 20+ steps and in a number of new low distracting locations, it’s time to start to move your hand up approximately one foot.
• Repeat the steps you have already done with your hand in the “new” position.  That is, review foundations and then do 1 repetition with hand low and then raise your hand one foot.
• Work only in a straight line OR if space is limited, in a very large circle with your dog on the outside of the circle with NO SITS.
• Once your dog is successful, confident and loads of DESIRE built raise your treat hand up another foot in heel position and repeat Steps above.
• DO NOT progress if your dog is not focused and happy.
• Your last hand position will be your left hand in heel and bent so your hand is at your shoulder.
• Take your time with each step and build a solid foundation.  When problems arise down the road, it will be these foundations that you will fall back on.
• Adding additional skills before desire and duration are built on straight lines. Building foundations takes time and rewards. Be patient!

PLEASE add YOUR comments Below!

😉🐶🐶🐶 *****Next video – REA progression

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Heeling video 16
 
Handling cues RIGHT Pivot
 
Footwork & Intro Teaching

 
PIVOTS are the foundation of ALL turns in heeling whether you are doing Rally or Obedience. I have found that most teams have difficulty performing turns because the handler’s cues are incorrect or inconsistent. These difficulties in turns show up big time when I ask my students for a pivot. When my students do pivots correctly, their turns improve about 90%.
Right Pivot consists of 3 steps. Always start with your foot OPPOSITE to the direction of the turn. I.e., if you are going to pivot to the RIGHT, start with your left foot.

Your pivot should always start and end in the same place.  A small dot on the floor will help you to make sure that your pivot remains in place.

• The weight shift is the first cue your dog receives so it is VERY important.
• The second cue is my eyes/head turning to “LOOK” where we are going on my second step.
• The third cue is the first movement/step I take.

Building desire – When I begin to teach the RIGHT PIVOT, the first thing I want to do is build a DESIRE for dog to LOVE the skill. Same when wanting to improve a skill. When you are building desire, you want to use something the dog loves. In other words, pair what you want them to love with something they already love.

NOTE: If you are wanting to improving turns, first work on your pivots and add loads of games to all steps in the pivot to build DESIRE. In other words, do NOT just reward the end of the pivot or the sit.

Teaching the Right Pivot

• Have your dog at your left side and place your hand low on the leash close to the snap hook with the palm of your hand flat and your hand on the backside of the leash. This enables you to use a forward reining action.
• Small dog? Use a solid leash. This is a leash that is attached to a stick or dowel rod. Using a solid lead will aid in the forward pressure.
• As you think about the weight shift to your right foot, apply reining pressure forward on your leash. Your dog should start movement with the weight shift/leash pressure and BEFORE your left foot leaves the ground!
• Turn your left foot to make an angled T-step with your right foot. This step will turn your shoulders to the right.
• NOTE: Make sure that your dog is always watching you at all times when making the turn.
• Reward your dog by releasing up to a treat or toy to build desire.
• When training the Right Pivot, reward randomly on the different steps in the turn. I.e., move your first foot and reward, before completing the turn reward, and so on.
• Only add a sit to the pivot once your dog understands to move with your weight shift and turn while keeping his head up and focused on you.
• Remember to break and play with your dog during each “step” when teaching ANG training. This will build desire and keep your dog’s head up.

😉🐶🐶🐶 *****Next video – heeling progression – starting to raise left hand 

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Heeling video 15
 
Weight Shift
 
A Turning Secret!

 
What is the “Weight Shift” – This is the first cue to your dog letting him know you are getting ready to turn and in which direction you will be going.   The cue is when you shift your weight to one leg in order to pick up the other prior to the actual turn.  As you shift your weight, it’s slightly shifts your position to either the right or the left, giving your dog a “cue”.

Teaching Weight Shift

When my dog will readily move with the pressure, I pair leash reining with the Weight Shift.  This teaches my dog the “pre-cue” for all pivots and turns.

• Start with your dog next to you on your left side (Not in a sit) and  on a short leash with no slack in it.
• The leash runs from the dog’s collar, up my palm with my thumb holding the leash.
• For any movement to the left, I place my left hand on the leash with my knuckles forward and shift my weight to my left leg.
• For any movement to the right, I place my left hand on the leash, but this time my palm is forward, and my weight will shift to my right leg.
• Little dog? I use a solid leash for small dogs.  This is a dowel rod that has a leash attached to it at both ends.  The handler uses it with the same directions as regular reining on a leash.
• The only motion is the weight shift, your feet DO NOT move.

😉🐶🐶🐶 *****Next video – handling cues pivots foot work right pivot build desire  

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Heeling video 14
 
REA progression – starting to reduce box

 
 
REAR AWARENESS – HINDQUARTER ROTATION: REDUCE THE SIZE OF THE TARGET 

• Review foundations and then reduce height of box by ½.
• Once your dog is OVER ROTATING his rear end, it is time to gradually reduce the height and size of the box.
• If using a book, rip off half of the pages making the book half as tall.
• Continue to train the REA until your dog is consistent with the skill.

😉🐶🐶🐶 *****Next video – Adding Auto Sits – Halts

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Heeling video 13 –
 
Progression Heeling 20+ Steps
 

Heeling progress – Straight-line Heeling – Increasing the number of steps.  Random rewarding 20 + steps

• Hold your right hand on 3-6 small treats in your right hand and your RIGHT hip about waist high.
• Play with your dog and fall into heeling. Doing so will help build DESIRE and FUN into heel work.
• After play, start moving forward at slow than a normal pace.
• Deliver reinforcement by varying how many steps you take BEFORE you give a treat.
• Randomly break and play. That is sometimes release on the first step, sometimes on the 3^rd, sometimes on the 10^th, and so on.  MAKE IT RANDOM and keep the dog guessing.
• Watch delivery of the reinforcement. Remember – placement of rewards can help OR hurt your training

Remember

• Resist starting heeling with your dog on a sit.
• When you move a treat to your left hand, your dog gets it, there is no luring or holding the treat by your side as you take steps.
• Make sure your dog is keeping his head up as he eats the treat, this is extremely If this is still an issue, go back to the information provided on Week 1 “Rapid eating” for how to teach your dog to eat a treat with his head up.
• Energize and play OFTEN with your dog during training so that your dog maintains his attitude and desire to want to train.
• Keep sessions short, fun, and full of energy and play.

😉🐶🐶🐶 *****Next video – REA Progression

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Heeling video 12 –
 
Intro Leash Reining

 
 
Leash Reining Intro

NOTE: Leash Pressure is good to condition BEFORE adding reining to pivots or turns.

Leash Reining is a great tool to use for turns and pivots. I rein my dog to teach and refine position.

• Pressure n the taught leash is applied from your hand and wrist, NOT your arm.   Taught leash, pressure is back OR forward.
• Have your dog next to you in heel position.  Sit is NOT recommended.
• Apply a constant light pressure in the direction you want your dog to go.
• The pressure is light and constant until your dog moves.
• Praise and reward your dog for any movement due to the leash pressure.
• Example: Apply pressure back on the leash until my dog moves backward.
• Take frequent play breaks to relax your dog and continue to build desire.

Problems?

• Reining the leash up.  Use pressure with your leash lateral to your dog’s topline when standing.  The correct reining will get the best results.
• Visible treats. Often treats in your hand will distract your dog and prevent the motion desired.

😉🐶🐶🐶 *****Next video – Progression Heeling 20+ steps

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