OB285: From TEAM to Trials: Building Chains for the Novice Ring

 Heeling Part 2: From Pivots to Forward Heeling

Goal

The last lecture looked at focus and really got the dog moving!! It even started to look like actual heeling!!!  But really their pivot work will form the foundation of the remaining heeling skills to learn.  The pushier your dog is, the more emphasis you need to spend on this section. If your dog isn't as confident or is prone to lagging, then look more at the last lecture!!  Hint: the next lecture on heeling looks at balancing these two pieces!!!

Ok, why is pivoting so important for heelwork?  The short answer is that it isolates the rear end motion your dog needs to stay parallel with you regardless of what direction you are traveling.  By doing little doodle-type work, we can reward frequently and isolate each movement the dog needs to maintain position as you heel in all different directions.  Speed up when going to the right, collect and pull in when going to the left.

The goal of this lecture is to start chaining together the heelwork skills you have taught already in TEAM (your pivots!!) with the forward attention work you worked on in the last lecture.  We're putting the pieces together!!

 

Heel Position

Ok before we begin, let's take a quick look at what heel position looks like.  Hopefully this is not news to you as you've been working hard at it through your pivots and the find heel exercise.

 

The Dog

The dog's position is a range, but it needs to be consistent and not vary from step to step.  Anywhere from the dog's head to their shoulder (their collar area) is to be in line with your left hip.  A good guideline is their ear in line with the SEAM of your pants. This often means the dog's front feet will be in line with the start of your heel, not at your toes!

The dog should be close, but not touching.  Generally within 6 inches is considered ideal, and the closer the better.

And the dog will do an auto sit at halts without any verbal or signal from the handler (I train that last!)

No focal point is required. However if you read the last lecture then you learned how difficult is to both maintain precision through changes of direction AND good attitude without a consistent focal point. 

 

 

The Human

The handler will walk at a "natural" gait, and for most dogs, the more brisk the better!

Our hands can be at our stomach (not on our hip), OR can be hanging down at our side. If at our side it needs to swing naturally as we move and can't be on the outside of the dog's head. So if you have a larger-sized dog, this basically rules out the hand-down position or you'll either whack the dog in the head or teach them to heel wide.

Your shoulders should be facing forward and straight, however there is no rule on where you need to look as long as you can walk a straight line!

 

Tiny Forward Steps with Precision: Left Squares

Your forward steps will almost always end with a left pivot to help remind the dog about keeping their rear end tucked in. Think of making a small square with your dog on the inside. At each corner of the square you will pivot and reward the dog.  All of this should be done at a SLOW and controlled pace.  Your square will be very tiny at first with just 1-2 steps of forward heeling before the pivot!

The more the dog surges right off the bat, the more likely I am to start with a left pivot before the forward step.  If the dog stays decently in control of their body, then you might be able to start out with the forward step and just end with the left pivot to remind them to pull in.

Here Trigg is doing one of his first lessons in heeling forward. I do the forward step followed by a left pivot to pull him in, and occasionally just try a few SLOW forward steps in a row.  He already has great pivot skills, side steps skills, and has the concept of attention walking down. It looks like he read the textbook on heeling and makes this lesson easy!  But notice how he does stretch towards those treats at my stomach on the first reps!    

 

 

And here is Yukon's first lesson in forward heeling (and this was Yukon's first time working with me instead of her regular trainer!) She didn't have quite as great of an understanding of where heel position was for me and you can see she really wants to take off quickly on that first forward step of heeling. She can also be a little "flingy" of her rear end on the left pivot corrections. I guessed that some of her issues with forging were related to her excitement over the cookie with a new person and I decided to warm up with some doggy zen work at the 1:10 minute part. I left the whole clip in but it takes a while!!

 

 

As your dog improves, you can gradually increase how many steps make up your square! 

Here Kiwi is working on this skill but is pretty distracted and amped up.  This session shows how I respond to a variety of errors from surging ahead, to needing a brain break, to some forging:  (If you want to primarily watch the square work, skip to 50sec)

 

 

Surging Ahead?!: Hip Lineup

Is your dog still surging like crazy on just this 1 step work!?!  Let's break it down further and teach them to think more about staying lined up with our hip.  In this exercise you are going to move your right leg but not go anywhere, and immediately reward the dog back at your side.  We want to calm them down a little with the excitement of our body moving!

Here Mayhem quickly works on this exercise. Interestingly, she is thinking about pivoting backwards as I move my leg which is a nicer error than surging ahead, but still not something I want! I grab a target for her to wait on after a few reps. A front-foot target would have been better than the pivot perch, but it still worked for her!  Although because she was still really dancy I actually added in some chin rest work.

 

 

Getting Precision with Greater Movement

As you keep progressing your heelwork into greater steps of going forward, you will still want to throw in your tight pivots to remind the dog to keep their butt in! Keep heeling nice and slow at first as you add in more of those forward steps. Gradually increase your speed!

Here Mayhem is working on some larger squares. I start out by rewarding the first turn, and then progress to not rewarding every corner, although I am slowing down slightly on the corners to make sure her butt is fully in before I go forward!

 

 

Pre-cues for Turns

You can also add some "pre-cues" of the direction you are going to turn!  I exaggerate my head motion to tell the dog I'm going to turn left. This can help prepare them when in motion. 

Here with Loot is an early lesson.  I'm first working on this while standing still.  I look further to the left, towards his butt, then pivot.  He doesn't quite get this at first!  Then I try adding it to a step or two of movement.  

 

 

Here Ginny is working on right-sided heeling with my inside squares.  At the 14sec point I start reviewing my exaggerated head turn for the pivot and then go back to very slow square work with greater success.

 

 

Doodle Heeling

A doodle is a way of heeling that makes your heeling look like doodles on a piece of paper!  Very few long straight lines, lots of changing directions, curves and tiny maneuvers!  Start out at a nice slow pace and gradually increase speed as your dog shows they are ready to handle it.

Mayhem is new to this and is advancing to doing a lot of left pivots, a few right pivots, and some forward motion. I'm moving at a very slow pace as this is still new!

 

 

Here is Zumi practicing doodle-type heeling of keeping with me as I mix up pivots with straight lines and circles!

 

 

Here Aero is just learning to pull things together.  I actually do a bit more straight-line work here than pure doodle heeling, but you will still see how I mix in side-steps and pivots!

 

 

Overview

Left squares!  Just a few (1-3!!) steps forward followed by a tight left pivot to pull the dog in. 

Consider adding an exaggerated head turn right before you pivot to act as a pre-cue for the turn ahead. 

Gradually add in some more straight-line heeling, but keep your pace slow and do a tight left pivot frequently to pull their rear end in. At first you will want to reward each corner of your square, and then start varying how many corners you do before the reward.

Progress to doodles of doing S-lines, pivots, and big circles!