RA540: Joy of Heeling - Rock it like a Freestyler!

 “Joy of Heeling” – Sounds like an oxymoron…on the one side you have an emotion and expression of enjoyment and on the other you have the physically and mentally demanding requirement of precision and accuracy. And yet we know it’s attainable. We see it in those electrifying teams that inspire us, that motivate us and give us the picture, the vision of what heeling could be.

When I’ve taught my dogs to heel, I never really thought about “how” I was doing it. Sure, I knew what the physical criteria was that I wanted, I knew how to work toward getting it whether, using a lure or now more often platforms or other props to help create that criteria. I knew to reinforce when I saw that criteria. But that other part, the part where we want our dog to find joy in the act of heeling was always a little experimental, a little in flux. And it changed depending on what dog I was working. This course is a compilation of all of the games, activities and precision exercises I use to create joyful heeling.

As with any activity, there is an emotional component that dictates whether we, or our dogs want to engage in that activity again. I’ve heard more handlers tell me how stressed they get about heeling than how much fun it is! I’m sure many dogs feel the same way. That can change! Through our approach at training and the type and manner of reinforcement we provide.

As with all reinforcement, the dog sets the value. It’s our job to observe and try to replicate what brings our dog joy and apply it to our training. In doing so, we are providing rewards that are both reinforcing (create an increase in the quality or frequency of the behavior) and creating a conditioned emotional response to our heelwork criteria.

Heeling is physically demanding. Structure matters. Your dog’s physicality and condition matters.

It’s possible your dog’s structure is not suited to the picture that you have in your head of pretty heelwork! That doesn’t mean your dog can’t put out some rockin’ heelwork! Only that you may have to adjust your picture to the most his structure is able to offer.

Your dog may have great structure but could still need some conditioning, stretching or muscle build up to give you what you want. So we’ll be including some of this in this course.

In this week’s homework you’ll do some exercises to assess and increase your dog’s physical ability to give you what you want.

Heeling is mentally demanding. Reinforcement matters. Your ability to motivate your dog matters.

Be generous. Your rate and the value your dog finds in the rewards you provide have a direct impact on your dogs’ desire to work at heeling. More is better. If you feel like you are rewarding too much you are doing just fine.

What’s Love Got to do With it? Everything!

We’ll be using a variety of reinforcement in this class: food, toys, personal play, secondary reinforcers such as hand touches, that you will build value, and activities your dog finds joy in to create a love of heeling.

Love of tangible rewards + Love of interaction and activities = Love of behavior

Do you have a list of those things or activities that you observe your dog truly “loves” and seeks out? While I will provide you with exercises that spark joy and energy for most dogs, it will be up to you to create games that are unique to you and your dog. That may sound difficult now, but as you work through the course, as you become more in tune to what your dog finds joy in, you will be able to use your own unique games (or those you learn from other students!) to build value and joy in your heelwork training.

While some rewards can be of too low of value to keep the dog motivated, There can be “too much value” in the rewards you are providing as well. Your dog can become overly aroused, hard-mouthed, thinking too much about the physical act of getting to the reward rather than being thoughtful about why it will be provided.

Just as you have that picture in your head of beautiful heeling, you’ll want that picture of beautiful focus, where your dog is attentive, engaged, willing and ready (can you picture it?), but not over the top. We can manipulate that through our choices of rewards and making sure we are at that “goldilocks” value. But! If you have to err one way or the other, err on the side of too much value. It’s easier to adjust downward than upward. Both in value of reward and in the demeanor of the dog.

What we provide as rewards not only needs to create a happy emotional state but also needs to act as reinforcement for the more technical aspects of heelwork. To ensure that what you re providing is reinforcing your technical criteria, you’ll want to “keep a record” of your progress, even if that record is just the video’s you’ve taken (name and date each one so that you can review your progression). If you aren’t seeing improvement in a particular aspect of your heelwork, Bob Bailey (yes, chicken camp fame) tells us to look to timing, criteria or reinforcement. Adjusting one or all of these can quickly provide information on what your dog needs.

Ready to get started?  I am!