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

 Heeling Part 1: Attitude, Energy, and Precision Goals

Goal

When I am heeling, I prioritize the following:

1. Attitude

• Desire/Motivation
• Focus

2. Energy

2. Precision

 

Attitude always comes first. I think of attitude as a combination of 2 things that rely on each other: desire and focus.

They are so interwoven that it is impossible to separate them completely. Having focus on us tends to come for many if the dog is motivated by the actual rewards we have, likes how we deliver them, and has a clear understanding of what leads to the rewards. 

So usually when the dog has "a focus problem" I look less at training eye contact itself and more on how I am motivating the dog and how clear I am in my training.

I want both attitude and precision. But that perfect mix is always going to be in flux. In fact, maintaining that balance is what I love the most about competition obedience!

 

Attitude: Desire

This area looks at the dog’s desire to do an exercise and mainly boils down to your rewards and your flow. You don’t have to use the highest rewards possible and you don’t have to reward every second, but you do need to make it feel worth it to your dog!  

Unless I am specifically working on precision, there is a high chance I am going to reward of of position and use a lot of movement in the reward process. Make the reward an event.  It shouldn't be just handing over a cookie to your dog to reward their effort, but try to insert yourself in part of the package and make it last!

What does your dog like? Do they chasing you as you run away? Pushing into your space as you walk backward? Leaping for treats?

For example, I might end heeling with a left spin to encourage the dog’s butt to be close to me, but then use my actual food rewards to have the dog chase me down to get them, or toss the treats back and forth for the dog to run after. Or perhaps my toy is off my body but I cue the dog to do a high hand touch and then cue racing off to get the toy. I can then spend several long seconds playing tug or fetch with my dog.

These rewards are less able to precisely reward the dog if I wanted to work on my heeling foundations, but they are great for building that desire to work, as well as increasing energy.

This is an example of using food in an active way with your dog.  Lots of MY movement in between each cookie to make me a part of the process.  I feed low at first, then demo feeding up on my stomach witn Ginny.  The next clip is Grace and you can see she is a much lower energy dog and this is tiring "work" to drive to the food!  But playing this way helps build that expectation of energy (another goal!).  It also means my sessions with her need to be shorter so she doesn't tire out!

 

 

Attitude: Focus

Focus is complicated.  Generally I look at focus as more of an issue of clarity.  If I have a dog who has that desire to get my rewards, and my rewarding is fun, then I can usually get focus as long as the dog feels comfortable in that environment.  And that is a pretty big rabbit hole that I discuss in week 2 when looking a ready-to-work routines and acclimation cues.

For the purpose of this lecture, I want to look at focus in heeling when the dog has pretty good focus in general and now needs to learn we want focus maintained while heeling.

A lot of this comes down to clarity and consistency.

Personally, I want my dog to look up at me while heeling and having a consistent focal point. That focal point might not be the side of your face, but you should know where your dog has chosen or what you’ve trained for so that you can instantly respond the moment it is gone. You don’t want to wait until your dog has made an actual error in heeling position such as lagging or even sniffing. You want to know the instant something else has grabbed your dog's attention or they tell you the work is too hard.  This focal point is key for evaluating how my dog is feeling about their work in that moment.  Whether it was too hard, boring, or a sudden distraction occurred, their focal point will give that information quickly!

Because SILENCE is a huge part of trials, I want my dogs to think my lack of verbal praise during heeling means they are awesome. I want that confident prance when they see my smile and look at them intensely, without a word coming from my mouth. The alternative you will regularly encounter at dog shows are dogs who get stressed when they aren’t getting that verbal feedback. Dogs who start to think mom is stressed and they must be doing something wrong!! Silence has to equal good!

The instant I see my dog’s focal point wavering I’m reevaluating what I’m doing. There are lots of options on what to DO, but I always do something instead of continuing to heel forward.  

I have a whole separate lecture on handling focus errors in the heeling itself.

The part I want to emphasize here are 2 points

1. Consistency on our part leads to clarity and that is crucial for the attitude we want

2. How we handle errors should prioritize the dog's attitude and help get the dog back on track as fast as possible.

The dog doesn't need to know they were wrong. They do need to get back into the game!  That means my resets in heeling are usually pretty motion based and game like and naturally that sucks the dog back into focus!

 

Here is an example with Mayhem where I experiment with different responses to look aways. All involve praise and some form of motion away. Some like the 1st and 2nd rep involve a free cookie!  Others I connect with various degrees of energy and try again.  You can see how her favorite one is easily the 1st one of running away!!!

 

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But what if the focus error isn't just a quick look away?

Do you think your dog's look away was because the dog was getting frustrated? Give a mental break! Cue “go sniff,” do a cookie scatter, toss some treats back and forth in a pattern, or get down for some butt rubs. What would help your dog reconnect? Same protocol if you at all think the look away was due to being nervous about something!

 

In this example of Grace I try a quick play at 1st but she doesn't respond well  to my attempt at a gentle push and keeps sniffing. I tell her to "go sniff" and it's pretty short and clearly not long enough so she gets a cookie toss test and then more "go sniff."  Ultimately I go into very clear body language that we are on a break, then transition into my ready to work protocol before starting up again. (talked about in week 2 lectures!).

 

 

Energy

Energy is 2nd on my list and I debated about grouping it in with attitude. Generally if the dog doesn't have a happy attitude then they won't have the level of energy I want. And if the dog has low energy, then it makes it a lot harder to keep up their motivation and focus.  

But energy is also the one thing on my list that is more playable to find just the right level where my next goal of precision is easier.

I tend to like powerful heeling done at a quick pace! It doesn't have to be prancing, but I move quickly with my dogs in most of my heelwork other than when I'm working on specific pieces for the next category of precision.

Many of the dogs I work with who are more prone to lagging, we do a lot of big right circles at a brisk pace so the dog rehearses that fast movement as part of their heelwork. It becomes their habit to power out. And they learn how to catch up to their handler when sent away on cookie tosses or cone sends. This teaches them how to recover and catch up if they get off track for a moment in a trial!

I do a lot of games in my heelwork to not just work on that fun piece, but to rehearse that level of energy I want in heelwork.

And then of course some dogs have all the energy and need more work on controlling that energy and collecting themselves- both physically and mentally! With these dogs it doesn't mean I don't do games, but I do work on shorter bursts of games followed by coming into collection and thinking!  I want those dogs prone to doing too much energy, to have practice going from excitement to control. 

The level of energy you practice an exercise in can become baked into the exercise itself. A habit.  And that can work against us if we aren't thinking about whether that dog needs the needle dialed up, or more modulated.

Finally, energy is also closely tied to frustration levels.  Often we think we are creating "energy" when we try to entice the dog to play, but it can easily turn into a nagging feeling and frustration from the dog if they aren't clear on what we want and aren't getting enough rewards.  Be careful that your own energy isn't overpowering the dog!

And be just as careful for the dogs that go "up" in energy, that you aren't trying to create excitement from feelings of frustration.  We can often push things too fast with dogs who easily opt in, and then that can result in behavior like whining, barking, slamming into us, etc  Being calmer and lowering energy isn't necessary the solution (although may be needed to help find success), breaking things down more and making sure the dog has clear understanding of what leads to reinforcement is key! And not always easily done!  

 

Precision

Precision is my last priority.  And that doesn't mean I don't train for it from the start. It meant that when starting a training session I am always checking to see if have good attitude- focus, motivation- and energy levels first.  

The green qualifying ribbon doesn't have your scores on it!  How much you care about precision is a personal goal.  Sometimes (often), tighter precision can help us be more consistent when teaching our dogs and deciding how to break things down and when to reset vs reward.

But attitude still comes first for me! 

I frequently reward errors in my training in order to help my dog stay in the game!  Then try to set it up better!

In other situations I might try to interrupt the dog from the error, especially if I'm in a bigger chain where continuing quickly gets messy! Or if continuing can lead the dog to wondering if my silence means they are wrong and should offer something else (a really big hole to get of in obedience where we need the dog confidence in our silence!)

An interruption I try to do cheerfully, even game like. I don't need the dog to know they were wrong, I just need to quickly get them back on track.

But when looking at precision itself, my goal is breaking each skill down so that I know the dog really understands each part from a standstill.

Often precision work is at a slow pace.  Going slow makes sure the dog is controlling their body and not flinging it! And reward placement matters a ton!! If I could pick just one thing to change in someone's heelwork to tweak precision it would be experimenting with both where the reward ultimately gets placed and the path it takes to get there! 

I call my precision training sessions "doodle sessions" because I am changing direction constantly.  This is both because it is working different precision moments (slow left pivots, right pivots, backing up, sidesteps..) and because I adjust what I am doing in relation to the precision the dog is giving me.

Forging or crabbing?  Lots of left pivots!!  Or backing up!  Not collecting? Work lots of right archs to a left pivot or brisk pace to slow pace!

Lagging?  Speed up!  Right pivots! (Although usually if a dog is prone to lagging I switch to more energy focus and heeling games!)

Precision tools that will help emphasize remaining parallel and even with you include:

• Slow and tight left pivots. True pivots, not big U-turns.
• Side steps. Pull that dog's butt in if they are getting wide or crabbing out!
• Heeling backwards for a few steps.
• Left spins. Especially left spins to halts or side steps.
• "Behind your back" marker cue. Reinforcement comes behind you, not in front! This would either have the DOG actually move from your left side to go behind you to eat it behind your back or even go all the way to your right leg to eat it!

Loot isn't super advanced with his heeling yet in this video and is very prone to forging and crabbing.  In this session I found I wasn't able to do much heeling in a straight line or right circle as he wanted to cut in front of me alot!  I do a left pivot in place on him and almost always cue the reward after a "pull in" move.

 

 

Overview: Balancing Attitude and Precision

Attitude comes first for me and consists of 2 different areas that all affect each other.

1. Desire. Are you making the heeling reward worthwhile? Are you turning the reward package into a true event that involves you? Does your dog actually know how to get the rewards or are they getting frustrated?

2. Focus. Does your dog have a consistent focal point?  If you want your dog to be "all in" with their heeling then you can use their lack of focus as a barometer of that attitude.  I want my dogs to know that when I am silent and continuing to move forward, they are on the path to the reward!  Therefore if their focus drops, I instantly respond and evaluate whether I need to break out of work at that moment all together to address frustration or a big distraction, or whether the dog just needs a quick reset before continuing.  See the additional lecture on focus!

 

Then energy level is a big clue on how much effort your dog is willing to put out. I want to condition my dog to heel at a fast pace with me and to try hard to keep up no matter which direction I move!  Think heeling games!!  This should be super fun!

Energy can also be played with to help precision and to teach our dogs how to go from excitement to collection.

Make sure when you are looking at energy that you are not overpowering the dog or feel like a "nagging" pressure. And check that your dog isn't ramping up in frustration of how to get the reward!

 

Precision is my last category to worry about. And keep in mind that how the dog "stresses" in a trial will also effect how much I care about certain errors such as forging when practicing.  Many dogs put out slightly less "energy" in a trial with the pressire

But having a clear goal in your mind can also help us break down the skills more so that the dog is confident with each part, often with a higher reinforcement history behind it, and we are more consistent now hen to reward and when to reset!

 

Balancing Examples 

Here is a full heeling session with Mayhem.  I'm doing a lot of S lines with her some tight doodles, and a little bit of heeling games at the end.  Most of my focus this session was working on going from brisk heeling to collecting and back to powering forward again.

 

 

And here is a full heeling session with Grace. Grace is more advanced, but you can see she is pretty prone to lagging and now putting out energy on her heelwork. She's more of a couch potato type of dog and my general session on mixing precision in turns more into big right circles and encouraging her when she's behind, quiet when she catches up, then a fun reward! 

 

 

Homework?

No official steps!  Think about where you need to put balance!  Skip to the next lectures based on where you think you need to put in more work: focus? heeling games? precision?