D3000 Master Your Ready Position - Focus on Heel for Retriever Sports!
3 WEEK CLASS - No matter what sport you play, you have a Ready Position. Your dog knows that getting in position is what turns on the game! Or at least, that's the goal.
Course Details
When your dog learns that this position turns on the fun, you have a super power with amazing applications.
For Retriever Sports, it's heel position, but maybe yours is a down or a "middle" like for dock diving.
I use it in higher level retriever sport work. You can use it for getting your dog from the car into the park. Or any other fun activity that makes your dog want to pull you over, to get there faster.
It all starts with establishing the Position. And then teaching our dog that getting in position earns the thing they want to do. Once we have that, we can add duration, distance and big distractions, like super fun retrieves.
If you build that position in the right way, it has amazing side benefits. Like waiting for your release word, no matter what kind of temptation is happening. And like moving with you in heel position, no matter how awesome the destination looks!
This class shows how to:
- Establish a heel position for retriever work. (You can use other positions for this class.)
- Get crazy good steadiness based on that Position
- Turn Heel Position into walking heel
- Walking with Impulse control when moving toward huge temptations
In my sport of retriever field testing, Heel Position is critical! It lines the dog up to see the right retrieve, it lines the dog up to go out for a blind, it gets me from the holding blind to the performance line with impulse control and it creates amazing clarity for steadiness while objects fly through the air!
The technique taught in this class makes it possible to add precision layers of criteria to help you achieve this and more. Where would you love to have your dog offer a position to start the fun?
In this class, we start at the beginning of the process and go layer by layer, together!
Teaching Approach:
Each week we cover the lessons as listed in the syllabus. You will get video demonstration lessons with written descriptions and homework.
Gold and Silver level participants can submit your questions and any video homework for feedback from me. Bronze level participants can follow the work of the Gold and Silver students and can post in the Bronze forums to get feedback from fellow Bronze
Syllabus
Week One:
- -Shaping a great Heel Position with specific criteria.
- -Custom sized mat to create a straight forward aligned spine.
- -Build the behavior of coming into heel position from different angles
Week Two:
- -Steadiness / Impulse control: using heel position to shape steadiness
- -How to fade the mat target and still get great precision position
Week Three:
- -Walking Heel - how to use heel position to create walking heel
- -Premack Heel - Get impulse control when walking toward or past, big temptations
Prerequisites & Supplies
Instructor
Jennifer Henion
Faculty
Jennifer Henion (she/her), KPA CTP has been playing and studying the US retriever sports for 13 years with 6 different dogs. All of whom have achieved Hunt Test titles...