OB465: Shaping a Flashy and Confident Heel - Putting the Skills Together

• left turns
• right turns
• left about turns (IPO and Rally)
• right about turns
• figure 8
• halts after duration
• pressure points
• change of pace
• collection
• problem solving
• placement of reward

Prerequisite for gold level and working silver students:

OB 462: Shaping a Flashy and Confident Heel-Moving Foundations

Strongly recommended:

• FE155: Crucial Concepts of Competition
• OB460: Shaping a Flashy and Confident Heel-Foundations
• FE130 Toys: Developing Cooperation and Play

To benefit from this class material teams are expected to have all the skills in the OB460 class syllabus on verbal cue, and off a food lure or physical prompt. Offered straight forward heeling by the dog is also a must.

If you want to use toys for reinforcement (highly recommended!), then you are expected to have an offered "out" (drop at feet or deliver to hand) from your dog, with no prompting or conflict, and a knowledge of how to listen to your dog's opinion about the training session's rate of reinforcement.

Dogs are expected to have high motivation for treats and/or toys and a working knowledge of how to push their handlers for "work".

Week 1.2 Left turns

Basics needed:

• 10 steps moving forward in heel position
• Right rear movement
• Backing
• Consistent body language by the handler, whether that is footwork, head turning, etc…
• Reward sequence

Steps:

Figure out what body language you are using to “predict” your left turn. For me, this is a braking foot, and head turn to the left. I don’t consciously train the head turn, I just know that I do it. Review the lecture on footwork, pre cues if you haven’t already. Put the body language before the actual left turn, slow it all down, and verbally cue the dog to back and pivot to the right. So for my dogs, that would look like this:

• 5 steps forward
• Brake on right foot (coming down on it harder than normal for teaching)
• Cue starboard (right pivot)
• Step/turn with left foot and turn body
• Cue Back
• Mark and reward when dog finds heel

If your dog/handler team have a strong offered heel and a strong shaping background, you can often skip the verbal cuing. It is often helpful if you review pivoting to the left for the dog before starting with the left turn itself. Here is one of Baylie’s first sessions:

Mark as you move forward once the dog has found the new heel position and reward in a way that strengthens this back and right movement. I normally use a marker word that means to the dog flip to your left and get the thrown treat or toy. I teach this in stationary position first, and then to moving. (separate lecture)

Here is One’s first session on left turns. Notice how I reward:

Once the dog is figuring it out, speed up to normal speed

Drop the verbal cues

Start reinforcing closer to heel position and stop rewarding to the back and right. Here is Bayles showing her finished left turns. She’s a little hoppy but I’m not too concerned, that normally evens out once you stop blitzing the turns:

Once the dog knows the moves, look at what your sport requires. If doing IPO, snappy and abrupt is best. If doing AKC or CKC, smooth your steps out, round the corner and make sure your steps are on the same tempo.

Here is Ones showing both types. Ignore the old dog (Changer!)barking his frustration out the window: