A Little Bit of Heeling

Once in a while, we try to video ourselves doing obedience. This allows us to check for little things that we may be doing wrong. For example, some people have a hard time walking a straight line or might unknowingly step into the dog when they stop. I recently had a friend take some video or me working with Tanner. He really is coming along quite nicely. I like his attention to me and he does a great job getting his rear out of the way on the left turns.



The things I see in here that need some work are his right turns and his sits. He tends to drop his head a little on the right turn and often goes a bit wide. This is easily fixed with a clicker and treats. He also tends to swing his butt out a bit when he sits. Right now, I have been ignoring it in favor of rewarding a quick sit. Soon, I will start to ask him to bring his butt in as we are stopping.

Things I need to work on are using my shoulders properly to cue turns and stops as well as cleaning up small pieces of my foot work. This is easily fixed with a clicker and chocolate ;)

Tanner Learns to Heel(by Tamara DePue)

I have spent lots of time working on the stationary heel position with Tanner. We worked on attention in this position until I was confident he understood what I wanted and could do it in a variety of places. Next we worked on taking the first step. Tanner wanted to drop his head and look forward on the first step so we spent a lot of time jumping forward for a treat on the first step. Meanwhile, I worked with him in front of me pushing me backwards for a treat. When he was really into that game I would turn around so that he was on my left side and click and treat. I also taught him to swing his butt in to me in separate sessions. Here, we finally put it all together into a formal heel.





He is about 20 months old and this is really the first time I have asked him to do this much heeling at once. I am pleased to see that after working on all the components separately, he was able to put them all together! There is still lots of work for us to do. But, I am pleased with the progress so far. What's next? We will continue to work on the components in a variety of places. I will keep the frequency of reward high to continue his great attitude regarding this work. I can see that I need to make sure his whole body is in alignment when I treat after the click. He is forging a little bit too and we will work on refining the heel position. In fact, the whole reason I asked my friend to video this for me was so I can see where I need to improve!