If you show up....your dog will show up...

A lot of people ask me how do I get that attention and focus while heeling. I just got a message about it this

afternoon. I'll share a portion of what I wrote here:

Instead of drilling heeling as formal heeling, I would incorporate a lot of play and games with the heeling. I always tell people you want to be so cool to your dog, they will choose working with you than looking at what is the distraction. When they do pay attention to you, reward that...you want the dog to think they get a bigger payoff by looking at you than the stuff on the floor or the dog in their peripheral vision. When I taught the guys heeling...I kept heeling patterns very short, very dynamic, and very fun. I make a big deal out of heeling with attention with them and make it feel like they cured cancer with their heeling. LOL I always stopped working while they wanted to do more. My philosophy is to build the love for the work first and then polish with the precision. Does that make sense??

I like to think of this stuff like if I were a teacher. We've always had those teachers in high school or college who were as dry as dust....blah, blah, blah...reading from the text book is their lecture...asking the back row of the class to pay attention. You couldn't wait to get out of there if you showed up at all. Then we had the teachers who were so cool and fun....interactive with their lectures and examples of what they were teaching you. We all loved them and worked hard and studied hard for their tests...we were present for their class. We never missed the classes of the cool, hip and fun teachers. Training dogs is very much like this...what sort of teacher are you?? 

Goofing around with Go Outs

So I pulled "Go Outs" as one of Lars' obedience tasks earlier last week. My husband is up on the deck with O so I'm not talking to myself. LOL I use a target box at the top end of the ring for Lars' (and Ocean's go outs.) I didn't want the food on the ring gate to be the sole reason Lars is running away from me. I wanted to teach the go out as a position (like I do with front.) I could totally see him charge out there and wipe out the entire back ring gate searching for food that he is certain is there. With his drive, he won't stop looking for it until he finds the food. With running out to the position where the box is, I wanted Lars to know he has to run straight out away from me and get into the position the box is marking. In run thrus and practice, the box is always there...it's only gone in trials. Just like that plunger for the Broad Jump that's always there, it's there to build muscle memory to run straight and do a tight turn and sit. 

The way Lars thinks is the other reason I used this method over food...he understands that he must run away from me and get into this position in order to run back to me and take a jump. Running and jumping is one of Lars' most favorite things to do. Lars didn't "get" go outs until it started to get paired with Directed Jumping...and then it all made sense to Lars and why running to the opposite ring meant something. I actually use the directed jumping as a reward sometimes for a good go out. He only gets to jump if he is in the position I want. If he gives me a crap go out, he doesn't get to jump...and I have to become more of a stickler of that in run thrus. Ocean doesn't think like Lars does...and I'll probably have to adjust some of this when it's his turn to really learn this go outs and directed jumping. But, so far, it's working for Lars.

Throwback Thursday...Epic Bitey Face Throwdown!

Once upon a time, I could pick Ocean... and Lars thought he was a boat load of fun to play with. LOL