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  1. #1
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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  2. #2
    Senior Dog POPTOP's Avatar
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    Insightful. My problem is Archie is a little too forward of me when heeling. He is excellent about staying in that position but I know he needs to be a little further back. How do you correct that?
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by POPTOP View Post
    Insightful. My problem is Archie is a little too forward of me when heeling. He is excellent about staying in that position but I know he needs to be a little further back. How do you correct that?
    How did you teach it in the first place? Go back to that. For us, we lure with food to teach the position, so I would go back to that - get him where he needs to be, then reward and lots of praise. For my dogs, I might incorporate a small correction (leash or voice depending on how they respond) as they start to move forward out of position coupled with the praise/reward for being in the right place. We also practice lots of change of paces (fast, slow, normal) with the dog being required to hold heel position, which keeps them more attentive to staying with you, but if he doesn’t truly understand correct heel position I doubt that would help. You could also do lots of left turns - if he is forged you will bump into him.

    And no offense, but why does it matter for Archie? I ask since we do precision heeling for competition. I would worry more about a little forging in my dogs who will be judged on it than I would if it was more for around town, etc. Also, for competition, we rarely if ever correct forging as even dogs that forge in practice where they are comfortable rarely do it in the trial ring which is more stressful - you are much more likely to get lagging, so a dog who forges in practice can even lag a tiny bit in the ring and be fine.

    And love the video - our trainer is always getting on people for that. “Make the dog find heel” is one of her mantras.
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  4. #4
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    I was out doing drills Sunday. I reeeeeaaaallly.......went......into.....slow...... ........motion. The dogma in field work is run a fast dog slow and a slow dog fast. To be honest, I'd been good about that after hitting every sit whistle. But in training, on line, I keep falling into sit-sit-sit-sit-SIT-No-heel-heel-No-here-HEEL-sit-sit-sit mode.

    He did not mention this in the video, but that sort of compulsivity on the line winds the handler up (or at least it does me.) So it is a perfect feed-back loop in my brain. So the slow-mo approach to our drills the other day were very helpful....

  5. #5
    Senior Dog windycanyon's Avatar
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    I've not watched that yet but can only imagine since I've teased a few pros whose dogs were at least 2-3' ahead of them at the line...
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  6. #6
    Senior Dog POPTOP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Annette47 View Post
    How did you teach it in the first place? Go back to that. For us, we lure with food to teach the position, so I would go back to that - get him where he needs to be, then reward and lots of praise. For my dogs, I might incorporate a small correction (leash or voice depending on how they respond) as they start to move forward out of position coupled with the praise/reward for being in the right place. We also practice lots of change of paces (fast, slow, normal) with the dog being required to hold heel position, which keeps them more attentive to staying with you, but if he doesn’t truly understand correct heel position I doubt that would help. You could also do lots of left turns - if he is forged you will bump into him.

    And no offense, but why does it matter for Archie? I ask since we do precision heeling for competition. I would worry more about a little forging in my dogs who will be judged on it than I would if it was more for around town, etc. Also, for competition, we rarely if ever correct forging as even dogs that forge in practice where they are comfortable rarely do it in the trial ring which is more stressful - you are much more likely to get lagging, so a dog who forges in practice can even lag a tiny bit in the ring and be fine.

    And love the video - our trainer is always getting on people for that. “Make the dog find heel” is one of her mantras.
    I never taught him to heel he was already doing it when he joined the family.

    Absolutely no offense taken, it truly does not matter other than if I give this guy an inch he will take a mile. Think he is going to be my NILF dog forever. If DH lets him get away some something, he will try it with me and he definitely knows the difference. Such as, when we approach someone on a walk, I will get him into a heel for a ton of different reasons. Guess it comes down to DH being the softee and me being the enforcer. He is so dang smart he plays dumb. Like the other day, for whatever reason, he decided to run along the fence barking at the neighbor who was mowing the lawn. DH waited then called out to him, no command given. I walk outside, give him the full name, Archibald, and he trots away from the fence grinning. Scamp. And, I've almost given up on "training" DH, LOL.
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  7. #7
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    TuMicks I can relate to this. I ran my sister's young dog in junior (derby ) this passed weekend. She was fine heeling for the first two series then a little unruly for the third. By the fourth series it was blistering hot and when she saw the water she lost it. She bounced out in front of me and didn't want to come to heel, it was just lucky she got a no bird and I could take her off line for a little chat. When I brought her up the second time she was much better but got lost on the very last bird of the day. It was tight to the gunner up the shore into long reeds and she just couldn't quite get the last 10 ft.. You never know with these under two year olds just what they are going to do. All in all I was not too unhappy with her very first performance at a field trial. She sure proved that she can mark, on her third series she locked on the first bird down and didn't swing for the second. I was sure she hadn't seen it but she put her face right on it.

  8. #8
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Made me laugh about the "no-bird". There is a HT pro around here who has a nice touch. When he gets a no-bird he leaves the line saying.. "BAAaaad dog. You were a BAAAaad dog. What were you thinking, you BAAaaad dog". He does it with a smile and with a bit of irony in his voice so he is not "intimidating" his dog. He isn't using the "N" word. So he gets away with it. I suppose he could get a warning depending upon the behavior of the dog (ears back, tail tucked.) But I've never seen the dogs slink back to the truck.

    Usually it's a big disadvantage to have a no-bird. But you have to do what you have to do like you did to mitigate the damage.

  9. #9
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    The last hunt test I ran with Huggie she got two no birds in a row. At this one she was beginning to whine on line so as I took her off I told her noisy dogs didn't get birds. The third time we went to line all I had to say was quiet and she got to get her bird. Practicing no bird during training should be done more often but people don't want to put an extras burden on the throwers.

  10. #10
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    That's true. We get into such a rut, sometimes.

 



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