Here are our videos for left turns and about turns. We haven’t done much work outside in a bit so I left the first video for you to see how he gets distracted. We live by a pretty busy street and also people go walking by at any time. He was dropping his head and just checks out for a bit.
i started using touch early in the heel and then he was keeping his head up and anticipating more maybe? It helped get him engaged and I really think he likes the jumping of “touch”. Is this okay to do for now? Just to work on engagement and to ignore the distractions?
Yes those are in order. And i'd say What you see is right. The first one he was really distracted with the sounds around us. The second one I got him going with some "touch" exercises and that seemed to help him stay engaged that rep. And then after the third video I stopped recording because I noticed he was tired.
We havent been working outside much, which I think made it harder for the both of us. I'm definitely going to take that homework for engagement in new places and work on it more! We used to go work in the pet store by our house and on sidewalks by the store but since covid started I stopped doing that.. I'll definitely make it a priority to get out more.
Can you tell me what this whole session looked like? How long, all the tasks he did, and if the videos are in chronological order? I will say more once I know the answer to that. :-)
If they are in chronological order, here's what I see:
1) Not warmed up enough/engaged before starting the hard work
2) EXCELLENT
3) Tired?
Check out and try this homework from Level 4:
Homework #3: Engagement in New Places Make a list of 10 places that are not your house/yard where you can practice training. Order your list from what you expect to be the easiest place to train to the hardest place to train. Don’t put anything on the list yet that feels impossible. Go to the easiest places first. Pick a spot away from action, and stick to that spot for now. Allow your dog to explore the environment for a minute or so. Ask for a very easy behavior. For example, “turn and look at me.” Do a big reward of food play. Release your dog to explore the environment again. Repeat. Do this for just a few minutes. Try to get some video. Assess your dog’s response. Were they having fun? Were they distracted? Do you think that next time you can ask for harder skills, or do you need to find an easier setting? The process of building a dog’s ability to “work” in new and distracting environments is a gradual one.
You can also look at the last videos in my "Cupid heelwork blog" thread under the general category. The full sessions show my warm up and how I gradually start elements of heelwork before doing lots of walking forward. I keep things short and sweet because he is young, but the same applies for a dog that has a habit of dropping the head from previous training.