Luna level 7 part 2

Ok cool! We will practice that. What do you think we need to move onto level 8? Aside from her distracted downs 😐

I think you can go to Level 8! What I’d like to see is some work with signs outside/more spaced out. I think I also haven’t seen spin in heel in motion, which will fall into the general category of sequencing skills with heel. Heel is just starting to be not fresh paint for her, so you should be able to comfortable start going from heel to other things (and back to heel). Twist, target, front, etc.

Oh, can she do stay (sit or down) from heel, then you walk around her? That might throw her off at first - particularly from down.

Looks good to me! Keep this up.

Not sure what the bark was about, but I'm not worried about it.

She likes to “speak” when she gets jigs 🤷🏻‍♀️

Front to swing looks beautiful!!! At least until the ones where she chokes, haha.

Heel to front looks good! We'll work on her needing less "help" (big hand signal, stepping back), but this is a-ok for now. So here's what I think happened in your course run where she misses this skill:

She was in "heel" mode, did a lot of paces of heeling, heard that you asked for front, second-guessed that that could possibly be the right answer, lacked confidence, and kept sort of going towards front but then defaulted to heel because clearly heel is a safe answer and awesome.

Solution:

Put these things (much heeling forward + heel to front) together more gradually.

Next:

Swing, heel forward one step, (halt?), front.

Pick halt vs. no halt based on what she finds easier.

Then: Swing, heel forward a few steps, front.

etc.

If you started with halt, add in not halting.

If you started with not halting, add in halting.

Ok cool. This makes sense. we will definitely work on it, my hands feel VERY exaggerated so I’ll be happy to curb that when she’s better with this. We’ll keep working! ❤️

Good job! It honestly just looks to me like something she needs more practice with. Like she is expecting puppy push ups or something else. Does that sound right to you? (Or have you done this a bunch and you feel stuck?)

I like your verbal "stay."

When you say her name, that throws her off - it seems to release her back to guessing. (What names mean to a dog can get kind of complicated.) So keep practicing just with this verbal "stay."

Are we wondering if the hand signal for down is also confusing, on top of the stay signal? You can add your "down" hand signal back in and show me that.

story checks out to me, I also think part of it is that we don’t practice this a ton so maybe she’s anticipating Something more complex? She knows down when I have her food bowl in my hands at feeding 😂 stubborn

@Lauren & Luna Not stubborn! The food bowl is a contextual cue. I have been guessing, I remember even when you posted down in heel, that she is just not expecting "stay" to be the right answer. She's not jumping up because she's not paying attention or she wants to do something else; she's jumping up going, "Oo! Don't tell me! I know! SIT!"

Yes, let's break heel->front out of the chain since she missed that one.

Can I see you just do having her be in heel, and then going to front? Remember you can back up a few steps.

There is some front work on a pivot bowl somewhere in the curriculum... Maybe Level 8 if you haven't done it yet!

Edit: Yes, Level 8 has "fronts withouts stepping back." But let me see what you've got for heel to front anyway.

@Lauren & Luna If you say, "Down," is there an implied stay, or is she allowed to get up if you did not say "stay"?

My inclination would be to be quieter with your movement as we diagnose what is confusing her here. For example, I'd be curious to see you put her in a down, simply say "stay" without a hand signal, and walk away.

If your initial departure in itself is triggering her to get up, then you would just need to do more repetitions of that. Less distractions, and more just: Down, stay, *walk away*, yes, come back and feed, take a break, repeat

If walking away triggers getting up, walk away slower at first. Gradually work up to just being able to take off.

Once she is nailing perfect scores for sessions that focus on that, mix it into life/other sessions to generalize the skill/ make sure that she remembers.

I’d like to say stay is implied but I haven’t stuck to that throughout her training so let’s go with no.

ill do some video of down and quieter stays with no hands and walk away. Stay tuned for those!

Got it, ok, then definitely stick with cueing “stay” (verbally) if an implied stay is unrealistic/not what she’s used to. I’m curious to see what she does with just a verbal. :-) I’ll probably have you add in body language again later, but we’ll do it methodologically.