We finally got back into the swing of things! Here is the order at which the skills come up:
1) Teardrop finish on left
2) Circle finish
3) Find front from motion
4) Step onto target on cue (some pivoting)
5) Eye contact away from food
6) Down and sit on left with barrier
Some notes of mine:
1) After watching the video back, I don't think I gave Modoc enough space to do the tear drop finish. She's got such a long body... Do you think I should move further away from the wall?
2) I think she likes the circling, and she knows what to do!
3) I didn't give her enough space to do the circle when I was practicing her fronts and it made her hind end really crooked. I will adjust in the future.
4) I have not found a good object for her to pivot on. I will keep looking for stuff in my house or *gasps* buy a feed bowl. She also seems to be really hesitating to go toward the grass and off the concrete...
5) Should I be asking for longer duration on this?
6) She does really well when I ask her to sit, so we focused mostly on getting the fold on verbal cue.
We are struggling to add duration to the head position in stand... She keeps sitting down! She does great offering duration in the sit. But if I start to get her to stand up, and wait for her to add duration she sits. Also, she's very fidgety. We need some help troubleshooting how to STAND still.
Here is some stuff we did for head position, would love all the advice on this. Mo finds it difficult to stand still... we keep it short and do lots of fast treating.
Oh also I don't see "find front from motion" in this video!
Woohoo!
Yes, teardrop finish against a barrier doesn't work as well with bigger dogs. They CAN do it, but they have to go way behind you to turn around, because the barrier blocks them from pivoting their rear at all. We actually want to fade the steps backward (behind you) as the dog learns more about pivoting sharply, so I would practice this move away from a barrier. Also, she follows your lure so nicely, that you totally don't need the barrier for that lured skill anyway. Just don't yet combine left finish with exercises where you do need the barrier (stationary heel -> walking forward heel).
"Circle"/right finish she has a lot of history with and looks good. She's got it. I would actually completely table right finish from heel position (as opposed to right finish from front), because it does draw their head to the right, if they're anticipating that move. And I want to see her attention shift up and to the left when she's in stationary heel.
I love your jump-to-cookie reward from heel.
Heel position: I want to see a session (or section of a session) where you do more reps of only stationary heel (standing) against the barrier. I basically just want to see good position + stillness (minus dropping the head to chew), and I want to see that before you add steps forward, which is coming up next. You can reward quickly to achieve the stillness, if she gets fidgety.
Pivot: If she is hesitant about being lured to pivot sometimes, I would stick more to one direction at a time, possibly even doing 1 direction per session.
Eye contact away from food: Have you played with this game before? Having more duration in the eye contact could be a fun project. :-) It isn't required for heel position per say, but I think it helps with teaching them to hold their head still & focus on one spot continuously.
Sit and down in heel: Super nice; she's nice and straight. I like my dog to be familiar with a sit and down hand signal from heel, as well, because it's a nice crutch for weening off of the barrier. The direction of your hand during the signal can keep them straight, because they're looking at your hand!