Heyo! Here's a video just looking at Hw #2 for this level :) This is how most of our sessions have been going. I do a bit of a warm up to make sure he's invested in the game, then I start building up gradually to more and more steps. Whole session is usually between 5 and 10 minutes in length. We still make mistakes but I think it's kinda going in the right direction??
Excited to read your thoughts!
Alright so the rest of the homework!! I have definitely been neglecting the finding front from heel 😅 I've done more work on it since this recording but yeah; let me know if you think I really need to stay on this stuff at level 5 before submitting for level 6 or if I can just keep working on it concurrently. I think once he is in heel or front he can finish right quite well. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
What a perfect stretch of fence you found!
That routine sounds good, and I like the kinds of "fun breaks" you do in between stretches of heeling. It mostly seems to work very well for him. I emailed you an example warm-up that could help with ideas specifically related to acclimating to new environments to work in, too.
The short heeling in the beginning keeps him engaged, and it makes me think that thoughtfully working on halts in a fun, game-like way may be something he's into. (Autosits are the next chapter, though I know you might have them already.)
Something I'm seeing with my virtual rally students is that we also need to be mindful of pace - PARTICULARLY with dogs that we are RE-training heel.
"Old, sloppy heel" (previous class experience) historically often = long stretches, human walking fast, maybe human chanting and prompting often
"New, precise heel" (this curriculum) = short stretches, human walking very slowly (because you started inside around furniture!), and whatever new reward methods you integrated
We need to blend these together mindfully! I've had success with people literally play acting that they're walking in their living room, and slowly adding in lengthened strides, going back down to "living room walk" again, etc. I'll probably need to make an extra credit assignment for this, formally!
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Your first "long" stretch of heeling at 3:34, he looks very attentive and upright.
There are a couple of head bobs but he snaps back very quickly.
I want to explore the function of your praise. There is an element of personal preference here, but I want you to think about what you mean praise to mean and its affect on Waco. While praise is allowed in Rally, I still want to avoid using praise as a sort of "cheat" or heavy crutch to get more duration than your dog is perhaps very willing to do at that moment for whatever reason.
You (or we, together) can decide criteria for head bobs. My instinct would be to say that if you think some singular bobs look like they have something to do with his footing/weight balance, then that's fine. If a bob becomes an actual scan or glance around, I want to train that out, because I think it can be a slippery slope from a quick scan around to a long scan around, to a scan around and lag etc.
The last 2 heel sequences have a lot more head dipping and visible scanning.
I'm wondering if this is because:
- Something in the environment changed
- The heeling got too long too fast
- The heeling felt "old heeling"-y
- He got bored
- Something else or some combination
As a rule of thumb, if he can't focus in stationary heel position, I would not step forward (6:18).
What have you done previously in training if he dips his head? If you've done different things, I'd like to hear all of them. If you've not done anything in particular, that's a valid answer, too!
We may experiment with courses of action, but what I'd like you to start with is breaking away if he loses focus/enthusiasm. Go back to your "in between heeling games." Work a specific distraction in a different skill if necessary, to "get over" the distraction. Then try again, with LESS duration. Build back up.
In case it's at all boredom related, I want you to cap at 10-12 steps right now, with no more than 4 reps of that per session. The next 2 levels go over getting heel off the barrier, adding turns, and building endurance. :-)