Training A Dog To Heel

[RubyStar]

Cider is awesome

Thanks Rubystar - poor Scoota is going to have to lift his game ;)

Aunty RubyStar isn't fussy, she will take home Scoota or Cider Whichever doesn't lift their game enough!

[ness]

Get in line RubyStar - I am first in line for any toller who doesn't life their game enough - Scoota I have garlic prawns and twisties for you .

[Ptolomy]

It looks like Cider will hit the ring before Banjo and I . Banjo's a star but I can't say the same about his owner .

Tiggy - Cider wont be in the ring before she is 18 months and more than likely closer to two. She has so much to learn and at the moment if I work anywhere other than the driveway its pretty ordinary....hmmm perhaps I could hold a trial in the driveway - now thats a thought

Have asked the guru for a lesson on teaching stands as I started teaching Cider and very quickly I could see the same issues Scoota has developing, so have held off for the time being. Have been working on steady feet though Stays aren't in her vocab yet ;)

I have started article holding and she will pick it up and return with it - so I am now working on fronts while holding things. Have played find the seekback in the house - but need to get somebody to hold her since "wait there darling mummy will come back in a moment" or "stay there you bag" don't seem to work

[Ptolomy]

Get in line RubyStar - I am first in line for any toller who doesn't life their game enough - Scoota I have garlic prawns and twisties for you ;) .

Hmm could do a package deal here - like a free set of steakknives - but instead I will throw in Blaize as an added bonus

[ness]

;) Ptolomy - I wanna hold a UD trial in my backyard think I could submit a proposal . Or alternatively I think they should permit video submissions with no strange scary people in attendance .

[ness]

Ptolomy - poor Blaize your not very nice to her. Hmmmmm but I suppose Blaize could be managed if we get Scoota in the package ;) .

[Tiggy]

Tiggy - Cider wont be in the ring before she is 18 months and more than likely closer to two. She has so much to learn and at the moment if I work anywhere other than the driveway its pretty ordinary....hmmm perhaps I could hold a trial in the driveway - now thats a thought

Well Banjo is three in April but we've had alot of breaks from training. In the book Purely Positive Training it says - Four years old seems to be some sort of magic age. It's even inspired a little rhyme - What they can do at four, They can't do before. So that's my excuse .

[huski]

Daisy's three years old too, Tiggy If I'd started her on Steve's program earlier she would have been in the trial ring before now. I'm hoping she'll have her CCD by the she's four in October and if we're lucky maybe on her way to CD

[Tiggy]

It's the same with me huski, if I trained like I do now Banjo would be in the ring by now for sure. It was the club training that put me off, yes they use food but there's alot more to positive training than just the food. For me when I went to the Sue Hogben seminar and saw Ptolomy and bedazzled that was my turning point into positive training. Now I've got the Patty Ruzzo dvds I'm even more excited about it.

[huski]

It's the same with me huski, if I trained like I do now Banjo would be in the ring by now for sure. It was the club training that put me off, yes they use food but there's alot more to positive training than just the food. For me when I went to the Sue Hogben seminar and saw Ptolomy and bedazzled that was my turning point into positive training. Now I've got the Patty Ruzzo dvds I'm even more excited about it.

That's one thing I learnt - I always used food in training from day one, but it's how I've used it that's changed.

On the subject of heeling, I found Daisy's heel work improved 110% on it's own once I had good focus and drive. Bashing around the paddock at obedience club made it boring for her.

Edited January 8, 2010 by huski

[Ptolomy]

Well Banjo is three in April but we've had alot of breaks from training. In the book Purely Positive Training it says - Four years old seems to be some sort of magic age. It's even inspired a little rhyme - What they can do at four, They can't do before. So that's my excuse .

Its interesting that you say this Tiggy. Scoota improved a heap when he turned 4 - its like he matured and things that he had stuggled with in the past became so much easier for him to deal with. It was at this point that I decided that he was ready to take east - up until then he was Mr Inconsistency

Beans is now 4 and I keep telling her ......Hmm Tiggy did the book say 4 physically or mentally?????

[Tiggy]

On the subject of heeling, I found Daisy's heel work improved 110% on it's own once I had good focus and drive. Bashing around the paddock at obedience club made it boring for her.

The same here. I'll never go paddock bashing again. I did some real basic heelwork with Banjo today, just having him find heel but now he's got that great focus I have to throw a piece of food to get him to leave me so then he can come back to heel .

[Ptolomy]

. I'll never go paddock bashing again. I did some real basic heelwork with Banjo today, just having him find heel but now he's got that great focus I have to throw a piece of food to get him to leave me so then he can come back to heel .

Tiggy thats one of the games we play - its called Hansel and Gretel - you are doing circle work with the dog on your inside - when the dog is in heel position you click and throw the food with your left hand into the middle of the circle and you keep walking - the dog will come running back and start heeling again and after a couple of steps you can click and throw the food again. Gradually you can extend the amount of time the dog is heeling before you C/T. Its best to use easily visable chunks of food.

[Tiggy]

Well Banjo is three in April but we've had alot of breaks from training. In the book Purely Positive Training it says - Four years old seems to be some sort of magic age. It's even inspired a little rhyme - What they can do at four, They can't do before. So that's my excuse .

Its interesting that you say this Tiggy. Scoota improved a heap when he turned 4 - its like he matured and things that he had stuggled with in the past became so much easier for him to deal with. It was at this point that I decided that he was ready to take east - up until then he was Mr Inconsistency

Beans is now 4 and I keep telling her ......Hmm Tiggy did the book say 4 physically or mentally?????

The books says this - For the larger breeds, especially the slow-maturing males, four is the age when they become dogs. They're puppies for about a year. As one year olds, they're like toddlers. Sometime around two, they become juveniles. Then for two years, they're going through a sort of protracted late adolescence. At four, they blossom.

Banjo was a slow maturing dog physically, it was around two when he lost that puppy look. Mentally he's probably still a juvenile .

[Tiggy]

. I'll never go paddock bashing again. I did some real basic heelwork with Banjo today, just having him find heel but now he's got that great focus I have to throw a piece of food to get him to leave me so then he can come back to heel .

Tiggy thats one of the games we play - its called Hansel and Gretel - you are doing circle work with the dog on your inside - when the dog is in heel position you click and throw the food with your left hand into the middle of the circle and you keep walking - the dog will come running back and start heeling again and after a couple of steps you can click and throw the food again. Gradually you can extend the amount of time the dog is heeling before you C/T. Its best to use easily visable chunks of food.

Hansel and Gretel, who named that.

[RubyStar]

We all learn from our first dog and from our mistakes!! I still have a LOOOOOOT to learn, but even knowing what I know now and being able to go back in time and teach things better from the start, yes I too could perhaps have a more reliable dog who could have been more successful in the ring than she has been lately. But all that learning will just make our next dogs better, at least that is my hope!

Ruby hit the ring at 2, probably a bit prematurely but we managed to pull off our 3 CCD passes in a row (after an initial fail from laying down in her sit stay!) Her passes were certainly not inspiring ring work, that's for certain! I should have been excited to get our first ever title, but I wasn't as it wasn't good work from either of us

She has just turned 3, and starting in Novice. I think she will be 4 before she pulls off her first pass there, so bring on 4 years of age if that is where it all "clicks" Millie is 3 also (got her at 2 years of age), and certainly nowhere near ready to enter the ring. She does what Ptolomy says Cider does - works a treat in the driveway, great focus etc etc, but the second we take it to the K9 grounds, she's like "what's that obedience you talk of, mum??" :thumbsup:

Edited January 8, 2010 by RubyStar

[RubyStar]

Get in line RubyStar - I am first in line for any toller who doesn't life their game enough - Scoota I have garlic prawns and twisties for you .

Hmm but who is the one who can just drive over and load one of them in my car eh? You need to organise transport from her house to the airport, and then the flight

[Ptolomy]

Hansel and Gretel, who named that.

I learnt the game at club training many many many years ago with my first dog Lara. I guess it gets its name because didn't Hansel and Gretel drop breadcrumbs which were eaten by the birds.......now its BIG chunks of cheese which are eaten by the vultures

[bedazzledx2]

Brooklyn was trialling from around 2 but it wasn't until he was four that he matured and, like Scooter, became reliable enough to take over East to compete. I reckon between 4 and 6 are magical years

Well Banjo is three in April but we've had alot of breaks from training. In the book Purely Positive Training it says - Four years old seems to be some sort of magic age. It's even inspired a little rhyme - What they can do at four, They can't do before. So that's my excuse :D .

Its interesting that you say this Tiggy. Scoota improved a heap when he turned 4 - its like he matured and things that he had stuggled with in the past became so much easier for him to deal with. It was at this point that I decided that he was ready to take east - up until then he was Mr Inconsistency

Beans is now 4 and I keep telling her ......Hmm Tiggy did the book say 4 physically or mentally?????

The books says this - For the larger breeds, especially the slow-maturing males, four is the age when they become dogs. They're puppies for about a year. As one year olds, they're like toddlers. Sometime around two, they become juveniles. Then for two years, they're going through a sort of protracted late adolescence. At four, they blossom.

Banjo was a slow maturing dog physically, it was around two when he lost that puppy look. Mentally he's probably still a juvenile .

[ness]

Not Scoota or Brooklyn standard but Ness was 6 when she entered her first open trial and 3 trials later walked away with her CDX. Treasured memories.

I also have to say even with Kenzie I am noticing recently that she picks things up quicker and retain them with a better level of maturity and she will be 2 in April.