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Tiggy
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Yep just an hour. They don't need to be perfect but demonstrate a basic understanding of heel - as long as their owners can get them into position that's all I need.

What is the teardrop method?

Basically luring into position. Say dog is out in front. Left hand, holding treat. Hand goes back towards you, then out in a circle and around finishing at heel position. Hand comes up and dog sits. The luring movement then becomes the heel signal.

You could adapt it for the dog sitting to the side.

As the dog progresses the circle gets smaller and some will just flick their backsides around.

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Here you go -

The lady in the clip is moving her leg back. I find you only need to move your leg with big dogs.

I can pretty much get all the pups in class moving into heel position in 10 mins. So in an hour you should be able to fade the food and just do it with a hand signal.

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Agree. I first learnt this one with Mary Ray at Camp Tailwaggers. The reason she takes the left leg back (*slightly in line behind the right) for the first few, is to get the people to take the dog well back, so that they can be coming up alongside in a straight line, - otherwise, they tend to come in to position at an angle - therefore head in position but bum out.

The mark point (clicker or verbal) is at the back of the teardrop, as the dog's butt moves to bring it into line Then the reward is delivered with the left hand, when the dog is in position. When teaching find heel this way, Mary doesn't fuss at first whether dog is standing or sitting at that ppoint, as long as boody is parallel to handler. and dog is in position.

If you can muster enough phone books or small steps/boxes of some knd, you can do perch work/rear-end awareness with multiple dogs, but it's harder. I've done it in a puppy class - had 3 phone books out as one of a number of 'stations'. Would prefer something a bit less slippy.

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Why I think this way is quicker too is backend awareness is dealing with muscle memory etc. Think that is a hard call in an hour for a dog with no backend awareness. Plus you have to teach the dog to put its feet on the object first.

The person that introduced the tear drop to club was a mad keen Mary Ray fan Tassie, so undoubtedly it came from a Mary clinic.

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:)

a mad keen Mary Ray fan
There are a lot of us about. :thumbsup: I agree - once you 'get it' - which took me a little while, I must admit, but then I'm unco, you can quite quickly move this one into a nice stationary heel position - and you're starting the rear-end awareness process as an incidental.

Mary used to have us get the dog into position - reward, then step to the right to a 90 degree angle from the dog, and repeat the process. Doing this you can quite quickly progress to less exaggerated movements and to the one step away that huski's after.

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The main issue I find is students want to move their hand the wrong way on the circle bit, they bring their hand against their bodies first and then away in a circle. I usually have to go around and show each one individually.

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The main issue I find is students want to move their hand the wrong way on the circle bit, they bring their hand against their bodies first and then away in a circle. I usually have to go around and show each one individually.

+1 :thumbsup:

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I thought I'd ask in here (I love lurking in this thread btw - very interesting! :) )

What are common or popular smaller to medium breeds you see in the obedience ring?

Shelties would have to be the most common small dog trialling in WA. Your medium dogs would be your tollers and BC's.

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I thought I'd ask in here (I love lurking in this thread btw - very interesting! :confused: )

What are common or popular smaller to medium breeds you see in the obedience ring?

Shelties would have to be the most common small dog trialling in WA. Your medium dogs would be your tollers and BC's.

Thank you Ptolomy. I realised after I posted that I was thinking more along the lines of toy/small. When I stop and think about it, Tollers/BC's are medium dogs!

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OMG I want drops like these - something for us all to aspire to :confused:

Thanks Caffy for the clip :laugh:

That what fantastic! I just love how excited the dog got at the end of an exercise! Man I need to do some work on my drops... those were amazing!! :laugh:

Ok I have a problem! I've been trying to train mack to hold something in his mouth by shaping it. So we progressed through sniff it, grab it but he won't hold on to it at all, he'll sort of bite at it but won't hold on at all. I was working with a metal article but decided to go to something a bit easier so switched to a scrap peice of leather but it's made no difference. Has anyone else had this problem before or has anyone got some suggestions on how to get him to hold on to it even for a second??

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Does Mack have a play retrieve Seita? Will he fetch and hold things in his mouth aside from when your trying to shape him to hold and carry things? I know he tugs as I have seen video but obviously don't think you want to start with holding a tug toy.

I had a similar issue with Ness and had it suggested to shape a retrieve using a toy that she was happy to play with before introducing a DB. So I went away and taught a hold using something she was happy to carry - a stuffed bear. That enabled me to build a little duration on the hold so when I came to reintroducing the DB we had a little more to work with.

Edited by ness
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You see poodles too. Can't think of any breed that is particularly dominating though.

Great clip Ptolomy and Caffy :laugh:

Seita I stop clicking for mouth on and start clicking for longer holds. Is he mouthing though? Check his little teeth.

Amber is now making the dumbell jump off the ground :D Quite pleased with her progress.

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