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Heeling: Dealing with Forging My last column focused on teaching young dogs or pups some of the beginning steps to focused attention while moving. I primarily like to start with lots of doodling steps and them move into more formal heeling from there. Doodling and moving focused attention takes months so don’t plan to move onto formal heeling for quite a while if you are looking for an accurate heeling obedience partner. Keep doodling and then formal heeling fun and exciting also-don’t let it get boring. The dog needs to be actively engaged and as does the handler when working on heeling. I do a lot of this communication through my leash and body posture. I like to give a “that was awesome!” once in a while also, but I don’t talk non-stop while heeling as I think dogs tune this out after a while. Voice tone is more important than actual words so when I do talk, I make sure it is an uplifting tone. Once the dog understands and has been taught correct heel position, the trick is to keep it! One has to be very consistent with this and not let a forge or a lagging position be ok one day and not the next. Dogs function in black and white-heel position is heel position. Here are a couple of suggestions to try if your dog does move out of heel position. This month we will take a look at forging. If my dog starts to forge, I do one of several things; I release behind me to a cookie. For this, I might have a hidden cookie somewhere that I can get to quickly, timing is very important. The instant my dog begins to forge ever so slightly, I whip out the cookie and move it behind my back near my left hip and tell my dog, “OK, get it!” and we break off the heeling. This does need to be taught first for the dog to understand, but once they do, they will follow the hand with the cookie behind you. I had a very bad habit of always releasing forward and realized this was creating forging, so I taught Echo to release backwards to a cookie, which was one tool to help stop any forging. A second tool that can be used is marching. If the dog starts to forge, you start to march, in place, and in many cases the dog will return automatically to your side. They may think you’ve lost your mind, but it catches them off guard! If it works well, you can do some marching as you move if the dog begins to forge and see if this works as well as the stationary marching. This often only takes a couple of marching steps before you can go onto your regular heeling footwork. This can also be used in the turn if your dog begins to forge. A third tool you can use is to turn into your dog the moment you see that nose out of position. You may end up doing a small full circle, a small quarter turn, whatever it takes to get the dog back into heel position. I will often use several pops as I am moving into the dog to encourage him to get back. This is especially the case if I have a dog that has been allowed to forge and does not get the smaller, lesser corrections of my other suggestions. I can use words like, “get back” which was taught in the doodling exercises. Again you need to be consistent. Another tool you can do is to try heeling with your leash behind you, being held with your right hand. It should be draped loosely until you need to use it. When the dog starts to forge, pull slightly on the leash with your right hand. Once the dog comes back into correct position, release the tension. This takes some practice, but can be very effective. The biggest mistake I see students make is keeping tension on the leash. It should be loose until needed. Finally, I like to do a lot of heeling, especially when I am first doing formal heeling using two leashes. It does require some coordination, but it is very effective. I find when I only have one leash behind my back, I can’t control the dog’s head like I would like to. I snap the longer leash on the bottom of the ring of the collar and snap a shorter leash above it (sometimes this is a tab and sometimes it is a shark line). Some people use two collars, which works well also. I use the short leash in my left hand to control any attention breaks I might get. I use the leash behind me and in my right hand for any “power steering” I might need. This is great for precision heeling. A slight pull on the long leash while doing a left turn or an about turn, brings in the rear of the dog. If the dog starts to forge, I can pull it back with the long leash, or give it a pop with the left leash depending on which one works the best. Recently, I’ve been working on one other use of the leash, which is proving to be effective with Echo. It is more for precision heeling than forging, but could be used for slight forging. It is hard to describe with words, but it is applying the slightest amount of pressure on the leash as possible to get the dog to respond. The lighter the pressure the better. I’ve only personally used it with Echo who has a strong heeling background and who is very responsive to the leash. It is done with just one leash, held in the left hand, using just the last two or three fingers and very, very gently popping or guiding the dog in heel position. I’ve also encouraged some of my students who have small breed dogs to try this and it has been successful. Next month we will look at some other heeling issues. Until then, have a wonderful New Year and lots of happy heeling! |
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