# Scout Heeling, Fun Match, and Dock Dive



## hotel4dogs

where's the dock dive video???????????


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## GoldenSail

My internet is being slow, I am having difficulty loading it. It is not a dive at a real event (don't have them around here). It is jumping off a ledge near my place in training. One day...


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## GoldenSail

Dock Dive! I hope it comes to the fair this year, otherwise we probably won't be able to go to one


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## LibertyME

super cute!!!


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## hotel4dogs

such fun! I wish we had more events, too, they're very hard to come by. Too bad you can't go to UKC premier in Kalamazoo, it's an awesome show, with lots of dock diving!


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## GoldenSail

And this is us at the fun match. She went BOB & Group 3 despite her wavy fro--*cough* *cough* The comment I get the most is that she is a beautiful mover!


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## Loisiana

Oh shoot - I totally meant to watch the videos while I was sitting in a parking lot last night but I forgot to watch them! I want to see pretty Scout video! Hopefully I will remember to watch next time I have access to YouTube.


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## GoldenSail

Loisiana said:


> Oh shoot - I totally meant to watch the videos while I was sitting in a parking lot last night but I forgot to watch them! I want to see pretty Scout video! Hopefully I will remember to watch next time I have access to YouTube.


Well hurry up now--I want feedback from the obedience junkie  I think we've gotten so much better. I am so excited. I really think we can show this fall and look very good and get some good scores even. Scout is finally pulling herself together and I am doing a better job of giving her clear directions and expecting more from her. Just have to hammer out the turns and hide the food in the armband. Then proof.


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## Loisiana

Her heeling looks great! You've really come a long way with her!

It looks like you have the same problem on halts that I do - dog leaning out to look at you. Some judges will hit, some won't. I started putting my hand against the left side of his head on halts to help get him out of that habit, it seems to have helped some.

It looks like maybe a little forging on some parts but I wouldn't do anything at this point about it, most likely once the food is not visible she will drop back some.

Keep up the good work! Maybe someday we'll have our kiddos in the same trial together, wouldn't that be fun!


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## FlyingQuizini

Very cute heeling.

Looks like she might be a tad forged at times. If your armband has a food stick, try putting it farther back.

And speaking of food... when did you decide to go to the food-on-the-stick approach? I thought you had a strong preference for praise/petting/play over food?

She's looking very cute. You'll have no problem getting high scores with her working like that!


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## GoldenSail

FlyingQuizini said:


> Very cute heeling.
> 
> Looks like she might be a tad forged at times. If your armband has a food stick, try putting it farther back.
> 
> And speaking of food... when did you decide to go to the food-on-the-stick approach? I thought you had a strong preference for praise/petting/play over food?
> 
> She's looking very cute. You'll have no problem getting high scores with her working like that!


I decided to try it again after getting lessons from another trainer. I realized that if I wanted the attentive heeling I needed something for her to focus on--tapping my shoulder was not effective and I hadn't fairly established a focal point. Hey--I'll admit it I was wrong. I wanted to use a toy--she is more obsessive about bumpers than food but that is more problematic when it comes to phasing out. Now I was fairly successful at maintaining some heads up heeling and pretty decent heeling without using lots of food and focusing on praise, but I just wanted more refinement. I still avoid using lots of food in training if I can. This is much easier with pretty much everything that is not heeling. Retrieving is inherently fun, so is jumping, articles, etc.

Anyway, she is my first competition dog outside of 4H (where we used choke chain and praise, no food, it wasn't very good). I only hope to get better and better with my next dogs. I still have a preference for avoiding food. Even using it on the armband I find it is easy to fall into the trap of letting her jump to get the food, then move on. I try really hard to make an effort of giving quality praise and pets with that as well. Before or after. 

I really like this method on youtube by KlickerKlok? I think. Ok, she uses food too but mostly tugging. With my next dog I might try training it with a tug only if that is a strong enough motivator. Teaches the dog to heel backward first so she can see the head and uses tug and play mainly as a reward.


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## GoldenSail

Loisiana said:


> Her heeling looks great! You've really come a long way with her!
> 
> It looks like you have the same problem on halts that I do - dog leaning out to look at you. Some judges will hit, some won't. I started putting my hand against the left side of his head on halts to help get him out of that habit, it seems to have helped some.
> 
> It looks like maybe a little forging on some parts but I wouldn't do anything at this point about it, most likely once the food is not visible she will drop back some.
> 
> Keep up the good work! Maybe someday we'll have our kiddos in the same trial together, wouldn't that be fun!


LOL the same trial? You live like 1000+ miles away from me I think  Thanks for telling me about the halts. I wondered about that too when she curved her head to look at me. It looks funny, for sure.

For the forging too I think adjusting where the food is may help as Steph said. I just had switched from stick to arm bands literally days before this tape was taken and I am not sure if I am consistently putting it in the best spot. And it is hard for me to tell how good her positioning is when we are moving. Still, I think we've come a long way and I am so thrilled! When I got her I never, ever thought I would train heads up heeling. Thought it was beyond me, especially for my first dog (sort of first dog). But, this forum has really pushed me to wait until she is older and to expect more from both of us. Why not wait and do the very best we can? If all goes well she will live a very long and healthy life!


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## FlyingQuizini

GoldenSail said:


> I decided to try it again after getting lessons from another trainer. I realized that if I wanted the attentive heeling I needed something for her to focus on--tapping my shoulder was not effective and I hadn't fairly established a focal point. Hey--I'll admit it I was wrong. I wanted to use a toy--she is more obsessive about bumpers than food but that is more problematic when it comes to phasing out. Now I was fairly successful at maintaining some heads up heeling and pretty decent heeling without using lots of food and focusing on praise, but I just wanted more refinement. I still avoid using lots of food in training if I can. This is much easier with pretty much everything that is not heeling. Retrieving is inherently fun, so is jumping, articles, etc.
> 
> Anyway, she is my first competition dog outside of 4H (where we used choke chain and praise, no food, it wasn't very good). I only hope to get better and better with my next dogs. I still have a preference for avoiding food. Even using it on the armband I find it is easy to fall into the trap of letting her jump to get the food, then move on. I try really hard to make an effort of giving quality praise and pets with that as well. Before or after.
> 
> I really like this method on youtube by KlickerKlok? I think. Ok, she uses food too but mostly tugging. With my next dog I might try training it with a tug only if that is a strong enough motivator. Teaches the dog to heel backward first so she can see the head and uses tug and play mainly as a reward.


 Not a matter of right or wrong, and please know, I wasn't suggesting as such. I'm glad you found something that's working for the refinement you were seeking. I'm gonna go look for the klickerklov video you were talking about. Sounds interesting.


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## GoldenSail

Well I was wrong in my approach to teaching the head up in that 1) I didn't clearly establish a focal point somehow. Honestly, my dog was naturally very in tune with my face and looked up most of the time on her own, so I liked it and took advantage of it 2) I didn't break things down into smaller pieces. Not so bad if you don't want refinement or perfection, but more important if you do.

Here is that blog, she had a youtube station as well:

Teaching heel | Fanny's Clicker Dog Blog

EDIT: Found it. 






She does use the food and tug both--it would be fun to just use the tug if your dog had strong enough motivation for that. Of course food is easier time-wise.


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