Some Heel Upgrades w/ Zae

Lately I have been working on some ‘heel upgrades’ with Zae.  Doing so by playing around with little things seeing what we can do and what works best for us.  The ultimate goal in mind is always to clean up and make his heel even sharper.  I also decided to start to actually train a fun go to heel position.. still in very beginning stages but I am pleased so far.  Also, very happy with how sharp Zae’s turns are getting as I was looking to get cleaner, crisper 90° turns with him.

This little trick is a behavior I never ever actually trained with Zae.  I asked him to do it one day and from there we just started doing it. 🙂  He was just able to quickly figure it out because of all the foundation skills we train. I am intending to use this behavior to further clean up his heel. In the end, I want those sharp turns with a dog who stays nice and parallel to me.  I am also hoping it will help him pay more attention to details like my legs instead of just staring up at me with his goofy face and not paying true attention 😋  The beauty is in the details – training dogs is so fun !


I am currently accepting more online students !   This includes one-on-one personal classrooms with custom learning modules and feedback.  Let me know what you want to learn or improve and let’s get to work. 🙂

5 MINUTE TRAINING SESSION W/ ZAE: Working & Strengthening Foundation Skills

 

This is a 5 minute raw video with brief comments about the training.  This training session was 5 minutes total–including playing and rewarding dog.  The session wasn’t necessarily planned; I just wanted to share a raw recording of what an average training session with my dogs looks like.  Short and productive.  Zae practiced different foundation skills and through rewarding skills were reinforced and strengthened.  Throughout the session Zae practiced a variety of skills and stayed engaged.  By practicing and enforcing these skills as a the bulk of my training the skills in turn stay strong.  For example, things like the teeter or wraps that I like to almost constantly reward–especially in sequence when they are really beautiful/what I am looking for.  A motto of mine is reward what you want to see more of.  Jackpot it when it’s especially perfect and amazing !! 🙂

All the skills in this video, and the strong working relationship I have with Zae comes through my every day training and quick practice of skills like this.  The basis of most of these every day exercises I do with my dog is available in my Skills and Relationship Building online course.