Talent and I are working on her heeling foundation. I like to work on pivots before we do a lot of heeling because I find that it really helps the dog learn precisely where heel position is. In the video below, I’m looking at how she moves into position and where she lands using a mirror. If she moves precisely into position then she earns a treat plus personal play and a reward after personal play. If she doesn’t move precisely or lands not as accurately as I’d like then she gets one reward after I help her move into the right position.
We are also working on one step heeling. I’m using a toy tucked under my arm pit to reward her. This is helping to create the head position that I want in my heeling. I’ll need to fade the reward being there eventually because it is acting as a lure. I like this reward location because I can ultimately drop the reward to the dog without changing the location where my left hand is supposed to be. I won’t be using this reward location exclusively but I would like to teach her to bounce up to the reward that will eventually be thrown to this location.   https://youtu.be/9L3CeE0BdsI