 Heeling and eye contact
#400171 - 12/26/2015 04:58 AM |
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In the self study course "Focused Heeling" we should deliver the food from above the dog's head slightly over his snout in order to
manipulate his head position upright. At the same time we should hold eye contact with him.
To me this seems quite weird and contradictory. The way I should hold my hand over the dog's head and snout in my opinion hinders himt to look into my eyes, because my hand builds a barrier. Eye contact is impossible, he cannot see through my hand. I have started now to hold only two fingers over his snout, but then the food delivery becomes complicated, besides this it still hinders the eye contact. Has anyone experience with this and perhaps a tip?
“If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, then you are a leader” – Rudyard Kipling |
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Re: Heeling and eye contact
[Re: Christina Stockinger ]
#400173 - 12/26/2015 12:54 PM |
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You move your hand to where you want the dog to receive it .... You don't keep it there the whole time . Typically , the reward hand is held behind and to the left of the dogs' head .
And after you get the dog to be keeping his head up , you don't actually look into the dogs' eyes , but rather you look down at your left big toe . Eventually the dog will be looking to where the reward will be placed .
This is called " shifting focus ".
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Re: Heeling and eye contact
[Re: Christina Stockinger ]
#400174 - 12/26/2015 01:26 PM |
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Christina,
Michael Ellis, I'm not  I find I do not have his dexterity of movement and am forced to improvise with the awkward moves which come naturally to me. I know if I could create the same picture he does, life would be grand but due to lyme disease I have lost the sensation in my hands and have devised strategies to compensate. My point, I think going off script is acceptable if something is not working for you and you have found another way that does.
For heeling,(which I am teaching for the eye contact) I place my right hand high up on my left shoulder with the fingers draped over my upper back. I have the reward secured under my thumb (or at least I think I do ) It did draw his head and eyes up which I marked and rewarded by running my right hand down my left arm to the seam of my pants where I opened my hand to reward, this sounds crazy but it lets me know where the reward is. Next we would take a step with his head up, mark and reward, then a few steps etc.. then I upped the ante to eye contact and am now at the point where I'm marking after I've moved my hand to the reward position while maintaining eye contact. Like I said, definitely no Michael Ellis and lots more body movement than I would like but Odin gets it and looks pretty good all things considered. IMO the most important thing is communicating to your dog what it is you want in a clear manner with the same cue each and every time and if you are consistent; will get you to your goal relatively quickly and if you are not.....eventually. Good luck!
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Re: Heeling and eye contact
[Re: ian bunbury ]
#400175 - 12/26/2015 01:32 PM |
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What Ian said is much easier and darn he got it out in 1/4 of the words.
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Re: Heeling and eye contact
[Re: Christina Stockinger ]
#400176 - 12/26/2015 10:38 PM |
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I agree with Ian other then one small adjustment that works FOR ME.
I look at the ground 6-10ft ahead of me.
I've found that keeping actual eye contact can cause the dog to forge and wrap around the handler in order to keep direct eye contact.
No biggie other then in competition you can loose points with some judges if your actually looking at your dog while heeling.
The dog learns to heel looking at the side of your head.
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Re: Heeling and eye contact
[Re: Bob Scott ]
#400180 - 12/27/2015 02:50 AM |
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I've found that keeping actual eye contact can cause the dog to forge and wrap around the handler in order to keep direct eye contact.
Ick, Maverick does this big time. I'm reteaching him with a method that teaches them to look at an armband to re-pattern it more off to the side.
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Re: Heeling and eye contact
[Re: ian bunbury ]
#400183 - 12/27/2015 07:38 AM |
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“If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, then you are a leader” – Rudyard Kipling |
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Re: Heeling and eye contact
[Re: Cathy Goessman ]
#400184 - 12/27/2015 07:39 AM |
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“If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, then you are a leader” – Rudyard Kipling |
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Re: Heeling and eye contact
[Re: ian bunbury ]
#400185 - 12/27/2015 07:40 AM |
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“If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, then you are a leader” – Rudyard Kipling |
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Re: Heeling and eye contact
[Re: Christina Stockinger ]
#400190 - 12/27/2015 11:10 PM |
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Ian,what you write about steering the dog with your hand movement was clear to me. But Forrest, at least in this beginner self study course, keeps his hand with the food reward in it all the time there. So the dog will actually look at my hand, not into my eyes. That's what seems to me to be contradictory. I don't want to teach my dogs to squint!
"And after you get the dog to be keeping his head up, you don't actually look into the dogs' eyes , but rather you look down at your left big toe . Eventually the dog will be looking to where the reward will be placed ."
This sounds to me much more practicable and I'll try it, once the dogs reliably hold their heads up.
Thanks for the tip!
Sheila, thank you too. Your method is also great. It reminds me of a DVD about dog dancing. As they mostly prefer to train smaller dogs, they would - following Forrest's method - always have to curve themselves extremly or limp down deep in their knees. So they steer their dog in the direction they want with their hand quite high over the dog's head. Normally they do it with the back of their hand, what they call "look target". Of course the dog has first to be trained to follow the look target. That's a tehnique about which I'm thinking too.
Bob you've found your way that functions too. Perfectly clear and very practicable. You've "found that keeping actual eye contact can cause the dog to forge and wrap around the handler in order to keep direct eye contact".
That'exactly what I meant. I don't want squinting dogs. Thanks for the tip.
Cathy, thanks for your's too, it goes in the same direction. Helps a lot to different opinions, which finally with slight differences match.
Generally great tips. Now I have the problem, where to begin!!!
Thanks to you all. You taught me different ways and last but not least, that I don't always need to follow a course literally, but that I have to find the way or ways which work for my dogs.
I went through and removed all the bold formatting. Somewhere one went screwy and prevented your post from displaying although I couldn't see anything wrong with them.
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