| What kind of attention are you looking for? Competition based? We start backwards against a fence. We have the dog in the basic postion (sitting next to you) we then maintain total eye contact. We then take a step or two backwards. When the dog does this we give a break command which is the cue for the dog to play. You can start just playing with the dog as the reward though we generally use a tug as the reward. We build up to taking a number of steps backwards while the dog is maintaining eye contact. Forward heeling then becomes much easier.
The old style compulsion training using corrections to place the dog in the correct position does not produce a dog that maintains great eye contact with a good expression. Once the dog knows the exercise we apply corrections but not in a manner that "compulses" the dog into the correct position but instead adds stress/confict that the dog must work through and figure out instead that being in the correct position is more comfortable than being out of position. Again these corrections (generally small but consistent pops on the leash with a prong collar) are applied in the proofing or securing stage and not in the learning phase. the same stress could be used with an e-collar at low levels. |