Keeping Head Up
- Thread starter Linda A
- Start date
brody_smom
Experienced Member
Are you talking about heel work, or an independent turn?
Linda A
Experienced Member
Heel work.
brody_smom
Experienced Member
Do you have a "look" or "watch me" that you use? I find if I have food in my hand, Brody will look at my hand, but if I put my hand behind my back, he will watch my face.
Linda A
Experienced Member
Yes we use 'watch me.' He does great as long as I am dangling a treat in front on his nose. If no treat, head goes down on the turn. Other than that he is doing well.
brody_smom
Experienced Member
Is this for a competition, or just your own interest? Maybe try fading the lure like you would for any trick, pretend you have food, then gradually make your hand cue smaller until, hopefully, you don't need it at all.
Linda A
Experienced Member
It's for competition. I think I need to do a video so you can see what I am talking about. Maybe I am just rushing this one thing. Could be we just need more time and practice until he gets the idea. He is doing everything else with very good attention. Here we are practicing switch backs.
brody_smom
Experienced Member
That's very impressive already! So you want him to have his eyes on you the whole time even though you are turning in opposite directions. That's tricky! I wondered why you were asking for help with what seemed like a very simple thing, since you are such an awesome trainer and Royal is so smart. Now I see that it is much more difficult than what I was picturing. Hope someone can help you out with that, but it sure won't be me!
Linda A
Experienced Member
Sorry! I think I have confused you. The video above was just to show how well he is doing heeling with attention. Here is the video I did showing our problem area.
When we make a clockwise or outside turn, see how he drops his head?
I think what I am going to do is start working in large circles and just keep making them smaller and smaller. I'll let you know how it goes.
brody_smom
Experienced Member
orpheum
Well-Known Member
You want to isolate the head movement and without a treat in the hand.
Just reward the fact that the dog's looking up, like in the clip below in 1.08 min (it's a not so good video, I know)
If you want to teach them to keep their head up against your leg for heelwork, put the dog between your leg and a small table. When the dog looks up, reward on the table (resetting the looking part) and wait for him to look up again. Than build up the time he shows the behaviour and you're off. At least, that's how I do it.
Have Fun and Lots of Succes.
Just reward the fact that the dog's looking up, like in the clip below in 1.08 min (it's a not so good video, I know)
Have Fun and Lots of Succes.
brody_smom
Experienced Member
That's a great video! You have given me so many ideas on how to teach my dog some really cool tricks! Where have you been hiding the past few months?
orpheum
Well-Known Member
At this point I even see a lot of small mestakes in this video :-)
But I'm glad you found it useful.
I have been hiding on a mountain trying to become zen and one with everything (like the pizza Dalai Lama) LOL
To be honest ... Too much work and too litlle time, so the free time I had I spent walking/playing/training with my dogs.
But I'm glad you found it useful.
I have been hiding on a mountain trying to become zen and one with everything (like the pizza Dalai Lama) LOL
To be honest ... Too much work and too litlle time, so the free time I had I spent walking/playing/training with my dogs.
I think he is dropping his head so he can see where he is going. Maybe you want him to focus on your leg instead of your face for the turn. His head would still be up, just not chin up. As you go into the turn, hold a treat at your knee to focus his attention on your leg and give him something to follow. Give him the treat (tiny cheese or lick of PB) just a half second before he usually drops his head in order to keep it up, then another treat as you make the turn.