Check out this heeling work! -
She talks on her blog about teaching heeling backwards at first. She feels it is easier to get attention that way. She talks about "attention", but not eye contact. Not sure where the dog is looking when she is heeling backwards. Very interesting. I know she is a big Silvia fan, but she studies with Susan Garrett. Another one really into shaping. Shaping, shaping, shaping. That's all I am reading about lately. I have never felt like a good shaper, but I can see now that it is a very valuable tool. Helps get a low drive dog into drive because they have to think.
Interesting, I never thought of it that way before. The Pin Heads came with drive and luring worked so well for them. But, maybe they would have even more drive had I shaped more. Roscoe is VERY hard to shape, he offers so many behaviors and gets frantic and crazy! But, maybe if I had shaped more when he was younger he wouldn't be so frantic and crazy! LOL!
Silvia gets duration in heeling by withholding reward. That's when the dog who is trained by shaping starts to think.........oh something is about to happen.......no reward.....something good is coming.......no reward........YAY!!! Jackpot!!!
I worked on her beginning heeling last night with Colby. Started over, hoping to get her "shaped" better. My bad clicking has her stuck. The start of the work is to circle around an object with their front feet on it. Thus getting hind end awareness. They should end up doing a complete circle. Colby is stuck doing about half the circle. I rewarded too much at that part. So, back to the start again and I think I need to try on a higher object/platform. I will simply experiment and see if I can get it going for us. Roscoe, too, may need the higher platform, his feet get SO busy I end up delivering the reward and his feet are off the object. Such fun winter learning!!!
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2 months ago
Lol, thanks! I am also subscribed to Fanny and love the idea of backwards heeling! I don't know if I'm coordinated enough though :)
ReplyDeleteI taught my Vito to heel through the pivot work and am pretty happy with it. The main issues we're running in right now is because I have rewarded him touching me he sometimes bounces into me on the halts so he can lean against me. Not while moving, just at the halts or pivot lefts.
Vito is also a very crazy spastic shaper who I started from 8wks, so I don't think it would have made a difference with your Roscoe :) You just have to learn to be very fast with the clicker! I never thought about shaping creating drive but I suppose that's right. The clicker can become very powerful and dogs are willing to work for a click even if they don't want the food!