The Spaniel Annals

Just a catch-up on Brian’s heeling in early spring of 2021. While sometimes I feel like we’re behind where my past dogs have been at this age, I have to remind myself that I’m trying a new approach with him (much more shaped and almost no luring), so taking it slow to watch out for issues and to problem-solve is fine. Also there is nothing wrong withsetting a strong foundation and letting his body grow up, as heeling with his head up asks quite a bit of a young dog. So here we are, in late March working on turns in slow motion, and then moving to big inside circles with randomized reward. I need to create a booklet for myself of the steps we took in producing this, starting with Denise Fenzi’s pockethand method and the pivot disk. The path I’m taking includes her method, exercises from Hannah Branigan’s book Awesome Obedience, Shade Whitesal, and Laura Romanik’s heeling grids, which we’re just getting into.

While Brian has a great left turn, on his right turn and about turn he tends to swing his butt out, so in the next session, I’m pulling out more “aids” by adding back in the pockethand or food up at my elbow, and checking my footwork, probably with tape on the ground) since I tend to walk into my dog in the middle of the about turn, and warming up with “close” practice. I’ve got more matting down since this session in my newly enlarged building, so we can make bigger circles too, which should help him. Whatever issues we encounter, I love his attitude and energy level.