Canine Body Awareness work for competition and rally obedience
this clip is on body awareness and to
teach body awareness especially rear and
in front and I’m going to utilize a pot
I call it a pot it also has the
terminology of a tub a perch a brick it
can have different names and different
trainers can also have different
applications on how they choose to use
it what I’m going to demonstrate is how
I utilize the pot so this is from a feed
store it’s like a livestock feeding dish
for horses or goats or what have you
it’s rubber I like it because it’s
non-slip so it’s made of rubber it’s not
going to slip on the ground it also is
able to handle the weight of my dogs
it does not buckle underneath their
weight and it’s very important that your
pot does not make any noise when the dog
is standing on it so the first thing
that I’m going to do is when I have a
new dog that I’m teaching this to this
is pounds
she knows the pot I haven’t used it for
a while so she might be a little bit
rusty but I’m going to place the pot
down on the ground quite often just the
curiosity of the dog approaching the pot
is what you want to click any movement
towards the pot the pot you want to
click it and I like to shape the
behavior of them being able to just
maybe touch it with the paw put one paw
on it and I’ll click all increments
until I get to feed on the pot so at any
time you get stuck the dog doesn’t know
what to do
just throw a treat off to the side and
I’m standing right near the pot and I
like them to come back to it and see if
they can figure out what to do I really
really like to shake this exercise I do
not want to control the dog and tell
them what to do so you know use your
patience and your clicker skills and see
if you can shape it so here we go I’m
going to get my clicker out I’m going to
get some treats I’ve got some cheese now
I’m going to put it in my mouth so it’s
nice and handy and I’m going to draw up
the pot to the ground of course I would
click that immediately and I’m also
going to throw a piece off to the side
so that you can come back to it so once
I achieve the dog or puppy actually
going on to the pot what I’m going to do
is take my food right here and just
slightly watch move my body chest it
just a tad and when I see any rear-end
movement at all I’m going to click and
reinforce that
and I’m not going to do a lot of
movement because I really like the dog
to be able to figure out what it is that
gets the click but sometimes back to me
a a slow process for some dogs so just a
tiny little bit about four moves oh and
the treat is right here and I’m clicking
increments of the rear moving then what
I do is once I get the dog feeling
pretty confident about going both ways
around the pot then what I can do is I
put the Treat in make it it’s for camera
angle I’ll put the Treat above their
nose now they’re in heel position and
I’m just going to slightly turn the head
out and as the trick the head goes that
way the rear goes this way that’s just
going to happen naturally and then I’m
going to teach them to go the other way
so I turn the head in the rear goes that
way so once they start to understand
that then I’m going to start to put a
word to it and I’m going to say in in
good girl and then out out excellent
very good so once I achieve that with
the lure then what I’m going to do is
I’m going to put the tree in my mouth
and because on fries this is where I
want my dog looking is right here I
don’t want them looking at my hands so
I’m going to teach this now and what I’m
going to do is I’ll take it our treat I
will have it in my mouth and I’ll blow
as I bring in my hands
because your dog will want to look at
your hands because they’re moving so I
blow to bring the focal point back up to
my face and I’m just going to simply
teach this look up here no matter where
my hands are or what my hands are doing
so once you achieve that then I’m going
to add in just the slightest little bit
of movement good girl and that’s because
I wonder really cueing off the slightest
bit of what I’m doing
good girl
now if I move my shoulders to the right
nice I am looking down at pounds but I
am NOT looking in her eyes per se I’m
more looking at her rear and what I want
her rear to do good girl
now my next step is going to be coming
in now from the side so we’ve already
learned this with the food here so what
I’m going to do now is show her that her
reinforcement is now up here because
this is where her focal point is good
girl good she look yay nice so as soon
as I moved my shoulder just back a
little bit she picked up on it right
away and I reward from my arm Bend
very nice very nice yes
good girl so then what I’m going to do
is also go the other way nice nice good
girl good so she’s trying to control
herself out going too fast that was
really nice very good excellent okay
that’s wonderful
so once you achieve bad then what I’m
going to do is start to teach her a fun
game to find heel position so what I’m
going to do is throw a tree ready ready
get-get-get good girl standing heel
position assume the position and as soon
as she finds heel position I’m going to
reinforce that can’t get it get it make
it a little bit difficult that was very
good that was very good so she could up
come in from behind but she choose to
came come in this way and go around
that’s absolutely fine ready I do just a
couple more get kidding
good nice one very good very good
ready steady
excellent house very good good okay so
it’s a great exercise for both your
younger dog and your older dog and it
really does gel wear heel position is to
make sure that your dog when you’re
teaching this that it’s only the stand
that you click because if they come in
and sit if they’ve been doing France or
an older dog if they’ve been doing
Front’s and they are used to coming in
and sitting then make sure you don’t
click that because you really need to
have the default stand so that they can
move their rear back and forth ok good
job pounce
