canine freestyle moves database
Teaching position using a pivot platform
heel position
Silvia Trkman is the best authority on how to use a pivot platform to teach the heel position and heeling.
At time of writing this is her website http://silvia.trkman.net/
At http://www.lolabuland.com/training-videos/heeling/ you will find a “Trailer of a Tutorial to Perfect Heeling”. This is an introduction to her DVD “Heeling is just another Trick”.
The information below is from this DVD.
Have a look at this cute little pup. Silvia Trkman Lesson 5 Pivoting & Heeling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLLozYdWosM
If you can, watch Silvia Trkman’s DVD “Heeling is just another Trick”, note where she talks about the dog having a good understanding of position and taking a long time over this. Most people are so excited about their dog finally understanding the heel position, they rush into showing off what their dog knows, and before long this behavior starts to deteriorate because it has not been practiced correctly for long enough.
Silvia Trkman teaches 7 steps on the DVD.
“1. Circling with hind feet.
2. Adding yourself to the picture.
3. Fading the Object (perch)
4. Moving in all directions
5. Adding more steps
6. Adding duration
7. Adding high legs (if wanted)”
1. Circling with hind feet.
If you have been following the subject of teaching heel position using a pivot platform and training the dog to pivot around the platform you will already have started or even achieved this.
2. Adding yourself to the picture.
By now the dog should be pivoting well in both directions. You should be rewarding with the dog facing away from you and his rear end near you … a good start for teaching position.
For left heel position stand with your left leg near the pivot platform and click as the dog pivots towards your left leg. Aim for the dog to touch you as this gives the dog a clear target. Reward in this position. Move forward around the pot to set the dog up for another trial and repeat. The dog learns that rewards happen close to your leg.
To train the right side position, stand with your right foot against the pot and repeat as described above.
You will find one direction will be stronger than the other.
In the following clips the cue has not yet been introduced.
Left Heel Position on Pivot Platform
Right Heel Position on Pivot Platform
Left and Right Heel Position on Pivot Platform
When the dog begins to confidently attain positions at your sides you can add your cues, eg “heel” and “side” for left and right positions respectively. If your dog already knows the “heel” and “side” cues, use different cues like “close” and “right”.
When adding the cues, practice one heel position in one training session. When the dog knows the cues and will take up the cued position you can start switching positions in a training session.
By now the dog should be working without any hand signals or lures. He should be targeting the side of your body that you want.
Adding Cues to Left and Right Side Heel Positions
Switching Cued Left and Right Side Heel Positions
Before fading the pivot platform the dog must be able to achieve position on cue on his own. You can also, introduce different objects of varying heights as pivot platforms so that the dog does not become dependent on just the one type.
3. Fading the Pivot Platform
By now the dog should be targeting your leg and moving to maintain position next to your leg. Move in small steps in small circles, forwards and sideways and backwards.
Left Heel Position - Platform Removed
Right Heel Position - Platform Removed
Left and Right Heel Positions - Platform Removed
Testing Left and Right Heeling
4. Moving in all directions
Once the dog understands left and right side heel positions you can start moving in all directions. Start with small slow steps. Initially reward every step. You are still building your bank accounts in these positions. You want these positions to be highly rewarding for the dog so that he develops good emotions about heel positions. If the bank accounts are high enough heel positions can even become tertiary reinforcers. When you move, make sure you move together as one unit.
If your dog starts to lag or is crooked in position, you are doing too much too soon. Go back a few steps and retrain for correct position. Take your time to complete every training step before moving on.
5. Adding more steps
Gradually add more steps. Reward with the head up and reward often. When the head is up the front legs should lift higher.
Start focusing on eye contact. Don’t reward the dog when he is looking at your hand. If the dog is looking at your hand he won’t have good position or a high head. If the dog is focused on your treats practise some “Doggy Zen”, ie dog only gets treats if not looking at your hands.
6. Adding duration
Increase duration slowly. Keep up the rewards. This has to be highly rewarding for the dog. At this stage you don’t need to reward every step, so you can introduce random reinforcement. This has to be fun for the dog. You need the dog to want to be with you. Your relationship with the dog has great bearing on this.
Using “Are you ready?” at the start of a training session and “Good job” or similar at the end of the training session teaches the dog to maintain focus during the training session. Start with short training sessions and over time, gradually increase the duration. You will end up with a dog that will give you focus and attention from the time you say “Are you ready?” to when you say “Good job” and release the dog from the training session and he no longer needs to focus and give attention. You need to always end the training session before the dog loses focus. If the dog starts losing focus, the training session is too long.
There is much more excellent information to do with heelwork on Silvia Trkman’s DVD. It is outside the scope of this database.