Gunner Rally Lesson

In an effort to take a deeper dive into correct basics for obedience games, Gunner and I had a private lesson with our coach Robin Barber today at Cowtown Dog Sports. Robin gave us several good ideas to build solid obedience behaviors.

Robin introduced the use of platforms for playing heeling games.  The first step is to find the correctly sized platform, which for Gunner is nine inches wide by about four feet long; long enough for Gunner to lie down on, and only just wide enough for him to sit perfectly straight.

The handler begins with the dog on the platform in heel position, and I reinforce for being in that position.  Then I release Gunner "Break!" and toss a cookie behind me and let him eat it off the floor. Then I say "Heel!" and he returns to heel position on the platform.  Eventually the handler's left arm bent at the elbow becomes the cue for the dog to maintain heel position.

We explored using perchwork to reinforce heeling behavior. Gunner places his front paws on an overturned small rubber feed pan.  At first I'll get Gunner to independently pivot his hindquarters around the perch while his front paws stay on the perch. Once he is smoothly pivoting around the perch while I keep my hand about a foot or more above his head, I can step in toward the perch and reinforce him for pivoting toward me in heel position and click and treat as his shoulder or hip bumps my leg. I'll work to fade any verbal or hand cue, so that the cue for Gunner to pivot toward me is me stepping away from him around the perch with my left elbow bent in the cue for heel position.

Pearls:

• Platforms and perches are useful tools for practicing obedience games
• A platform nine inches by four feet can be made by cutting mats into the correct size then duct taping them together to form about a four inch platform height
• Gunner autonomously pivoting his hindquarters toward me to assume and maintain heel position from a visual cue of my left arm being bent at the elbow or the verbal cue "Heel!" is the goal of current perchwork 

Gunner demonstrating the use of an overturned goat-sized rubber feed pan as a perch: