Gunner and I did the following two mini-courses in class tonight:
360 Circle Left: Team turns in a small 360-degree (full) circle to the left
while in heel position.
Spiral Right: Three cones are placed six to eight feet apart in a straight
line. Team enters with first cone (base) on their right. They circle all
three cones using the first cone as their base. They then circle two
cones, returning to the base, then circle the base cone, and exit with
base cone on their right.
Next we did this mini-course:
Serpentine Cones, One Way: Four cones are placed 6 to 8 feet apart in
a straight line. Team enters with first cone to their left, and weaves
while heeling through the cones and exits with last cone on their
right.
Left Turn (limit one in E, M): Team makes a 90-degree turn to the left
in heel position.
Halt, Down: Handler stops, dog sits in heel position. At handler’s
command and/or signals Dog downs from sit. Handler pauses. Team
heels forward from down.
Pearls:
The handler's pace should be fairly brisk, enough that the dog prances forward in trot. Use a metronome to measure your cadence, or the song "Pretty Woman" is a good rule-of-thumb tempo.
In classical heeling, the handler and dog are looking forward as they are walking forward together; in Rally it is okay for the dog and handler to check in with one another, especially in novice level.
Practice heeling in varying tempos, from extremely slow to quite briskly jogging forward, with the working tempo kept brisk enough for Gunner to prance
