Stillness In Heel Position (Pivots) (Patreon)

One of the issues I was running into with young John Denver is that once I taught him that he could move that hind end independently, all he wanted to do was move it. Combine that with his desire to look at me from in front of me, and I was getting a puppy who was moving into heel position but then bouncing back out to look up at me.

In this exercise I'm teaching Denver that he can maintain position with front feet on the pivot bowl. I start by using our tried and true pile of treats as an environmental cue to maintain position like we did in his first sessions with the bowl of treats in front of him (later this will be turned into reverse luring).

I start not in heel position so that I can focus on one thing: keep your feet still and food will be delivered to your mouth.

Then once he's successful there, I transition back into heel position. My goal here is feed so rapidly that he doesn't have time to spin out of heel. I combine that with reward placement: to the outside of his mouth. Feeding to the outside of his mouth keeps his butt tipped in towards me. And while this can cause over-rotation (his butt to go slightly behind me), this does not bother me at all because over time, that over-rotation will likely erode into straightness.

A couple of times I don't like his positioning or he seems off balance, so I simply reset him and try again.

Overall, super happy with this session. Over time I can slow down the treat delivery so that he maintains the position without as much support :)