Focus heeling for the uncoordinated? - Page 1

I have a major hurdle with focus heeling: when the dog is in proper position, I trip over it. This is not the dog's fault; without going into too much depth, I have a very lousy sense of spatial awareness, and my coordination is not exactly the stuff of legend. I eventually step slightly wrong, bump into my dog, and lose my balance. I don't take a header, but I ruin presentation; not to mention the poor dog has just gotten bumbled into by it's handler. This is rather comical for my friends, but, leads the questions:

For the BH, and heeling patterns, should I modify my dog's position to be a bit further away from me, not so close to my legs? Should I skip the "focus" part of heeling altogether? Will modifying the distance they stay from my hip hinder their scores if they are neither lagging nor forging?

I must reiterate, it's never been the dogs' faults here; this one is all user error *blush*

It would hep to see a video so that we can make suggestions.

Actual, it might be a combination of both of you. Are you training any other dogs, if so, how does the heeling feel there?

With what you describe, I have the same problem with my girl. I constantly dripp over her feet or mine or a grass bushel. It feels like everything is just "eggy", uncoordinated. I must say that I do have a handicap and use my left leg more than my right, which makes me loose balance easy. She doesnt like the focused heeling, tends to more look straight ahead and will forge. Her feet are slightly east/west due to her being able to turn her elbows in. She tends to heel a bit farther out, but will come in and thats often when we dripp over each other. However, for some reason AKC judges like her heeling. Always placed in the first 3 with her. In the BH and WH obedience we were criticised for wide heeling and forging but not for her holding her head straight.

With my male the heeling feels totally different. He will get very animated, especially when he sees the ball. He is much more focused, and will strut his stuff. I dont have a problem dripping over him, or feeling "eggy", or having trouble walking in a straight line. He stays closer with the head turned in and is more attentive to my movements. This gives a much better picture.

Put some sort of marker out, pylon, stick, hunk of grass. Whatever you have on hand.  Without your dog march over to the marker.  Now try the same thing with your pooch.  Always walk the pattern without your dog.  Then with.  How does it feel with your dog?  Are you still tripping?  If you are walking straight ( you will automatically if you keep your eyes on your marker)  you will not trip over your dog unless she is in your space.  Can we see a video?  Never modify your position for your dog, they need to learn to stay out of your space.

Maybe the dog is in the wrong position. Much of the heeling you see today is forging. A dog is not suppose to be in front of you looking up and back at you. Left side by left leg looking up . You see so many dogs out in front of people 2 feet looking back and you would fall over them if they ever stopped. Thats not the heel position. Look at some of the dogs in schutzhund they score big points but are completely out of position while heeling.

Thanks for the replies ^_^ Unfortunately, I don't have a digital camera anymore. It met with a dog, and my phone is so archaic, it doesn't even have any camera on it. It might actually be the position. Honestly, most of the dogs I train for myself, I go with a side-to-side heeling, as per traditional obedience, with the dog looking primarily ahead. When I have handled other dog's that do that "wrap around" focus heeling, then it eventually goes all wrong. I'm going to have to look at this a bit more closely, while I am hoping Santa brings a new camera for Christmas, lol.

I agree with wrestleman, without seeing it's hard to say but my assumption would be the dog is too far forward if you're tripping on it.  My young dog is going to be large so I intentionally trained him to hee with his front legs even with mine, no acceptions.  Many if not most top scoring dogs are to me still forging (but are so well trained and respond to turns and pivots it doesn't matter).  I could literally glue my young dogs neck to my hip but would never trip because I've trained him to stay in the correct position, his front even with my shoulder.

Also the dog will respond to how you move and your attitude.  If you are concerned about where the dog is, looking down and/or left, you amay be giving body cues that are messing up the position even more.  Do you hold a toy or food and if so where do you hold it?  When you start walking for heeling, hold your chest up and march straight forward.  I try hard to always do this with my dogs and usually I see better position and even more drive just from changing my own attitude in how I walk during heeling.  I march around like I'm in the WUSV!

I agree with wrestleman, also. JC, this is what I do for my AKC people on turns and it works great. Find a big parking lot with a long, straight line, and heel your dog down it, keeping one foot on either side of the line. If you stay straight down it, and still trip on your dog, it's not you. :)