Rear End Awareness

I thought about calling this post a number of different things, but in attempt to keep this blog family-friendly I finally decided on "rear end awareness"

When I started teaching Gwyneth fronts. It became painfully obvious that she had no rear end awareness. She would put her head in the perfect straight front position and than just plop her rear end down any which way. She was completely unaware that her rear was part of her and had no sense of how to control it. Though I first noticed this problem on fronts her lack of rear end awareness haunted almost all the exercises we did; She sat crocked in heel (this was even worse in the figure 8 exercise) she had trouble making circles or pivots to the left, she crabbed or side winded, and she had great difficulty backing up (in front or in heel) and often would jump rather than walk backwards.

I tried many different things to teach Gwyneth rear end awareness.
(1) walking between the runs of a ladder that is laying on the ground
(2) using a heel stick to touch her rear in attempt to teach her how to move it
(3) teaching her to spin tight little circles and than asking for them when I wanted her to move her rear.
(4) using treats placed on various side of her head to move her rear in the desired direction
(5) lots of heel backwards and backwards fronts, circles and spins

All of the methods above where only marginally successful, what finally worked was a non-intuitive technique.
In order to teach her rear end awareness I taught Gwyneth to NOT move her FRONT legs.
I taught this by teaching Gwyneth to stand on a small platform (with front legs) and feeding her while she was there (so that it was a place she wanted to be). Once she understood the concept of KEEPING her front legs on the target I began asking her; to orient herself to front position, to find heel, to spin in a circle, etc... Since she now understood that her front legs were to remain in the same place (on the target -- which I later faded) she had to actively think about, and learn to independently move her rear. I have been very pleased with the results.

Rear end awareness is very important for dogs to learn. It is very important for agility in which the dog must have good awareness of their body. But even in obedience rear end awareness is the key to; straight sits, backing up, side passes, finding straight fronts, figure 8, maintaining heel position, and jumping.

Below is a WONDERFUL video that goes through the process of teaching a dog to stand on a target (platform or, as used in the video, a book, I also like using a Frisbee, round object is a good choice) and than to move his rear while his front legs remain on the platform. In the video this behavior is shaped using food lures and a clicker, this is the same way I used to teach it.