The Art of Heeling Syllabus

The Art of Heeling: 

WEEK 1: Oct 14

Attention + corrections + beginning/ending words

Heel position + Find-heel game

Head position

Intro to “bowl”

Homework:

·        Decide on a head position for your dog.

·        Decide on and teach your attention correction.

·        Find/buy a “bowl” + teach your dog to get up on “bowl”.

·        Play “find-heel” game.

·        2x /day for 5 minutes do some very short heeling maintaining proper head and position

WEEK 2: Oct 21

Footwork

Figure 8s + serpentine heeling

Left turns & Right turns

About turns

Pace changes + Back-wards heeling

Homework:

·        Decide on footwork for your dog. Practice without your dog.

·        Work on Left / Right turns on bowl.

·        Work on about-turns in isolation.

·        Work on back-wards heeling

·        2x/ day for 5 minutes do some very short serpentine heeling w/ pace changes maintaining proper head and body position. (use your beginning/ending words)

WEEK 3: Oct 28

Scoot sits (or glide sits)

Heel starts

Putting it all together (keeping it fun) + hands-on-helping-corrections

Homework:

·        Work on scoot sits + heel starts

·        Work on Left / Right turns on and off bowl

·        2x/ day for 5 minutes do some very short heeling maintaining proper head and body position, adding in one or more of the following elements: (1) Left / Right turns, (2) about turns, (3) scoot sit, (4) heel start, (5) “find-heel”, (6) pace change, (7) back-wards heeling

WEEK 4: Nov 4

Heeling evaluations

Heeling games

-         Spin (for crabbing + forging)

-         Thru (for lagging)

-         Up (for attention)

-         Jump-up kick (for attention + attitude)

-         Alphabet heeling