training the turns need advice

[x11]

started playing at training my boy cos he seems to like it - i heard thinner nerve dogs tend to like obedience and mine i think has thinner nerves relatively and he does seem to like obedience.

i have no club to go to so would appreciatte feedback on how to do turns to make it efficient for yr dog to get around in a heel position.

all types of turns left, right, 180, 90 degrees etc and the schutshund turn where the dog goes around you not with you.

feet postion before the turn is what i am getting tripped up on (no pun intended) there are various options on which foot you could turn off.

i have large plies of training videos but none actuall break this down in any detail at all, all the YT vids i see are of performances and i don't know how to slow-mo a YT clip.


would really appreciatte any advice, links, vids etc.

[lhczth]

Do you practice footwork without your dog? This is very important.

I would attempt to find some training videos with really good AKC obedience people that discuss footwork. The about turn no matter if the AKC one or the SchH version use pretty much the same footwork (just going the opposite way). Right and left would use the same footwork no matter what the discipline.

Not sure if this trainer/handler has any videos on footwork. I believe her book does cover it. http://www.northfielddogtraining.com/ Then go to books, videos and essays. You can probably also find information about teaching position with the dog, etc, either in her book or maybe in the videos. I have looked at her book, but I don't own a copy. I have trained with her, though, off and on since '96.

[lhczth]

She has a training video on maneuvers/power steering that might be worth watching. I can't watch the videos so I don't really know what is on it.

[martemchik]

I prefer turning left with my left foot leading (if you're talking about walking). That way you can turn your foot left and the dog sees it turning left and goes left. To turn right I go off the right foot leading, it makes for a tighter turn with my body so the dog has to react faster to it.

In place...I was taught to ALWAYS say the command first, start the turn by swinging my shoulders first, and then rotating the hips (I'm a golfer) and spinning on your heel/ball of the different feet depending on the direction you're going.

For an about turn...the easiest way to do a walking one is with your right foot forward, bring the left foot up to it, turn your body (pretty much like the standing turns), and then lead off with your right foot again. If you do it the other way you'll be stepping left, right, right left, so it's not very fluid and natural because the same leg has to move twice in a row.

The joys of having an AKC obedience judge as an instructor...you get yelled at for body positioning that loses your dog points. The closest thing to it is military style turns...those will really help you figure it out. When my boy was younger we had an instructor bring paper plates in, and we'd do turns on those without stepping off the plate.