[CometDog]

LOl Valor is doing great. I keep walking diagonally. Dog is straight as a board to ME..but since I keep walking not straight, when we do sit or platz in motion he LOOKS crooked as far as field angles..but that is because I'm heading for a corner.

I have several advanced martial arts belts, I have competed in Grappler's Quest, I am a firearms instructor and can run, take cover, clear a shoot house, dead accurately.

I can't walk straight with a dog across a field lol HUH?!?!?

I think, but would love to hear other ideas, that I am worrying about glancing down at him too much. I don't do it on sidewalks obviously lol..just fields. Even in the park, the K9 handler friend who is mentoring me is constantly saying " the tree, just walk towards the tree..MY GOD the TREE"

Anyway, he is doing great. BH will be a breeze in the fall. We just transitioned to having tug in my right hand out of sight and jackpot rewards. So he doesn't look at the tug. His eye contact with me is really improving. He has the BH pattern down, so we are working on breaking it down into bits, increasing speed on his sit and platz commands. Keeping it fun.

Bite work, this will be his wheelhouse. He LOVES it. Just starting tracking. Should have a BH on him by December.

This is us, and this is fun

 

[Courtney]

I LOVE his focus on you, what an expression!

 

[Mareesey]

I was going to say the same thing. Great looking dog and great focus.

 

[Heartandsoul]

I love that picture. To me it portrays a powerful team.

This might be a suggestion you can use to help you walk in straight line. Snap a line from one point to another (builders term where you tie a string from both points low to the ground) ankle height will do. Then straddle the line and walk. You will feel the line hitting your ankle if you veer off. Eventually, your eye and your legs should adjust accordingly on their own with out the line.

This is just a thought stemming from yrs of watching family in the construction business and sometimes helping w/home projects.

Good luck and fun with your BH in Dec.

 

[lhczth]

You can shoot, you can target a tree or pole and walk a straight line. Maybe have someone put another pole out there so you can line up your sites. Stand at the start, have them put out the second pole and then keep your sites aligned. It does get easier.

 

[Nigel]

Simply pick a landmark in the direction you need to go and walk toward it.

 

[CometDog]

I love that picture. To me it portrays a powerful team.

This might be a suggestion you can use to help you walk in straight line. Snap a line from one point to another (builders term where you tie a string from both points low to the ground) ankle height will do. Then straddle the line and walk. You will feel the line hitting your ankle if you veer off. Eventually, your eye and your legs should adjust accordingly on their own with out the line.

This is just a thought stemming from yrs of watching family in the construction business and sometimes helping w/home projects.

Good luck and fun with your BH in Dec.

You can shoot, you can target a tree or pole and walk a straight line. Maybe have someone put another pole out there so you can line up your sites. Stand at the start, have them put out the second pole and then keep your sites aligned. It does get easier.

Simply pick a landmark in the direction you need to go and walk toward it.

All great suggestions I think I am turning towards him and looking at him to see if he is straight, which ironically makes me walk towards the left. Just have dead reckon ahead and stop looking at the dog. It was also suggested to me to work on my perfect BH pattern. The more I know it by heart, the more confident we will both feel and look. I hear a lot of people screw up the actual pattern day of lo

 

[Slamdunc]

Your dog looks great. You have some very good suggestions on how to walk straight. It is as easy as picking a target straight ahead and walk to it.

Turning your body to see the dog can become a problem because it will make your dog crooked as well. Use your peripheral vision or periodically make contact with the dog with your left hand. You will soon know exactly where the dog's head and body are with out looking.

One thing to consider is to be very careful rewarding with your right hand or even keeping the tug in your right hand. Dog's read body language and he will quickly realize that he is being rewarded from the right side. It will cause him to forge and "wrap" around you when heeling. He will forge and wrap anticipating the reward from the right side. here is what happens; the dog is heeling beautifully like in the photo. You want to pay the dog for that precision and perfect alignment. You move your right hand to the tug and the dog sees this and as you are ready to pay he forges forward and wraps and gets rewarded. In the dog's mind he is getting paid for the forging and wrapping. This can create a bad habit.

I would keep the toy under your armpit or out of sight on your left hand side. The only thing that causes more problems is wearing pants with velcro pockets and keeping the toy in a pocket. As soon as the dog hears the sound of the velcro it wraps around or goes out of position in anticipation for the reward that it knows is coming.

 

[Jax08]

If you are checking his straighteness , then take just a couple steps and check it. Or look at your footsteps in the grass.

The judge will know if he's crooked, i.e. forging, so I wouldn't get to concerned about your line except when you are recalling. Then you want to be as straight as possible.

 

[Bentwings1]

If the field is a football field you can align yourself with one side of the goal post. For practical purposes all of the obedience routines are rectangular. If you lay out your program you can practice walking straight or perpendicular to the center line or your line with the goal post.
However not all fields are nice rectangular plot like a football field. Then you need to pick a landmark as a guide post. I think you could get someone to help you practice.

Try walking a perfect rectangle, then do a square and finally do a large triangle. The goal is to wind up at your starting spot. One other thing, keep track of paces per leg, this will help you organize your routine.

The judge will,probably allow a little latitude for drifting but if it appears to affect the dog he may Down grade.

I worked on the FB field but quickly realized that other fields we would be going to were more just an open area. So picking a guide post was important as well as practicing. After all you are training the dog you should be able to train yourself.....right.

Now when you get to tracking it is absolutely essential that you know where you are going. Then even more important where you have been or laid the track when you come back in say an hour. So picking land marks is very important if you can’t naturally walk a straight line.

Write it down at first if that will help. Keep the note handy for reference. I’m not exactly up to date on the rules now but when we did the SCH
routines, they were done in prescribed order. I was pretty nervous the first trial as it was at a field we had not been to before. I wrote a guide line on my arm like a tattoo so I wouldn’t forget anything or get confused. As it turned out I didn’t even refer to it.

The protection routine was mostly directed by the judges except the blind searches. You really should walk a straight line here or you could get docked for handler help.

You have already done some difficult activities so with a little practice by yourself you should be ok.

Byron

 

[CometDog]

All great suggestions everyone- thank you so much.
@Slamdunc we switched from armpit because he was looking at my armpit too much. As you can see he is a rather tall dog and I am rather short. What would you suggest? I have had every suggestion from a magnet ball, rewarding with left hand, right hand, etc etc. The way we are doing it now is it is out of sight for him until he gets jackpot reward. I am not coming across my body with my right, not past centerline at least..I ma kind of chucking it right to him. Very open and appreciate of the suggestions.

We were doing these things along side parked cars on my very long dead end which was super handy..complete with 2 manhole covers exactly 50 paces from each other. However, heat wave last 2 weeks and the asphalt is super hot for him by the time I can get out there with him. We have been working on everything else on grass on the lawn, which is maybe only 10 paces long. Will have to make more effort to get to the local park