Presentation vs. Delivery (for the purposes of this class)

Presentation: offering a reward for dog to receive directly from handler's hand or body

Delivery: Tossing or pitching reward for dog to pursue away from handler's body

Back Alley Presentation

**Again, this placement tends to work particularly well for the highly motivated dog. If your individual dog would be better served by a reward placement that encourages them to supply energy forward versus back, feel free to move on to the segments on 'Over Head' or 'Run Ahead' placements. However, I'd strongly encourage you to study this information in to increase your training options and knowledge** 

BENEFITS:

• Perfect for high energy dogs with a tendency to forge or crab (like our 'left out')
• Also incompatible with drifting away from handler
• Encourages high head position

QUICK OVERVIEW ON BACK ALLEY PRESENTATION

 1 min 31 sec

Practicing the Pieces Without Our Dog

Teaching our dog to receive reward by way of the 'back alley' involves approximation. It will be counter intuitive to our dogs at this point to move backwards out of position and then pass behind our back to receive reward from the right hand. Helping the dog learn this behavior relies heavily on our own handler skills. Much like the clockwork game covered in course one (only this will feel like a backwards clockwork game) we want to teach the dog piece by piece to ensure clear understanding. 

Because some of the handler mechanics in this teaching process require some stretching, bending, luring, and hand switching, it's best to practice a bit without the dog. 

In the following video I've employed a cone to act as my dog. As you'll see, for the beginning of much of this work I put my 'dog' in a sit-stay and align myself onto them. We will purposely offset ourselves from basic heel position in the beginning to make the 'alley' easier for the dog to access.

The following video itemizes some basic pieces of teaching this behavior.

BEGINNING PIECES OF THE BACK ALLEY PRESENTATION 

 3 min 4 sec

Add Your Dog

This video is a bit too long... but gets the message across. Here I'm taking the same concepts discussed with the cone as my helper, only this time we've added a live dog. 

Helpful Tips:

• Put your dog in a sit-stay while you set yourself up in a forging position. Having your dog in a controlled position while you set your training up will make the process go more smoothly.
• We purposely place ourselves ahead of the dog so they can more easily see and access our right hand from behind us. Once they start understanding the movement, we can begin to approximate ourselves closer to true heel position.
• Arching your back is both a visual cue or invite for your dog to pass along your back, and it also helps make room for them to move along your backside. Making the back arch a bit obvious in the beginning may help the learning go quicker. We can fade it as the dog allows.

 BEGINNING PIECES TO 'BACK ALLEY' - WITH OUR DOG

 4 min 41 sec

Back Alley w/ Toy

This brief video illustrates a few different setups I'll use when practicing the back-alley presentation. I've also added toy (ball on string). As with most things we do, I'll practice this delivery with toy as much as needed from a static heel position. Once my dog is proficient, I'll add slow movement. 

In this video I'm having Elzer move himself into heel position after each reward event by way of an informal tear-drop finish - don't worry about your dog being able to do this. To set yourself up before each repetition, you can place your dog in a sit-stay and assume position onto them.

Keep an eye out for: I am now practicing this presentation from true heel position - no more offsetting myself. I'm still relying on the back arch for help. When I do add movement it is very slow. I am keeping the session informal and fun, and focusing on getting some easy repetitions of the placement in. I now hold the dog accountable for heeling criteria: eye contact, body position, head position.

BACK ALLEY W/ TOY - STATIC & SLOW MOVEMENT

 45 seconds

Bonus Footage

If you plan to use a tug or ball on string to reward your heeling work, the following two videos may be worth a view. 

The first video goes into a bit more detail about how to manage and present a standard tug toy when using a Back Alley Presentation. The second video goes into more detail regarding a ball on string. Both videos contain useful tips and insight regarding the incorporation of either toy into your work.

Planning to use a tug toy in your heelwork? The following video contains some useful information on how to make the most of your Back Alley Presentations when reinforcing with a standard tug.

BACK ALLEY TUG MANAGEMENT AND PRESENTATIONS 

 3 min 33 sec

Or maybe you prefer a ball on string...?

If so, this video may give you some ideas about how to incorporate it into your training with ease and efficiency. I personally prefer the ball on string because of its easy concealment and management between work and play.

BACK ALLEY AND BALL ON STRING

3 min 46 sec