Very busy week for me! I didn't get through the material as early as I needed to... so we didn't get to practice the Clockwork Game enough or do anywhere near enough proofing!

When he's in "place", he tends to lean against my left leg and look up at me like he would when he's in heel. I will keep working on getting his head a little straighter and higher.

No worries, Maelyn, it's coming together nicely!

AT :14, mark "yes" while you're arm is still extended.

Really nice job at the repetition ending at :37 - because you moved into the 2:30 position before extending the arm, and you marked "yes" and then released.

Once you get to the 3rd position on the clock ((4:30 or so) Check out :45 of your video to see the spot) you can reward from the left hand exclusively. These days, I do a lot of proofing from the 1 and 2 position, but once I get to the 3rd and 4th (heel) spot, I want to reward exclusively from the left - which draws the head up and straight. The dog has to be secure enough in their understanding of the focal point by this time so they don't fall for the hand. In this way, they stay correct in their focus point but also hold the head a bit higher and straighter to meet the reward that comes in from the left.

Beautiful execution at 1:04!

I really like the neck and head work you're getting from the middle position. 1:19 looks really nice.

And after two right handed feeds, his head comes really straight at 1:29!!!!!

The repetition leading up to 2:09 - he was favoring your right hand... his head was tracking that hand as it came in. When you did  then get the behavior you wanted you rewarded with the right hand. I might have rewarded left there to keep him a bit more honest. 

Good feed at 2:20 - more feeding from the left hand will keep his head straighter in the middle. We will move past this middle work from here on out (keep doing it if you want to perfect it) but just know that the hand he expects to feed from does matter!

Nice session, Maelyn. I can tell it was hot as Tango was doing plenty of panting!

Reward him in a way that turns his head slightly left more - from both the middle and side position. Everything else is right on point!

Thanks for your feedback Forrest :)

You can tell that I have been rewarding him for years for looking up and to the right when he's in heel position, can't you?

Yup it was hot, and I was purposely keeping him in the sun. Another thing to work on over the summer!

We will keep working on this one as I can definitely see the value, we just didn't have enough time this week because I was on training at work, and it seems that I do a lot of non-work related stuff at work that I had to then do after hours.  But we're almost done for the year with dog club stuff so things should be less crazy soon (I hope).

I'm jealous of your weather... soooo cold here lately.  Training looks really good.  What kinds of things do people do in a dog club? (curious)

I'm the club secretary and I instruct our "canine companion" classes as well as rally obedience classes. I do pretty much a bit of everything! Answer emails, update the website, produce the club newsletter (just got rid of that one), keep the instructors informed and in line, organise the rest of the committee, update membership forms, the list is endless! We just had a rally obedience trial over the weekend that I had to do some stuff for, and we have a bunch of end of year stuff that I'm involved with too.

Right now the weather is just perfect for me. It's warm but not scorching hot. I love it!

:)