This video shows Tyler Muto and his 2 yr old Malinois Roscoe using barriers in the environment to proof obedience exercises.
Steps for Competition Heeling
Tyler Muto (me) and my 1 yr old Malinois Dante, reviewing the steps used for teaching a dog competition style heeling.
I filmed this for some colleagues on a web forum as part of a discussion on getting a close heel, but I thought that my clients could find it interesting as well.
Dante was a little sloppy on some of the exercises here because we hadn't practiced in a while, so filming this gave him a much needed brush-up.
To be clear, this is not the type of heel you would use to take the dog for a walk, it is taught for ascetic and competition purposes.
Creative Use of a Square
This video shows my 2 year old Malinois Roscoe and I during a training session to help him distinguish between 'heel', 'come', and 'sit'. I use a square board to isolate his movement and give him a target to line up with my body.
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Working in Straight Lines
These are the beginning stages of a drill that I will be using for Dante (10 1/2 month Malinois) to help him understand to always work in straight lines regardless of obstacles or distraction. This exercise has many direct application into various dog sports where being able to send your dog away from you is essential. However I also find it very helpful for pet dogs as it will inevitably increase your ability to communicate with and control your dog even at distances.
In general, anytime you can increase the clarity of communication between your dog and yourself it will improve your bond, and increase your overall level of obedience.
Beginning Remote Position Changes
This video shows trainer Tyler Muto from K9 Connection Dog Training in Buffalo, NY and his 8 month old Malinois puppy ‘Dante’ beginning an exercise for remote position changes (moving from sit-down-stand, at a distance.) Tyler is using a platform to help keep Dante from creeping forward as he learns how to do this.
The foundation for this work has been done using positive reinforcement and marker training. The prerequisites that the dog needs to know are: All of the individual positions, how to transition those while next to you (sit to down, down to stand etc.) and some variation of a ‘place’ command (keep all four feet on an object). The word “no” or “nope” here is not being used as a correction, but rather as a way to communicate to the dog that he made a mistake and he has to try again.
Free Shaping The 'Place' Command
This is a short clip demonstrating how to do a training exercise called free shaping with markers. Free shaping means that you are progressively marking behaviors that are closer and closer to the end behavior that you are trying to achieve. We use marker training to do this, the most common form of marker training is clicker training, however, I prefer to use my voice. I use the word “yes” in a consistent, happy tone to mark the behaviors that I want. The mark, lets the dog know that a reward is coming, and thus allows us to precisely mark the behavior we want, even if it takes up to a few seconds to get the actual reward to the dog. The most important thing to remember with marker training, is that a reward ALWAYS has to follow the mark, even if you gave the mark accidentally.
In this video I am teaching Dante the ‘Place’ command, which means to have all four feet on an object. Dante has never done the ‘place’ command before nor has he ever done free shaping, so this is an entirely new concept to him. ‘Place’ is a very simple command to teach and for the dog to learn because there are not too many progressions to mark, and it is very black and white: Either you are on the place, or you are off. This is why I chose this exercise to introduce Dante to the game of free shaping, it is easy and fun. I will film more complex free shaping exercises in the future!
