Focus Heel Fundamentals Most People Skip

Everyone wants a focus seal, but they don't know what to do to get it. Let's let me show you how it's done. First off, we're going to need a little bit of motivation from the dog. So whether you're using food toys, we're going to create a game of chase. We're going to use a little bit of leash and we're going to stop the dog from doing things they shouldn't do. What I'm going to do here is I'm going to, okay, he can't have the ball, but I can move him parallel to me. So we want the dog to go into the position, but we show him a toy and they might grab it, we can say out training. Your dog is a requirement for training your dog. Yes. Slowly move it and lower. Yes. Just like that. I'm going to slowly move it and bring them around. Yep. So what we want to do first and foremost is we want the dog to get comfortable coming into the position. We don't want to name it. We don't want to call it food. We don't want to call it heel out. There's nothing we need to say to the dog right now, except show them out. Show them how to get to where the money is made. Yep. Just like that. And I like to use play for training, the focus heel, because it does let you have a nice interactive game out. And when the dog outs the toy, as you might've seen in my other play video, you can say, yep, and start a whole new chase cycle again. I see you are not in French. Why do I keep using French with him? I have two dogs. I have two German Shepherds now, and he's going to learn French commands by me being forgetful of what his German commands are. We want to teach the dog. Okay. How to get into position, how to move adjacent to us in position. So for you guys, that might look like a little bit of collar pressure to get the dog to move one inch and then the pressure goes away. Second, the dog has moved the inch with you. See how I just barely rotate my body and the dog follows with me. That is because yes, we pay for successive approximation. So if the dog does something like 5% of the way, correct. And we can see that the dog will be able to build on this skill to do it better perhaps in the next rep or the next dozen reps or the next two weeks of reps. Right. That is what we start paying out because in dog training, your dog will not have the fully developed skill with an hour of work, people like to think that they can train their dogs for like an hour a day and it'll get them where they need to be five, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, short sessions, show the dog what you want from them, and that will make the magic happen. So the next step for the focus heel after your dog is getting in there is we do want to show the dog that they have to follow it. Right. So some people will hold the ball here. If you put the ball here, like my dog, he's going to look at me because I've trained him so far, but your dog isn't going to do this. Your dog is going to have a bit of trouble. So what you might want to do is use a little bit of leash pressure and using that a little bit of leash pressure, you get the eye contact, use a little bit of leash pressure, keep the eye contact, let go of it when the dog is looking at you, when the dog is outside of their head and you want them to stay like this. Now I could either move the ball back on top of his head and reward him for continuing to look up at me, or I can mark with my throw the toy away from me marker, which is fetch. And that is rewarding him for keeping his head nice and elevated. I level with me while I am doing this demonstration over time. We do want to show the dog how to move their body into position from any direction front. So that requires having some rear end awareness. Some things I like to do for that is I do like to teach my dog how to move front. Back. I like to teach my dog how to move backwards. Sit. I like to teach my dog how to spin. Sit. I like to teach my dog how to rotate. Sit. Because I like my dog to know what they are supposed to be doing. So then when I say front, he knows how to do this. If I say, right, he knows how to enter here. If I say foos, he knows how to enter here. When I say plaits, he knows how to go there. If I back up here, front. Your dog should learn through time how to move their body foos in accordance to where your body is. So even if I have my legs open like this, if I say center, nope. Center. See, and I'm using the ball. No, I'm using the ball and no, I'm using the ball as a lure. So I am messing him up. I'm going to hold the ball here. Center. Nope. Center. And sometimes in training, your dog isn't going to get it right away, right? Like I don't use a center command with my dog because I am training for dog sport, but all of this has to do with your dog being able to move center in parallel to you. So if I back up, he backs up. If I move forward, he moves forward. If I turn this way, we're turning this way. If I back up this way, he has to pay attention to all my different body cues. And this doing stuff like this with your dog will also help with the focus heel because they have to, like, he has to look up at me. He has to pay attention to where I'm walking. Right. Good boy. Fetch. If your dog is not paying attention to where you're walking, they can't do a pretty well, good focus here. So we got to start with the simple things. We got to show the dog how to get into position. We got to show the dog how to move their body in accordance with us. And we got to show the dog how to continue to maintain that high elevation. Now, if your dog isn't ready to play with toys for doing all this stuff, fine. You can use food, but I also just recommend using a leash to block negative behavior that you don't want. So if you use that leash, the dog can't jump. If you use that leash, the dog can't get themselves out of position. If you use that leash, the dog can't screw off because they are feeling a little bit confused. Regardless of it all, building the focus heel isn't something that is extremely difficult, right? It just takes repetition and it takes confidence in yourself and your dog. You might look messy. My first time building the focus heel guys, I was a mess. Okay. The focus heel, when you are a first time dog trainer, yeah, you're going to feel a little silly. You're going to feel a little silly because you are learning how to handle this beast all on your own for the first time ever. So lock in for the next video on how to build the focus heel with food. Matter of fact, I might put a puppy progression up from when my puppy was eight weeks old to her now at nine months old. So if that interests you guys, feel free to subscribe. I've been appreciating all the support on this channel. Definitely love to see all your pretty faces around here. Let's go train some dogs. I'll see you guys in the next one.