My last blog was about keeping your feet moving and getting your exercises to flow together. Here’s a short video taken for Instagram (has to be one minute! I failed!) – of flow in heeling. What to look for:
Feet are moving. Everyone’s because that’s the way heeling is.
There is purpose in my movement. Good tension and motion but nothing crazy. I don’t need crazy. Crazy is scary and overwhelming to most softer dogs and it puts stronger or more intense dogs over threshold so just don’t go there.
Note that flow is not speed. Yeah, I may run . But I may move slowly too. Strive for connection and variety over any particular speed.
I talk to him here and there as “punctuation”. Constant chatter is tuned out. If you want to say stuff then that’s fine but make it seasoning rather than background noise.
Brito cannot predict what I’ll do next. Good. That means he has to pay attention. This is, in my opinion, by far and away the best way to earn attention in work – make it worth their while. Now you’ll have an engaged partner who’s not just looking for the next cookie – the work sucks him in.
I need to clean up my handling – a worry for another day.
But it’s winter.