from Conformation course
Pulling into the collar is generally very good. Right at 0:11 bear in mind that what we're teaching him right now is that he doesn't HAVE to move his feet to keep his balance - he can lean on the collar instead. So if he moves his feet, it means you weren't holding the collar hard enough.
Now the leaning-back part. I'll go through it in detail. First, I wouldn't call that posting back. Posting back we'll fix in a coming lesson. What he's doing is far worse than that, in so many ways - partly because he's not cooperating. Partly because by going back so far, he's screwing himself up physically - in that position any dog is hocky, he's got no shoulders and no neck (not that PWDs are supposed to have a lot of neck) - it's just icky. Partly because going back like that, he's screwing himself up mentally. He's not giving me (as judge) a good opinion of his temperament - he looks like he's scared to be here, protective of his rear, and might bite me when I'm trying to go over him. Plus, anticipating what's going to happen, he's tucked his tail. His opinion of what's going to happen is going to start leaking forward until he doesn't want to stop, doesn't want to gait, and until he really DOESN'T want to be there.
Don't worry, he'll get over it.
At 0:18 he's doing fine. At 0:19 you've reached his hip/tail and he's losing it. At 0:20 you know he's lost it and you start reaching forward again.
At 0:25, you've pulled him together again. At 0:27 he's losing it again and your hand is between his hip and his hock. At 0:28 he's gone again and you're trying to salvage the situation by telling him to stay.
At 0:38, you're standing up and basically trying to trick him into standing still so you can move his foot. At 0:40 you're moving his foot and he notices. At 0:42 he's trying to do his trained behaviour of leaning back and looking all spooky, but you catch him in the middle and tell him he's doing fine.
So what I'm guessing is that when he was younger, you were teaching him all the stuff he should know, and one morning he woke up convinced that you were trying to grab his back leg so you could lift him in the air by it and drop him on his head. There's no use trying to explain what evil lurks in the mind of dog. As far as he's concerned, the only thing that's preventing you from carrying out your nefarious scheme is that he throws all his weight back on his rear legs so you can't lift them. Whew, good thing he figured that out!
Instead of trying to bluff your way through this entire little dance, we're going to break it down and explain it to him simply, one half-second at a time.
I want you to forget about lifting his back leg. His back leg isn't important. What IS important is that you can go all over and around him and he continues to stand steady and confident.
So here we are at 0:25. He's looking pretty good with your right hand under his muzzle and your left hand on the back of his neck.
At 0:27, these things have happened: you've moved back along his body. You're reaching for his left hock. He's shifted his weight back. He's pulled his head off your hand so he can turn it to be sure that the horror has begun.
At 0:27.5, you've touched his left hock, he's leaned back even further, and turned his head more.
Never mind what happens after that. 0:26 is his threshold. Before that, everything was OK. After that, it's already gone. So 0:26 is where you have to work.
What you work on is all the things I mentioned, one at a time:
- you need to be able to move your body down his body while he maintains his stack with his head in your hand. What do you do? Reward a lot BEFORE you move. Then don't really move, but lean an inch toward his tail. Click and reward. Start again. Lean 2 inches toward his tail. Click and reward. Start again. This time maybe lean an inch and move one knee, Click and reward. What you're aiming for is to move so slightly that you can click BEFORE he moves. See? I moved and you didn't die even though you didn't have time to lean back! Who knew?
- you need to be able to reach for his hock. WITHOUT moving back, reach for his hip and when you're halfway there, click/reward. Reset and reach an inch further this time. C/R. Reset, and another inch. Whenever he gives ANY sign of worrying about it, don't say anything to him, just pretend to eat the treat yourself, take a 15-second break, invite him back, and start again.
- you need to be able to touch his hock - but NOT until you reach for it without him giving any sign of worry.
- you need to have him keep his chin on your hand.
- you need him to keep his tail loose - remember that lovely "I've got it" wag - that's what you're going for.
And so on. Lifting his leg is not important. Once you can freestack him correctly, he might go the rest of his life and you never have to lift either of those back legs again. Still, it's nice to know you can if you have to, and you WILL be working his tail, and it IS something he's upset about, so do work it.
Now the leaning-back part. I'll go through it in detail. First, I wouldn't call that posting back. Posting back we'll fix in a coming lesson. What he's doing is far worse than that, in so many ways - partly because he's not cooperating. Partly because by going back so far, he's screwing himself up physically - in that position any dog is hocky, he's got no shoulders and no neck (not that PWDs are supposed to have a lot of neck) - it's just icky. Partly because going back like that, he's screwing himself up mentally. He's not giving me (as judge) a good opinion of his temperament - he looks like he's scared to be here, protective of his rear, and might bite me when I'm trying to go over him. Plus, anticipating what's going to happen, he's tucked his tail. His opinion of what's going to happen is going to start leaking forward until he doesn't want to stop, doesn't want to gait, and until he really DOESN'T want to be there.
Don't worry, he'll get over it.
At 0:18 he's doing fine. At 0:19 you've reached his hip/tail and he's losing it. At 0:20 you know he's lost it and you start reaching forward again.
At 0:25, you've pulled him together again. At 0:27 he's losing it again and your hand is between his hip and his hock. At 0:28 he's gone again and you're trying to salvage the situation by telling him to stay.
At 0:38, you're standing up and basically trying to trick him into standing still so you can move his foot. At 0:40 you're moving his foot and he notices. At 0:42 he's trying to do his trained behaviour of leaning back and looking all spooky, but you catch him in the middle and tell him he's doing fine.
So what I'm guessing is that when he was younger, you were teaching him all the stuff he should know, and one morning he woke up convinced that you were trying to grab his back leg so you could lift him in the air by it and drop him on his head. There's no use trying to explain what evil lurks in the mind of dog. As far as he's concerned, the only thing that's preventing you from carrying out your nefarious scheme is that he throws all his weight back on his rear legs so you can't lift them. Whew, good thing he figured that out!
Instead of trying to bluff your way through this entire little dance, we're going to break it down and explain it to him simply, one half-second at a time.
I want you to forget about lifting his back leg. His back leg isn't important. What IS important is that you can go all over and around him and he continues to stand steady and confident.
So here we are at 0:25. He's looking pretty good with your right hand under his muzzle and your left hand on the back of his neck.
At 0:27, these things have happened: you've moved back along his body. You're reaching for his left hock. He's shifted his weight back. He's pulled his head off your hand so he can turn it to be sure that the horror has begun.
At 0:27.5, you've touched his left hock, he's leaned back even further, and turned his head more.
Never mind what happens after that. 0:26 is his threshold. Before that, everything was OK. After that, it's already gone. So 0:26 is where you have to work.
What you work on is all the things I mentioned, one at a time:
- you need to be able to move your body down his body while he maintains his stack with his head in your hand. What do you do? Reward a lot BEFORE you move. Then don't really move, but lean an inch toward his tail. Click and reward. Start again. Lean 2 inches toward his tail. Click and reward. Start again. This time maybe lean an inch and move one knee, Click and reward. What you're aiming for is to move so slightly that you can click BEFORE he moves. See? I moved and you didn't die even though you didn't have time to lean back! Who knew?
- you need to be able to reach for his hock. WITHOUT moving back, reach for his hip and when you're halfway there, click/reward. Reset and reach an inch further this time. C/R. Reset, and another inch. Whenever he gives ANY sign of worrying about it, don't say anything to him, just pretend to eat the treat yourself, take a 15-second break, invite him back, and start again.
- you need to be able to touch his hock - but NOT until you reach for it without him giving any sign of worry.
- you need to have him keep his chin on your hand.
- you need him to keep his tail loose - remember that lovely "I've got it" wag - that's what you're going for.
And so on. Lifting his leg is not important. Once you can freestack him correctly, he might go the rest of his life and you never have to lift either of those back legs again. Still, it's nice to know you can if you have to, and you WILL be working his tail, and it IS something he's upset about, so do work it.
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