Idyllic Canine Training

The foundation of heeling doesn’t change much for me, regardless of whether I’m training a pet or a high-drive working dog.
You need four essentials: precise timing, consistent body coordination, solid emotional and verbal communication, and •most importantly• proper sequencing of pauses to build focus. The styles definitely diverge later on, but the way the foundation is laid remains the same.

How to teach your dog to catch a food reward, broken down into ‘bite’ sized steps 🤣
There are 3 phases of teaching this skill:
1. The dog learning to “track” or follow the reward with their eyes & mouth.
2. Opening their mouth when the reward moves towards them.
3. Combining steps 1 & 2, actively catching the reward with good timing.

Pro tip: Eye-to-mouth coordination is a great skill to teach with toys, too. If the dog seems unmotivated, try practicing when they are hungry/playful.

Back-chaining is a process of teaching the dog a complex behavior routine backwards in separate sequences. Beginning by teaching the final sequence and moving backwards sequentially in reverse order. Each sequence needs to be broken down and made digestible for the dog to understand. Once the dog reliably and consistently performs the last step, the following step is taught again in reverse order. If there are 3 behaviors, step 3 is taught first, then 2, then 1, eventually being all tied together beginning with step 1. Step 3 always has the most value for the dog.

For example with teaching the blind search in IGP: step 1 is teaching the dog to go around a pole, step 2 is going around an actual blind with the handler at a distance, step 3 is running all 6 blinds in order on the handlers cue, step 4 is the bark and hold in the final blind followed by step 5, a call-off/recall back to the handler.
Once all chains of the behavior are known and the dog clearly has built solid understanding, with most value emphasized on the final sequence, they can all be tied together.

In this video Inge is being paid heavily with a bite for the second to last sequence of the exercise, the bark and hold, where the dog is to bark at the helper until recalled into a sit. This is the most rewarding sequence for her.
She isn’t going to be called out, because here that would diminish the power behind her barking at this phase in training. So, not a perfect example of back chaining, as the actual final step is calling the dog back to me. But she already knows the behavior of recall into heel, so it’s not needed in this training session. What we are targeting is: rhythmic, powerful barking at the helper without touching him. We are prioritizing heavy value on the last few behaviors to properly chain the behaviors that come before to be self-gratifying through preforming the whole exercise, step 1-5.

So, we began with step 5 outside of a protection scenario, build power in step 4 in a protection scenario, go back to an obedience mindset with steps 3-2-1 by teaching the dog to search empty blinds. End picture is a dog who will get all 20 points for the exercise 💪😅

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