Bases for a line out with nervous dog
Young M’Opus gets tangled every single time we start a run. She won’t stay up front, bounces around and when I do get her to stop moving, she can’t help facing towards me. I need to change that. Ideally she will stand strait looking forward and wait for a go command to bounce forward.
There a few things I want here:
-Stay still
-Dog on front of me and orientated in the same direction as me
-Looking forward
-Standing
Those are challenges for a stressed dog which feels comforted by visual contact.
I go step by step.
We have been working a simple stay, with me moving around Mopus. Staying is something that I got easily from her but except that she would spin on the spot as I moved around her. She really wants to keep that eye contact.
Once stay was understood as “stay on that spot”. I started back with some stays with out moving as far from her. Actually, I would keep my legs almost glued to Mopus but move myself behind her, if she stayed in that position, butt end towards me I rewarded reaching on front of Mopus to give the treat in that same position with her nose pointing forward. At this point, I don’t care if Mopus is sitting or standing, all I want is her back facing me.
On the next step, I do the same motion but take one step back, breaking the contact between my legs and the dog. I make that short step back forward and reward. As the dog gets the gesture, I move more steps back.
Next, that’s where the video is at, I move away, behind Mopus without staying glued on her. You can see there how she is having a hard time not spinning towards me but knows what I’m expecting. I don’t really care at this point what direction she is facing, as long as when I am moving away from her she keeps her back towards me.
Here is an other step towards the line out. Here M.E. Fhast understands I expect her to hold her position on front of me and I am adding some tension on her harness. Here she is learning to look up front, not at me. Each dog will progress differently and be challenged by different aspects of the completed behavior. Mopus and M.e. Fhast are littermates, brought up together but the steps were broken down differently according to there own challenges.