Hey Team - in this video I show recorded the first session of everyday heelwork (this is NOT focus heelwork we have in the course HH -even though there are some similarities) Even though later on I want my dog to walk with the head down looking at the environment I start with the dog looking at me (face). Reason? dogs are learning placement shoulder-leg on the left much faster as they are much more focused. Also keeping this level of focus (dog looking at our face constantly) is simply not sustainable as dogs cannot walk like that on long distances. Therefore as I progress I allow my dog to look wherever they want and look at me only if I say their name. Teaching dog to switch back and forth look wherever you like - look at me has some practical advantages especially with reactive dogs at early stages of their training or easily distracted dogs. When I walk past the trigger eye contact with the trigger eg. other dog is much more confrontational. I can simply ask my dog hey look at me, your safe with me, you don't have to deal with that. Similar thing we do in our human world - we don't make deep eye contact with other people walking past. Then if someone is staring at us ( that make at least me bit uncomfortable) we often look away or look at the phone to avoid confrontation. With my dogs I want the to look at me and get my support when walking past triggers before they are ready to just ignore them. I will also do that with my perfectly friendly and social dogs- when walking past distractions I will often ask them to look at me so they are less tempted :) Let me know if you have any questions! ps. I have spaniel for residential training now- one of the goals is to teach street heeling. I'm tempted to document that. Shall I?

Hi Alex, when will you be offering the heel work hackers course. Cheers Karen