OB285: From TEAM to Trials: Building Chains for the Novice Ring
Course Details
This class will teach you how to take your TEAM foundations skills in levels 1 & 2 and use those to create the formal chains used in trials. We will be looking specifically at the exercises at the novice level in most organizations and will also touch on the ring preparation skills that you didn’t know you needed to train for!
You don't need to be close to trialing to take this class! In fact I highly recommend taking this very early on in your dog's training career! But if you're already trialing, you'll get lots of good support for improving your trial experience.
It is designed for a wide range of students:
Do you feel lost in knowing how to progress from small individual behaviors to actually prepping for a trial?
Do you want to make sure that your dog has the skills needed and the trial prep in place for the future?
Did you already enter a novice or beginner novice trial but it didn't go quite as planned?
This class is also not a "heeling" class but it goes heavily into how to progress heeling from pivots to actual heeling! And it breaks down the skills for straight halts, tight turns, and speed changes!
(Note: this class is a modified version of my retired "Novice Smart" class. Students who have taken that class are welcome to join us for continued work, but the "heart" of the material covers the same topics.)
You do not need to have taken the TEAM 1 or 2 classes, but please look at the prereqs if you want to join as gold.
Teaching Approach
Lectures are released at the start of each week. The lectures are broken down by each skill, often in multiple parts. I have written objectives and then written instructions for each step followed by multiple video examples for each step. The videos are usually between 30sec to 2min long and are taken from training sessions of a variety of dogs. I rarely use voiceover in videos, but if it is added I have added/edited subtitles. At the end of each lecture is an overview summary with the steps quickly listed in order. Teams are not expected to complete all the lectures each week, especially if newer to putting the skills together.
Laura Waudby (she/her) trains and competes in obedience, rally, and agility. She was halfway to her OTCH with her UDX corgi, Lance, before his uexpected early retirement. She also has championship titles in USDAA and UKI. By day...(Click here for full bio and to view Laura's upcoming courses)
Getting a little out of control! Here is the hopeful list, but it's still being revised! Note: If you are newer to obedience and have just been working on your pivot foundations for heelwork, the lectures will seem overwhelming and impossible to get through in 6 weeks! That's ok!! Heeling is a lifelong, fun, adventure! If you are more experienced, then you're welcome to join us as well and we will clean up where you are at!
If you have taken my ring confidence class, some of these topics will also look familiar! This class will continue working on those concepts, or introduce them to those new to it!
Ring Preparation
Taking your training on the road
Working with Rewards off Our Body
Silence and formality is good thing!
Waiting outside the ring
Focused ring entrances
Transitions between exercises
Setups: getting fast setups, fixing errors
Setups: Adding "Pressure"
Increasing the time between rewards
Interactions with a judge
Judge "pressure"
Exiting the ring towards the reward
Exercise Preparation
Heeling- Focus in Motion
Heeling: From Pivots to Forward Heeling
Heeling: Balancing Attitude and Precision
Heeling- Slow, fast, and Halts
Heeling- Turns
Heeling- Reward Placements
Figure 8: Setting up in a trial and human distractions
Figure 8: Polishing the exercise
Recall: Front
Recalls: Finishes
Exams (stand and sit for exams): Introducing the Approach
Exams: Being Touched
Stays: group stays
Stays: walking around the ring
Showing at a Trial
About the organizations in the U.S.: similarities and differences (AKC, UKC, ASCA, CDSP)
While having a TEAM1 or TEAM2 title is not required, it is strongly recommended you understand what foundations are taught at those levels and have a good start on the exercises that directly apply.
The following skills will be assumed to be started in these lectures. They don't need to be perfect!:
Pivoting in heel without a perch
Finding heel with the help of a target
Finding front position with a platform and/or foot target
Stand in heel
Ability to leave food in an open container while in a stay position
Stay while the handler walks away
Some introduction to going from 1 exercise to starting another exercise
Supplies/Space:
Ideally, teams will have access to enough space to do some heelwork! A full ring is not necessary but you will need space to get up to your normal heeling speed and add in some turns.
Occasional access to helpers IF the team wants to work on the stand for exam or figure 8 with actual people! Helpers can also be used for some of the "judge" interactions
We will also be discussing training in different locations. It is recommended that each team be able to travel to a location the dog does not regularly train in at least a few times over the 6 weeks of class. Locations ideas include a local park, a parking lot, a dog-friendly hardware store, etc.
The last lecture looked at focus and really got the dog's moving!! It even started to look like actual heeling!!! But really their pivot work will form the foundation of the remaining heeling skills to learn. The pushier your dog is, the more emphasis you need to spend on this section. If your dog isn't as confident or is prone to lagging, then look more at the last lecture!! Hint: the next lecture on heeling looks at balancing these 2 pieces!!!
Ok, why is pivoting so important for heelwork? The short answer is that it isolates the rear end motion your dog needs to stay parallel with you regardless of what direction you are traveling. By doing little doodle type work, we can reward frequently and isolate each movement the dog needs to maintain position as you heel in all different directions. Speed up when going to the right, collect and pull in when going to the left.
The goal of this lecture is to start chaining together the heelwork skills you have taught already in TEAM (your pivots!!) with the forward attention work you worked on in the last lecture. We're putting the pieces together!!
Heel Position
Ok before we begin, let's take a quick look at what heel position looks like. Hopefully this is not news to you as you've been working hard at it through your pivots and the find heel exercise.
The Dog
The dog's position is a range, but it needs to be consistent and not vary from step to step. Anywhere from the dog's head to their shoulder (their collar area) is to be in line with your left hip. A good guideline is their ear in line with the SEAM of your pants. This often means the dog's front feet will be in line with the start of your heel, not at your toes!
The dog should be close, but not touching. Generally within 6 inches is considered ideal, and the closer the better.
And the dog will do an auto sit at halts without any verbal or signal from the handler (I train that last!)
No focal point is required. However if you read the last lecture then you learned how difficult is to both maintain precision through changes of direction AND good attitude without a consistent focal point.
The Human
The handler will walk at a "natural" gait, and for most dogs, the more brisk the better!
Our hands can be at our stomach (not on our hip), OR can be hanging down at our side. If at our side it needs to swing naturally as we move and can't be on the outside of the dog's head. So if you have a larger sized dog, this basically rules the hand down position out or you'll either whack the dog in the head or teach them to heel wide.
Your shoulders should be facing forward and straight, however there is no rule on where you need to look as long as you can walk a straight line!
Tiny Forward Steps with Precision- Left Squares
Your forward steps will almost always end with a left pivot to help remind the dog about keeping their rear end tucked in. Think of making a small square with your dog on the inside. At each corner of the square you will pivot and reward the dog. All of this should be done at a SLOW and controlled pace. Your square will be very tiny at first with just 1-2 steps of forward heeling before the pivot!
The more the dog surges right off the bat, the more likely I am to start with a left pivot before the forward step. If the dog stays decently in control of their body, then you might be able to start out with the forward step and just end with the left pivot to remind them to pull in.
Here Trigg is doing one of his first lessons in heeling forward. I do the forward step followed by a left pivot to pull him in, and occasionaly just try a few SLOW forward steps in a row. He already has great pivot skills, side steps skills, and has the concept of attention walking down. It looks like he read the textbook on heeling and makes this lesson easy! But notice how he does stretch towards those treats at my stomach on the first reps!
And here is Yukon's first lesson in forward heeling (and this was Yukon's first time working with me instead of her regular trainer!) She didn't have quite as great of an understanding of where heel position was for me and you can see she really wants to take off quickly on that first forward step of heeling. She can also be a little "flingy" of her rear end on the left pivot corrections. I guessed that some of her issues with forging were related to her excitement over the cookie with a new person and I decided to warm up with some doggy zen work at the 1:10 minute part. I left the whole clip in but it takes a while!!
As your dog improves, you can gradually increase how many steps make up your square! Here ginny is working on right sided heeling, so my inside square is going the opposite direction. She is very forgy and needs those pivots as a reminder to stay back!
Surging Ahead?!: Hip Lineup
Is your dog still surging like crazy on just this 1 step work!?! Let's break it down further and teach them to think more about staying lined up with our hip. In this exercise you are going to move your right leg but not go anywhere, and immediately reward the dog back at your side. We want to calm them down a little with the excitement of our body moving!
Here Mayhem quickly works on this exercise. Interestingly, she is thinking about pivoting backwards as I move my leg which is a nicer error than surging ahead, but still not something I want! I grab a target for her to wait on after a few reps. (A front foot target would have been better than the pivot perch, but it still worked for her!!) Although because she was still really dancy I actually add in some chin rest work with her!
Getting Precision with Greater Movement
As you keep progressing your heelwork into greater steps of going forward, you will still want to throw in your tight pivots to remind the dog to keep their butt in! Keep heeling nice and slow at first as you add in more of those forward steps.
Pre cues for Turns
You can also add some "pre cues" of the direction you are going to turn! I exaggerate my head motion to tell the dog I'm going to turn left. This can help prepare them when in motion.
Here with Loot is an early lesson. I'm first working on this while standing still. I look further to the left, towards his butt, then pivot. He doesn't quite get this at first! Then I try adding it to a step or two of movement.
Here Grace is up to a few steps of heeling forward in a straight line and I end with a tight left pivot to reinforce her keeping her butt in and to prevent some forging!:
Here Ginny is working on right sided heeling again with my inside squares. At the 14sec point I start reviewing my exaggerated head turn for the pivot and then go back to very slow square work with greater success.
Left Pivot out of Motion footwork:
It can be hard to do a left pivot in place from heeling! Here is an example of one type of footwork you can do as you start to get to 180's not just left turns:
Here is an example with a "T" where your right foot starts the turn:
And here is a "V" where your left foot starts the turn. I would be more likely to do this style with a fast pushy dog, not a sensitive dog as your foot will be going into their space:
Doodle Heeling
A doodle is a way of heeling that makes your heeling look like doodles on a piece of paper! Very few long straight lines, lots of changing directions, curves and tiny maneuvers! Start out at a nice slow pace and gradually increase speed as your dog shows they are ready to handle it.
Mayhem is new to this and is advancing to doing a lot of left pivots, a few right pivots, and some forward motion. I'm moving at a very slow pace as this is still new!
Here is Zumi practicing doodle type heeling of keeping with me as I mix up pivots with straight lines and circles!
Here Aero is just learning to pull things together. I actually do a bit more straight line work here then pure doodle heeling, but you will still see how i mix in side steps and pivots!
Overview:
Left squares! Just a few (1-3!!) steps forward followed by a tight left pivot to pull the dog in.
Gradually add in some more straight line heeling, but make sure to still move nice and slow and mix it up with "doodles" of doing S lines, pivots, and big circles!
Consider adding an exaggerated head turn right before you pivot to act as a pre-cue for the turn ahead.
A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...
This is a wonderful novice prep course. It builds clearly from TEAM exercises, and Laura is always so good at providing very clear instructions and breaking down the exercises so the dog can build confidence and success. It's great that she also provides some of her Ring Confidence material in this class. Beyond her clear instructions, Laura also provides many videos showing various dogs sometimes succeeding with the skill, and other times illustrating typical problems. I always love that wide variety of videos in Laura's classes of dogs with differing temperaments and sizes. Laura's feedback is also A+; it's detailed, clear and always positive! Laura is an excellent instructor, and this is a great addition to her curriculum offered through Fenzi!
The coarse was extensive with lectures and video examples. The instructor was outstanding with detailed and clear feedback. The feedback was very personalized to our team. She noticed inconsistencies and dog behavior that I wasn’t noticing which lead to great improvements in our work. Highly recommended class.
Excellent starting point if you consider showing in Novice! The material was presented in a way that makes it fun for human and dog. Laura‘s feedback was detailed and constructive and even included additional video material for demonstration purposes. Loved this class!
Laura is a wonderful coach! She has a laser-sharp eye for those small details that can make all the difference in training. Her problem-solving is creative and spot-on. This class was perfect for prepping me and my young dog to begin trialing in obedience. Thanks, Laura, for your support, thoughtful insights and creative approach.
Laura is very thorough in the presentation of her class materials. There is a lot of information and many demo videos which make learning very clear. She is careful to point out that students need to got through at their own pace and not worry about covering everything. I enjoy the option of picking what I want to focus on.
Laura's descriptions, instructions and layout are always very clear and easy to follow. They maintained a sound progression from TEAM exercise to Novice, which is exactly what I signed up for!
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Instructor: Laura Waudby
