# Hey! It Worked!



## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Emma developed some mild crabbing in her heeling because of my handling error (delivering treat across the front of my body). Not a big deal. But over time I see it affecting other behaviors. Sidesteps, backing sucked, and even her pretty flip finish was awful and rough.

Last night, we were practicing fuss in sidesteps. She was crabbed out really awful. I was inspired to try the prong collar around the waist thing. As soon as she understood it was equivalent to a correction at heer neck, we got a dramatic improvement in the sidestep. A little playing around shows that it fixed the crabbing in heeling, fixed the finish, fixed the backing, and with a couple minutes work, fixed some of the problems we've been having in the positions (sit to stand, down to stand).

A loop, collar, e-colar, prong around the waist is something I completely discredited as bogus, excessively manipulative, or excessively forceful. Now I see that IF THE DOG ALREADY HAS HIND-END AWARENESS, it can be quite handy.

We'll find out how well the behavior changes stick later today...


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## Jaimie Van Orden (Dec 3, 2008)

Awesome! I love reading something new, trying it, and it working!


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## Anna Kasho (Jan 16, 2008)

I used it with Cyko in a couple sessions when I couldn't think of anything else to help him figure out how to turn with me while he is walking backwards. I did a simple loop with a leash around the waist to help get his butt in the right direction. It worked, but I had to be very careful, it got him so amped up that I could see a bite coming. He would have bit me with a pinch collar for sure.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

In the Tom Rose Competition heeling tape they use a cord around the dog's waist to get it to make sharp left turns.


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

I don't like how Tom Rose does it. The difference is in the dog already having hind end awareness and knowing the behavior first. That video is one of the reasons I had discredited the concept.

Emma already swings her butt into position for a flip finish and sharp turns. We do a lot of musical dog sport moves to keep her hind-end-aware.

Using the prong to finetune is totally different to me. I can define within an inch of what I mean. If I correct her on her neck, she doesn't understand, so she brings her neck closer to me and thus, crabs out further. But a very light touch on the prong around her waist gives a totally different picture.


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