MichiH
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So cool!!! And wherever you are swimming looks like paradise.Took Rio to a fairly unknown spring in the middle of the woods, an idyllic swimming hole. Full screen is best!
LifeofRubie
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Oh, Buddy! He's fine but my bad!
I had to watch it again since I wasn't paying attention to what was on the radio. LOL
@Katyusharocket We did a sit/stay video for you. 
This time it wasn't a delivery guy but it was my husband coming home. I thought she would be worse with him because she loves to go greet her dad. But she did pretty good! I had to stop him from pulling down to the barn. I thought he was going to park up at the garage or I would have made her stay a little longer. But she stayed put! And she came when called. And went into a heel. I know most people use the command, 'heel' a little differently. But for me I wanted it to mean, 'come and stay by my side.' And she knows when I say 'closer,' to get closer to my leg. When I called her to me the second time and she went into a heel she almost knocked me over she was so close! 
This time it wasn't a delivery guy but it was my husband coming home. I thought she would be worse with him because she loves to go greet her dad. But she did pretty good! I had to stop him from pulling down to the barn. I thought he was going to park up at the garage or I would have made her stay a little longer. But she stayed put! And she came when called. And went into a heel. I know most people use the command, 'heel' a little differently. But for me I wanted it to mean, 'come and stay by my side.' And she knows when I say 'closer,' to get closer to my leg. When I called her to me the second time and she went into a heel she almost knocked me over she was so close! 
@MyBuddy that, to me, was truly impressive and inspiring! Time to work on some stay traing here in my household! I like your usage of the heel command.@Katyusharocket We did a sit/stay video for you.
Very nice!!!
If you're never going to trial, it won't matter, just wanted you to have a heads up on that since you are enjoying training other things.
@MyBuddy - that's a beautiful sit/stay and recall
If you ever plan to do obedience for trial, teach her to come front, then a separate command for heel. Only in advanced do you recall to a heel position. Not that it's harder to teach, but that it's really hard to teach a come-front after you've taught a solid come-heel. Also it will royally mess with a dumbbell retrieve which has to be brought to the front.
If you're never going to trial, it won't matter, just wanted you to have a heads up on that since you are enjoying training other things.
@MyBuddy - that's a beautiful sit/stay and recall
That's great! That took discipline!@Katyusharocket We did a sit/stay video for you.
Yeah, just this morning, I had to take a pair of gloves in to the elementary school. I walked both dogs there. I did tie Zephyr's leash to a railing, but as I like to do, I put him on a sit-stay out front of the school as I went in to the front office. He always holds it! A mom and a probably 3rd grade girl walked by him and he held that stay. I did reassure the woman that he was on a stay and was not allowed to move. I didn't want anyone to be intimidated.
What a good girl!
I need to work harder on all of those things; not to show, but just for manners and safety.
Well then you could do rally obedience and our club is going to be incorporating regular obedience into the events too.
I need to work harder on all of those things; not to show, but just for manners and safety.
So do I, for the same reasons of manners and safety. I won't say that I would rule out any rally or obedience, though. Not after our conformation experience. Plus I hang out with the best bad influence ever, I can't rule anything out!
And that's how actually my version of heel started. When someone was pulling in with their car I wanted something to call her to me and sit by my side and stay out of the way. So I just said, HEEL, one day and she learned it real fast. So I stuck with that.
I would like to teach her FRONT though because there are times that I want her to come right in front. Is FRONT the command ?
That's what most people teach/use but many people use different words for each thing.
Your word HEEL means "be at my side whether I'm standing still or moving" (if you've taught her to walk with you in heel position, and if you haven't, just continue using the Heel word to move forward with her staying at your side). So to avoid conflict you use a different word to come to your front. Since I started in IGP obedience I used German words, Hier (Hee-er) for front, Fuss (Fooss) for "at foot" or heel. They sound very different to the dog so easy to distinguish. Since you use the word HEEL to come at your side, I would not use HERE to come front. Common English word used in obedience is COME. The most fun thing to teach is to come front, then say heel! and they bounce to your side (flip finish) or go around your back and sit at your left side.
I think Dobermans as a breed love the come front because the love to be with us. Almost always they look so happy while running toward you!
My Dobes have all done the flip finish. Maybe it's something in the way I train, or maybe it's just a Dobe tendency. Zephyr is tending toward the go around the back finish. This is probably being promoted by my putting him on a heel as I am next to, or on, a bicycle. I also think that the Dobe's square body may make it easier to do the flip finish. Zephyr has a longer body and, as much as I have worked with him on awareness building of his hind end, he doesn't seem to have much of it.
Zephyr doesn't come to front very straight. Well, it's often a big struggle to get any dog to come sit straight to front, but Zeph, yeah. He'll come in pretty straight, but at the end, he moves slightly to one side. I think he actually wants to see past me. In a big way, I can't fault him for that. I appreciate him being aware of surroundings and "having my back" in that way.
When Duchess stayed with us, she came with a list of commands all in Russian with a translation for me. Her owner is a 17 year old girl and Russian is her first language. It's neat to see them work together. When she gets out of the car to get gas, she says a Russian word to Duchess and Duchess immediately runs in between her legs from the front, then sits before going all the way through, and guards her back. The only reliable way for anyone to command the dog is if you know the Russian, but having had her live with us for a week, she sure does mind you if you go through the effort to learn and use it.
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