Unleashed Blog Post

Polishing Up a Few Transitions: Some things I want him to understand here are…

by Lisa Lima on November 7th, 2022

…to automatically default to Heel (without verbal command) if not actively engaged in another behavior;

…to watch my body language for cues that I may be turning or coming to a halt during Heeling;

…how to transition smoothly between halts, turns, sits, and downs during Heeling (i.e. fading his reward, and asking him to work harder and smarter prior to reinforcement);

…to listen to the inflection of my voice when I give verbal cues as it is a predictor of what exercise or behavior comes next;

…how to differentiate when to switch his focus from me to the decoy (i.e. during Defense of Handler or Face/Flee Attack).

And since this is a team sport, here are some things I think Raisin would like ME to understand as well…

…the more breakdown I give him in training, the more clarity he builds and the more confident he looks performing the exercise to its entirety;

…if he’s extra talkative during an exercise, give him a break and then mark him as soon as he gets it right the next time so he can identify the behavior I’m looking for (baby barking during an exercise is often a sign of stress/frustration for him);

…taking the time to allow him to grasp and buy into my idea(s) enable him to put the entire picture together faster than if I try to give him multiple pieces to calculate at a time (less is more);

…he’s more than willing to obey my silly requests, and very rarely will even care enough to try and break the rules if he feels I’m being fair to him;

…sometimes he just wants his toy, and seems to lose his mind in the process and that he’s sorry �;

…this dog loves me, way more than I could have ever imagined it possible (and I kind of like him too ❤️).

Lisa Lima, MSW LCSW ABCDT
Therapist at My Life Unleashed LLC
(719) 626-3090
lisalima@mylifeunleashed.biz