Landmark victory in steadiness training today: A rabbit emerged directly in Rory's eyeline while she was pooping at the off-leash green space and she made the good and correct choice to come back to me instead of chasing it!!!!
I'm gonna put AI out of a job by doing art out of spite.
Just talking through this exercise. I came up with this on the fly during a bonus (unplanned) training session and I'm really pumped about it.
Upfront disclaimer that gundog heeling is different than sports heeling. Gundogs are expected to heel on both sides and not to look at their handlers. I do these exercises on a tab collar (functionally offleash) in my building's hallway, which is neither home nor not-home so it's a true neutral zone.
A couple weeks ago I practiced fast heeling towards a reward (a shoe, beloved) and Rory crushed it, she was able to regulate and pace herself to stay in heel perfectly. I was super impressed with her but that's about where we're at with heeling. We practice heeling at home daily and heeling anywhere outside the home rarely.
I wanted to practice fast-heeling past a reward to build off the success of fast-heeling towards a reward. After the first 180° turn, while fast-heeling towards the bumper, I thought she looked a little too locked in so I asked her to switch sides to create distance. Switching sides is an exercise we've practiced at all speeds.
She nailed it, the entire exercise. Perfect heeling, steady to me dropping the bumper (didn't even glance but her ear twitched when it hit the ground), great left pivot 180, beautiful fast-heeling, great switch to my right, beautiful fast-heeling on the right, steady to passing the bumper (didn't break stride, didn't stare at it as we passed it), great 180 on the right, and enthusiastic retrieve and party!
Very very proud of my baby dog. We're just noodling around for fun but she really gives it her whole best effort.
Rory's Retrieve Drill, Dec 16, 2025
dog on left, drop bumper while heeling. drop to your right (use right hand). keep walking.
180° turn, heel towards bumper. dog still on the left.
heel fast (run) towards bumper. dog should stay steady in heel [on] left.
while running toward bumper, ask dog to switch to right side. (intention should be to do this without breaking stride but slow down while teaching.)
overshoot the bumper. run/walk straight past without slowing down. dog should be [steady] on your right, bumper on your left.
180° turn and stop. dog should be on your right but doesn't really matter. send foe retrieve and party!
Overhead map view - pattern starts on bottom left corner. I know that's confusing but that's how my hallway is set up.
omg Miles got a video of Rory's point today (see one post ago), (unedited) key takeaways are that she held the point when I walked up (excellent indicator of steadiness), she almost broke but caught herself (understands the concept of pointing, lacks the maturity for full steadiness), and I immediately released to flush *after* she made the decision to hold (well timed reward, ultimate reward = flushing and chasing grouse)
Rory pointed a grouse so good this morning, it was so awesome to see the conviction in her point and her steadiness until I moved closer to her and sent her to flush it !!!!!!!
wow arory pointed a grouse on our run tonight with so much conviction that I was certain there was a bird (and there was!!) AND she held steady while I moved closer and until I sent her after the flush !!!!!!!! my baby dog is growin !!!!!!
We're in another cold snap so here's a puppy enrichment activity that specifically targets impulse control and marking (gundog def: watching an object fall and marking where it fell in your mind).
Lots of dogs can benefit from eye-tracking skills, where they watch an object move and estimate a trajectory. Lots of dogs learn this from regular fetch with a ball but it's a skill you can foster even if you don't play fetch. Obviously this is most beneficial for working retrievers but any dog that enjoys using their eyes can learn the game.
For this game I'm using large kibbles, a patterned rug, and about 15ft of space. I set Rory up by my side, toss a kibble in an archive, let it bounce and come to a stop on the floor, and then release Rory to get the kibble. Some key points:
Work on impulse control separately, if your dog can't wait for the kibble to fall without rushing for it, work on that first. You can use a platform as an easier step towards steadiness if you need to.
Use something big enough to bounce or roll so the dog can practice eye-tracking it. If you use something small, it might get lost in their field of view.
Try to do this on a rug or floor with obstacles so your dog has to watch where it falls. One kibble on a bare floor is easy to pick out even if they're not paying attention, and the point of the game is to pay attention.
Don't ask for eye contact during this game, you want to release before they take their eyes off the kibble.
It's a simple game to work puppy brains and also run back and forth across the floor a few times.
One of my favourite obedience exercises (that conveniently fosters impulse control and ties into send outs!) is the seek back, where you (the handler) drop an item while heeling and then send your dog back to retrieve it after a certain distance.
(The video is just to illustrate, I don't usually play this game indoors because I need more space.)
In competition obedience, the item you drop will be a leather or cotton glove. In gundog training, you would usually use a dead bird, a bumper, or sometimes a tennis ball depending on the dog. I'm using a holee-roller stuffed with rabbit hide strips because I was working outside earlier and that's my current outdoor toy.
(As always, if you're working on this and its a new game for your dog, be willing to accept sloppy heeling or retrieves at first. You can tighten those things up after your dog understands the idea of the game. You can see Rory doesn't actually retrieve the ball in this clip - this is fine!! I'll fix that later!!)
To start, your dog needs an understanding of heel position and heel movement. You need an item or snack that's valuable enough to be interesting but not so valuable that your dog won't be successful.
Get your dog in heel position and calmly drop a kibble or toy behind you. If your dog is in heel on your left, use your right hand. Do this as boring as possible but make sure your dog knows it's happening. Immediately reward your dog for staying in heel, reward position should be wherever you usually reward for heel (so I reward near my knee). Use a tab leash if you need more clarity or control. Take one step in the direction you're facing. Send your dog to get the snack or toy.
If your dog doesn't know how to bring items back, just use snacks! If your dog usually retrieves really well but stops bringing the item back, they're probably done with this game for now! It's a tricky one so take a break and come back to it later.
Once you can drop your item from a stationary heel and your dog is steady, you can start taking two or three steps in the direction you're already facing. Make sure your dog is in heel position before you send them back to the item. At this stage, send them back to the item while they're moving forward with you - don't ask for a sit or stand yet!
Once that's pretty easy and you incrementally make your way to 10 or 15 steps, you can start adding pauses (sit or stand) or direction changes. Make sure to increase your difficulty slowly so it isn't too frustrating. This is a hard game for your dog!
Once you've got all those pieces, you can start doing this in bigger spaces and sending your dog from incrementally further away! Start on flat ground with items that stand out so your dog can visually find them easily, and then add in difficulty by using terrain or smaller items.
(This is where you could tie in to gundog send-outs - use a bumper or bird, drop it surreptitiously while heeling in a straight line, and then send your dog in a straight line. Slowly reduce the visibility of your item but keep the straight line so your dog trusts your directions.)
I used to play this game with Mav and I would sneaky-drop my keys and send him back to find them while we were walking in the park. I'm using it to work on Rory's heeling, but I love how it fosters such good skills for real life (like say the ones you would need to walk away from a porcupine). As a bonus, it's legit exhausting once you get to bigger distances because you combine the brain work with running very very fast to get the item!
