Sloan may have tons of titles to tote around but one thing Denis was never thrilled with was her heel. She was one of our learning dogs for competition training and because there was so much to learn we cut corners and taught her a “functional” heel.

Although Sloan is 8 now and retired her brain and body aren’t ready for a break yet. So I’ve been dabbling a bit with rebuilding her heel, for fun and practice.

Here I’m working on a few of my mandatory foundation skills - body awareness and handler focus.

Not all dogs will move through the foundations this quickly, she has a long history of shaping and some basic ideas of what I’m looking for, it’s a fun(and long) video though and I’m happy to explain more if anyone is interested!