Standing for the ball

Of all the obedience skills, we make little use of prey motivation for rewarding the stand. This is because the stand is inherently less stable than either the sit or the down. All the dog needs to do to break the stand is to take a tiny step with one foot. Once it takes this step it is then natural for it to take another. In short, the stand easily turns into a walk!

Therefore, we try to keep the animal’s response to this command very calm and quiet. We do not incorporate prey arousal into the stand because any excitement or strong attraction toward the handler will pull at the dog irresistibly, making it take that first tiny step.

Therefore, we reward the dog for stands only with food, praise and petting, not the ball.

Forcing the stand

Polishing the dog’s stand with force is a ticklish proposition. Because of the animal’s previous schooling on the sit and down, it will tend to quickly do one or the other any time we “get after it” and the dog becomes confused. We must find a way to use force in such a way that it teaches the dog to freeze, to lock its feet into their tracks when it hears the “Back!” command.

We concentrate particularly on stopping forward motion–getting the animal to halt and stand instantly. For this purpose a slap of the handler’s foot broadside against the animal’s forechest works quite well. Leash corrections, on the other hand, usually do not work because the dog strongly associates them with the sit and the down.

^{During training for the stand exercise, the handler can use a flank strap in order to prevent the dog from sitting or lying down in response to a correction.}

The handler runs the dog onto the field, plays with it a little and executes a sit or down or two. Then, with the ball in hand, he turns slowly in place or walks backward so that the dog, whose attention is riveted upon the ball, follows him. Abruptly the handler commands “Back!” and taps the animal gently on the chest with his foot in order to stop its forward progress. Any movement of the paws, fidgeting or creeping forward will be corrected with this same soft but smart rap of the foot.

If reflexive downing or sitting in response to the correction is a persistent problem, the handler can try using a flank strap , a cord tied snugly around the animal’s loin. The handler can prevent the animal from dropping its hindquarters when it is corrected by applying a gentle tug on the flank strap.

GOAL 6: The dog will finish quickly and precisely.

There are two possible types of finish. In the traditional Schutzhund finish the dog goes around its handler to the heel position. In recent years more and more Schutzhund dogs have been taught the military finish, in which the dog flips to its handler’s left side directly from the come‑fore position.

The military finish is much more difficult to teach because the dog must learn exactly where heel is and then it must also learn the totally unnatural crabbing movement required to get it there. In the traditional finish the dog, by virtue of the fact that it goes around, winds up at heel basically parallel to its handler. All that is needed is to stop its forward progress and get it to sit. In contrast, a dog that does a military finish must turn its body 180 degrees and then line itself up as exactly as possible with its handler.

Despite the added difficulty, we invariably teach our dogs the military finish because it teaches the animals such a complete understanding of where the heel position is.

Important Concepts for Meeting the Goal

1. Finishing for food

2. Finishing for the ball

3. Pairing compulsion with the ball

Finishing for food

The handler begins by sitting his dog and then stepping around in front of it so that the dog is in the come‑fore position. He interests the animal in the food enclosed in his right hand, and then abruptly steps backward with the command “Heel!” In the same motion he turns at the waist and draws his hand, and the dog with it, off to his left and as far back behind him as possible. Then he steps forward again to his original spot, looping his hand in toward his hip so that the dog turns toward him and steps forward to the heel position.

The instant the dog is precisely at heel, exactly parallel with the handler and even with his knee, the handler stops the dog and sits it by lifting his hand abruptly straight up, so that the dog’s eyes and head lift and its hindquarters drop; the handler simultaneously commands it to “Sit!”