Pivots

In class on Monday evening, we were working on pivots.  Pivoting is a skill that I began to introduce to Bandit very early on, but we have taken it very slow.  Throughout most of Bandit's puppyhood, it seemed to me that he had a tough time getting a sense of where all his legs were, and where his body should be in space, when working on pivots.  Now he really seems ready.  Whether we are working on a pivot platform, or with a chair, I now see him using his rear end correctly when we work on the skill.

I have decided to spend some time focusing on the chair method of training pivots with him.  This is the way I trained Dean (before pivot platforms became fashionable), and Dean is the most skilled at pivots of any dog I have ever known.  I think that Bandit can learn to pivot with equal aptitude.

So, in class on Monday we worked on this, and I saw really nice results.  We also did work on the pivot platform a bit and I saw nice results there, as well.

On Tuesday evening we spent some more time on the chair method.



I am very happy with his progress on this.  I think that if we focus on this on a regular basis for a while, he will really get the hang of it.

One thing that I think I need to do is to decide exactly what I want his position to be when he pivots, and then be consistent with helping him be in that position as I am asking him to pivot.

Overall, however, I really like what I see on this.