Flashy "flip" finish

Hhmm- how about holding a long piece of meat or cheese in your left hand (sticking out between your fingers), and give the signal for the left finish? 

I taught Caleb a left finish by simply luring him from front, towards my left side, behind me to turn around, then into heel position (taking a step back with my left foot while doing all that).  It's not real flashy, but it looks good. 

 Maze has a flip finish but I never shaped it. I just trained the normal finish then as Maze got better at, she flipped her butt around and I praised her to high heck! LOL! So now she flips into a left hand finish and slides into my knee... Gotta work on it.

Jigga wha?  I want him finishing to my left, not the right finish (which in rally is the dog moves to the handler's right around the back, which is how Nikon and Kenya finish in competition).  I really don't care what he does as long as it's fast and correct (I suppose that goes without saying).  Ideally he will rotate his rear around and back.  If he does the little hop with it, I don't care as long as it's correct.  Right now it's more like he steps forward toward me, turns, and then sits, but with a flick of my wrist and help from me taking a quick step forward he's actually really fast.  Even though he's not quite flipping his butt around he's already faster than both my other (titled) dogs.

I'm sure Pan is going to be lightening fast when he grows up!

I think the pivot flip finish looks nicer (where the head stays in the same place and the dog flips and backs into heel) but there is a lot of places for the dog to mess up in and if you have a jumping dog, you might end up with something like Javir Talka Marda's finish where he more or less headbutts the handler everytime. The tear drop - where the dog U-turns behind your leftside - is a "safer" finish IMO. But Ike has a pivot flip finish because I am a sucker for flash haha (with some jumping ... it used to be as bad as Javir's but we had put a stop to that lol) and when I taught it to him, I didn't use the forward step, instead, by luring, I made him take a backward step into position. It requires the pup to have a bit of rear end awareness to be able to follow the lure but Pan should be able to ace it since he has been doing perch work from day one.

This is what the luring looked like with a backward step.

Emma had the fly to hip height and turn in the air finish, LOL. I didn't teach it. She was a ham, and thought it was FUN to leap at me during obedience. She had been encouraged to bounce at my hand, though....

Anyhow, Bean has a pivot left finish. I did not teach it. I did do a good foundation of perch/brick work, and played a lot of "where's heel?" with her. I use a clicker, for this game, and started luring her in. "Heel", C/T, step backward, "heel, C/T, step right, "heel", C/T. This was the basis for her heads up heel, and she comes FAST into heel, on the left. Her right finish is very boring, in comparison. Eventually, I step behind her, and call her into heel, and diagonally, and try to make it a little tough, by standing close to a wall or object, so she has to work to get into position.

Jason L

This is what the luring looked like with a backward step.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqt6UkPAY2E

Perfect, thanks!  You lure it differently, so I will try that way.

 PS.  Jason I'm writing some articles for my club and web site about different styles of training for puppies, do you mind if I reference and link some of your videos?  Not only is your training amazing but your vids are always great quality.

 Thanks!

 I tried to mimic your luring last night.  It works pretty well, but he needs more work moving backwards (he will sit and then flop back onto his back before he actually walks backwards!).  So, it looks like backwards heeling is next...

 Hi

I use all three finishes, the flip to the left, the jump flip and the right about. It depends and stops Luci from anticipating. I am not a great luring person, and just teach the elements till they get older. Having said that, i do teach the heel position classically, and really until later can not give a dam where they are too much as long as they are animated and watching me. I also teach a touch, and a jump to touch.

I teach the jump flip by teaching a jump to touch and slowly fading to my side. It looks dramatic. Many judges say Luci's is one of the best so may be it is. Her left flip is quick too.I do not teach this until i would be happy jumping my dog. Somewhere there is a video of it.