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Joy of Heeling – Construct Games

Saturday, Oct. 7

1:40PM - 3:40PM

Experience Level: Novice & Above

What is your ideal picture of beautiful heelwork? It likely includes words like precision and accuracy. Does it go beyond that to include enthusiasm, energy, lift, spark and joy? These are the attributes that make heelwork beautiful to behold, exciting to train and yes! Fun for both dog and handler!

By building animation, energy and enthusiasm as a separate piece from precision we can increase the rate of reward for each, creating value and joy in our heelwork training and performance. This session will focus on games and exercises that bring joy to your heelwork training and performance. Teams should have an understanding of heel position.

Presenter Bio

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Julie Flanery

Julie Flanery (she/her), CPDT-KA has been working professionally with dogs and their handlers since 1993. She focuses on the needs of the dog and helping handlers form strong relationships, through clear communication, and positive reinforcement.

She has placed Obedience, Freestyle, Rally, Rally-FrEe, Agility, Trick Dog and Parkour titles on her dogs and has earned a Championship in Heelwork-to-Music and a Grand Championship in Freestyle and Elite Grand Championship MCL in Rally-FrEe. She has achieved both High Technical Merit and High Artistic Merit in both Freestyle and Heelwork to Music several times over, including three prestigious Attila Challenge awards, as well as several “Top H.A.T.” awards for High Scoring Heelwork, Attention and Teamwork. In 2001 she was named “Trainer of the Year” by the World Canine Freestyle Organization and has been a competition freestyle judge since 2003.

In 2012, Julie developed the sport of Rally-FrEe to help freestylers increase the quality and precision of their performances. It has since become a stand-alone sport enjoyed by dog sport enthusiasts all over the world.