Pivots

I've been working with Red on pivots for the last two days. Not because I have a sudden, burning desire for good pivoting, but because its so freaking cold outside, and the very limited amount of space in my house doesn't allow for practicing much else...

The right pivots have been so-so. He understands to move with me, but the sits are not very straight and he tends to drift out in front of me a bit. Still needs a lot of work...

The left pivots are something that he never quite understood until last night. Before then, I wasn't using any verbal commands - just the motion of me doing the 90' turn and expecting him to adjust accordingly. But he'd just sit there and look at me, not understanding that he was supposed to move his rear with me and stay in heel position. Then I started using the dowel to try to guide his rear around with me. Didn't work - thought I was going to snap the dowel in half trying to pull his rear toward me. So then I used my word for left turn (which is "turn"), and lo and behold... he pivoted left! Jackpot! It was great =)

I had stopped using the word "turn" for left turns during heeling and just using my shoulders as a cue, which he has transitioned to beautifully for heeling, but apparently the resurrection of the word helped him understand what he was supposed to be doing for the pivot. These little mini-successes are so fun =)