Moses (Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever)
Equipment - food treats and or/clicker
Method
Have your dog in a stand position, off lead.
Have a piece of food in your hand, show the dog that you have it there.
Put your hand near the dogs nose, so that it follows the treat (this is known as luring), start to move your hand slowly in a semi circle position so that his head follows your hand (his body should then also follow).
You move the food slowly towards the dogs hips. As soon as he starts to move give him his reward or click and treat if you are using a clicker.
Try this again several times. Start off rewarding small movements, then hold off the reward and try to get bigger movements. This can take a few sessions for big dogs. I have found it easier for little dogs and young dogs to learn. Lot of praise and rewards when he gets it right.
Once he has it, you can phase out the food by only rewarding once he has done the full circle, then every second circle or randomly.
Some dogs will turn one way better than the other way, for reasons only known to them.
Once you having been getting the full circle for a while, give the movement a name, I use SPIN, or you could use TURN or CIRCLE.
Problems
I found that I had trouble getting my dog to turn and it helped if I had him standing near a corner, and used the corner to help lure him around.
ADVANCED
You can then try to get him to do circles at your side and behind you. Circles while you heel.
I have found that I use my left hand to do an anticlockwise circle (left circle) and my right hand to do a clockwise circle (right circle). With the dog at my side. Some people give the left circle and right circle different names.
