Heelwork

Those that do obedience heelwork- do you maintain the dogs eye contact in position and on the move? or do you just have the dog watching you with no actual eye contact?

Some people in OB teach the dog to watch the left hand, others prefer the dog to make eye contact with them.

Eye/Head position is taught by moving off only when the dog maintains it when static and then I begin with only one step to teach the dog to keep that position when I move, gradually increasing the number of steps until I have "heelwork" on the move. I do not worry about when anything is behind the back of the head. If I have the head, the rest will follow.

I teach the dog to watch me, but I don't maintain eye contact all the time during movement as I need to look where I am going. I glance at the dog frequently to maintain the link between us.

up to A you can move your head, so maintaining eye contact is no problem, A& above you cant keep moving your head, so i kinda have it bent so i can see the dog looking at me out of the corner of my eye, but i can still see where im going if i flick my eyes.

Ideally id like them focased on my hand (which is static), but still looking "eyeballs" up at me

I dont like it if the handler makes no conction with the dog & just looks straight ahead. dont think it looks like every good teamwork

when im training a new dog i have ALOT of eyecontact!100% eyecontact from me so i can encourage excellent attention , no flicky eyes, from dog