Lightbulb Moment

Realized today that I'm going to have to change one of my cues.  I'd been using "around" for one of my cues - moving around me clockwise to arrive in heel position ("behind" is counter-clockwise to arrive in side position).  Tonight when we were practicing heeling and fronts and finishes, a couple of times Gimme went into a down, instead of moving around me.  It occurs to me that simply spoken (i.e. without an artificial voice inflection) "around" and "down" sound a lot alike.  Years ago when I did more obedience I used to call it "finish", but I started using "around" and "behind" in agility.  I think I did that because I mentally paired "finish" with "swing", both of which end up in heel position.  So I'm going to do a session or two to change the "around" cue to "finish" and see if I don't get more consistent results.

I had to laugh tonight.  I was training Gimme and she literally DEMANDED to do heeling.  When she had enough of what I was doing, she just got into heel and I couldn't peel the little minx off of me.  It seems I did something right to turn heeling into a preferred activity...  Yeehaw...

And yes, she was in control.  Laugh all you want...