Choosing to Heel

There has been discussion on one of the forums that I belong to about how hard it can be to teach a dog to heel. I enjoy teaching dogs to heel and usually both the dog and I end up having a great time. I like to teach heeling without a leash.
*note- my dogs have a full understanding of what a click means before I start this

I start in a smaller enclosed space- a backyard, or at the training centre. I have treats in my left hand and my clicker in my right. I start walking. The puppy will probably sniff around a little and not pay me much attention. I walk faster or start to run. The puppy thinks this is great fun and will run to catch up- C/T!

Now the pup is going to stay pretty close to me- C/T when pup moves closer to "heel position" or looks up at me. If pup wanders away or looses interest I will change direction and reward more frequently the next set.

Once the pup understands the game you will find him paying closer attention and staying with you- now is the time to make the pup work harder for the click. Depending on the age of the puppy (mentally and literally) will decide how many steps you will ask your pup to "heel" for. If my puppy is just three months old I am going to start with three steps-

1. Leash is off


2. Treats in left hand


3. I start walking


4. Puppy runs eagerly to catch up


5. I count my steps when puppy is actually walking with me

C/T JACKPOT at 3! (once pup is consistenly attentive for three- go to four, then five etc. etc. )

It is important to remember to reward where you want the dog to be- quite often people reward their dogs in front of them- so are surprised when the dog always swings in front to get the cookie for heeling....Ideal heel position is the dog shoulder to knee with you- reward there.
I also like for my dog to "look up" at me while they are heeling- so I will go one stop further and change my criteria to include - you must be looking at me while we heel. I do this because when I do competitive obedience I like the look of this aswell as I know that my dog is paying attention to me. I don't add a verbal cue until the dog understands the behaviour- so my "heel" command doesn't come until the dog can offer me heeling for five steps or so. Once I have the moving part of the heel down I teach automatic sits (which is a whole other post) aswell as a "start" or "ready" (again, a whole other post)

I love this method of teaching heeling because

A) my dogs learn to "think about it"

b) i am not forcing them- so heeling never becomes boring and well, forced

c) it is fun- again the dogs learn that heeling is fun

I guess I should also mention that my dogs don't "heel" on a walk. Heeling for me and my dogs is in the rally or obedience ring- when we are on a walk we will sometimes practice the game of "heeling" but mostly all that I require my dogs to do is walk nice and not pull on the leash. I teach this by rewarding the dog for not pulling and stopping when the do pull. They learn that they don't get anywhere by pulling.

There are also some GREAT tools out there to make your walking experience more enjoyable. My all time favorite new tool is the Easy Walk Harness it works amazing and is very easy for the dog and the person to figure out! The neat thing about this is that there is little to no adjustment period for the dog- unlike the Halti which takes quite a while for the dog to be comfortable with.