Leash Training Your Puppy: Training My Puppy To Walk To Heel 18/02/10
In this part of our leash training series we discover how to get your puppy walking to heel.
- Leash Training My Puppy: Introduction To The Leash
- Leash Training Your Puppy: Stopping My Puppy Pulling
- Leash Training Your Puppy: Training My Puppy To Walk To Heel
- Leash Training Your Puppy: Helping My Puppy Overcome Fears On The Leash
- Leash Training Your Puppy: What Kind of Collar Should I Buy?
- Leash Training Your Puppy: Training My Puppy On A Headcollar
We are now ready to get our dogs not only being good on the leash but actually walking beautifully at our sides on cue. Here we will show you how to lure you puppy or dog to your left hand side and keep them in that position. How lovely to be able to go for a relaxing walk as opposed to a chore of being dragged about. All I can say is thank goodness for positive reinforcement and I can safely say you will be uttering this same phrase when you have finished teaching this little gem.
A Calm Approach
Drain some of your dog’s energy with a game followed by a calming relaxation session to ensure he is attentive and ready for the training session. Start teaching the cue in your home. By beginning the learning process in a familiar environment with minimal distractions you are far more likely to succeed. Once your dog is responding reliably to the ‘heel’ cue you can start practising outdoors. When you change location your dog is not as likely to respond as well as they did when you were at home. It will take a little more training, using the same method to get the response when there are brilliant smells and sights around to distract your dog.
Teaching the Behaviour
You don’t need to attach the lead yet as you are indoors, this is the best option at first, as it stops you from pulling on the lead accidentally, which can inadvertently teach the puppy to pull. To get started firmly grip the treat in your fingers with enough poking out to allow your puppy to smell and lick at. Now you have your puppy sniffing at the treat (you want an almost magnetic effect), use the treat in a semi circular motion to guide your puppy around to your left hand side. If your hand is any higher than the dogs height he/she will jump up to obtain the treat, do not reprimand your dog, just lower your hand so your puppy is comfortable with all four paws on the ground. Should your puppy paw at your hand simply ignore this action, as long as you do not release the reward as he does this the behaviour will fade out quickly.
You want your puppies shoulder to be in perfect alignment with your leg. This is your benchmark position. If your puppy moves further forward you should repeat luring him or her around in a semi circular motion again to your left hand side.
By keeping your hand just in front of your leg you can maintain a good position. If your puppy is creeping forward keep your arm movement in check. Many people fail to notice their hand being pushed forward by their puppy and end up stretching out, which isn’t good for anyone.
Encourage your puppy to walk with you on the leash by taking confident paces. Remember we are still in the house so the limited space will actually benefit you right now. By walking in fairly small circles anticlockwise you are able to block your puppy from speeding off ahead of you or veering to the left.
As you walk tell your puppy ‘good’ every time he or she is in the correct position with a loose leash, followed quickly by the reward in your hand. When filling your hand with treats ask your puppy for a sit so he or she has something to do.
The heel command
Once you have established a nice response, whereby when you put the leash on and move your hand to the left in the same way you have been luring and your puppy responds you can start adding in the ‘heel’ command. So remember the routine is ‘heel’, ‘good’, treat.
As you walk slowly begin to prolong the time between giving treats. If your dog begins to lose interest you have moved on too quickly so shorten the intervals. Eventually, when your dog is responding reliably and for prolonged periods you can just treat randomly for a good heel position. Think of it as a slot machine – your dog keeps walking to heel as they know that every now and then you will pay out!
To the victor the spoils! You can now enjoy a hassle free stroll and impress your friends at the local dog park at the same time.
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One Responses to this article
Hi I have an issue with my mastiff x labrador. We adopted him from an animal shelter two months ago..even though he has adjusted quite well there are some ongoing issues we are finding getting worse..he is now 12months old (was 10mths when we adopted him) so understand he is going through an adolescent stage where he tries to test me when i walk him…the main issue is when he goes to the dog park he crouchs like a lion hunting creeps up and stares at the other dogs at the park slowly making his way up to them.crouch run crouch run sort of routine until he finally makes his way to the dogs..then when he reaches the dogs he does a normal greet then when initiating the invite to play bow and then run he starts to get overexcited and nips at the other dogs legs after a while (which they get very annoyed about as you can imagine) and then tries to hold their neck (no twisting just a hold and release whether it is while they are standing up or laying on the floor) lately the other dogs he knows now for a month have been getting annoyed and start growling and biting him and he is obviously biting back in defense as they are grabbing him quite tightly. my problem is these dogs play so nicely together until my dog comes and seems to ruin the fun with his attitude towards play and the nipping etc…a couple of ppl have said you are going to have a problem if you do not control your dog but i do not know what to do as he only sometimes listens at the park as he is so distracted by everything going on and the tunnel vision he has for meeting and greeting every dog that comes..he forgets i am there and occasionally comes up to greet me and looks very happy..i do not want him missing on social activities..how do i stop the crouching type hunting behaviour upon arrival and sometimes during play when the other dog is inititating chase, the nipping of the legs and the what appears to be dominiant behaviour with the neck hold and release he does? Do you think i will have a problem with him if i do not stop him by physically grabbing him off?..he is very excited coming to the park and loses all senses becuase of this..he should still be listening to me but everyone says he is still a puppy ..i do not want to encourage bad behaviour..please help!