Heel Position

[JulesP]

I like doing heeling work. Both of my dogs will offer heeling while I am walking around the garden, with automatic sits chucked in! I can't train Brock in the garden with Fern as she heels too and pushes him out of the way! So I am guessing that they don't mind it either.

How do I train it? Nothing radical. Fairly short patterns with lots of changes of direction and pace. Lots of treats now too. Fern was trained using less treats.

[dogdude]

Oscar dos'nt offer it "off bat", but he still loves to satisfy his drive (food). He will do most things asked of him with vigour, (with tail wagging off its hinges) to satisfy the drive, other than sit and drop in puddles. That seems to extinguish the drive no matter how worked up he is.

Its a problem that we are trying to sought out.

[Arya]

to add a tangent to this thread - just curious.....

who here enjoys heeling?

Who here has a dog that enjoys heeling???

if yes to both - how did you train it?

Well LP, my dog LOVES heeling and so do I - not that you would have had a clue at all about that when you saw us in the ring on Sunday LOL. What you saw outside the ring is a tiny little bit of what we get all the rest of the time when we are having fun. But seriously, we do enjoy it when we are at the park, oval, anywhere else. Tess will offer up heeling and when she is in drive she sort of lifts herself up beside me and floats along, and it is such a rewarding thing to do with her. Wonderful. And for her, the reward is the ball or tug toy at the end of a short pattern. I used to just train heel with food. Then we discovered the ball and tug and heel suddenly stepped into a whole different realm with her - a really good lesson in letting the dog choose their reward. So now, with a dog with high drive I'd always train heel with a tug, ball, whatever, if that's what they'd work best for. Teach focus and then short patterns, gradually getting longer.

[Sayreovi]

to add a tangent to this thread - just curious.....

who here enjoys heeling?

Who here has a dog that enjoys heeling???

if yes to both - how did you train it?

Well its not my favourite obedience exercise but its fun enough

Darcy enjoys heeling and does it very well when focused. Too start with i trained it with clicker and food, but now i have changed to 'training in drive' type of training, where i use his drive toy for a reward and motivator. Drive work seems to be very exhausting so cant do alot in one hit.

Nova does it well if ive got food with me otherwise i get a wide lagging 'heel'. I am working on him and his heeling. Its the only thing stopping me competing at the moment.

[whatevah]

Here is Moses heeling in a club comp. I like his heeling especially through the witches hat. I like him to be watching me and wagging his tail and keeping in line with me. I like him to be happy.

[Doghouse]

That video makes me yearn for an obedience class in my suburb and for Lola or problem child to go... it also makes me yearn for time to do it....