Training Obediance Heal

[B-Q]

okay, so you see in obediance comps. the heel, the dog is right in close to owner, almost leaning on them, staring up. the owner has they're hand above the dogs head at their hip.

how do you train that?

[Tapferhund]

Well, for me, heeling is the easiest thing to teach and there are many methods to get the same result, but my method is to have short successful lessons in heeling daily . I don't believe in teaching heel on a loose lead, as this creates too many oportunities for the dog to be out of place, so I have the slip chain up high on the neck of the dog with me holding a very short slightly loose lead low and across my body. This keeps the dog in correct position from the very beginning, so he/she learns nothing else but "where" I want him/her to be. I use food as a reward and reward on a continual schedule of reinforcement for closeness of work and focusing on me.

When my dogs understand what to do I then reward intermittently ....but always on lead. When I know that my dogs know and understand EXACT position, then I will remove the lead and because they know 'position', I never have trouble with lagging or forging.

Hope this helps!

[B-Q]

awesome, buster heals well (not trial well but right beside me) off leash but on leash he wants to always be 3 metres in front.

i'll start working harder on it tomorow

[Petal]

I was at an obedience trial the other week... saw the best heeled Sheltie ever, asked your question???

Short Answer:- Cabanossi or Kabana - a short piece in your hand... doggy cant take their eyes off you.

Easy to peel off a little bit as a reward and the smell.... Ohhhh doggy heaven and the big bit at the end of the lesson

[leopuppy04]

This is the method that worked for me BL:

(copied from another thread):

I have one method that has worked wonders for me. I initially start with not even moving a step off at all. If your dog knows to 'sit' at heel - I would start with my left foot forward a little (helps them stand without having them confused smile.gif. ). I would then get my dog in the ideal position - ie: right next to my leg, looking at me and focussing. I'd C&T and throw the food to my left. The dog then comes back in to the same position. I'll repeat this until they automatically come into the said position without being guided. Once they have this on board, i'll take 1 step forward before throwing the food away - wait for them to come back then go 2 steps C&T.... 4 steps, 10 steps etc. If they ever loose focus at any point - they get a 'whoopsie' (just a verbal no reward marker) and we go back to say.... 5 steps. I do this until I get up to around 100 steps in a straight line with perfect attention. So yes, I build up duration longer.... The turns i'll teach as a seperate exercise before putting the two together (as well as positions).... say for example, if my dog lost focus at around 50 steps, i'd only go back to 30 - not to the start!!!

Does that make sense?

I do the same for stationary positions - but more of 'successive approximation' - ie: to get the idea that sit means sit - I don't care where they are... but once they are well aware of what 'sit' is and are offering it to me, i'll only reward the better sits, and lure them if required into position.

It has worked really well for me so far smile.gif

[Mystiqview]

Initially I use food and no lead in a narrow hallway or along a fence somewhere the dog cannot go too far offside. almost at every step I will food/toy reward (depending on motivation of dog). Once they have that, I gradually move to other areas and add more distraction. Once they are comfortable with that, I taper off food and reward periodically or randomly. I will put lead on at around this stage or where I start to add more distractions. By this time, the dog is not wanting to pull or lag in most cases.

[leopuppy04]

BL - here is a rather pathetic vid I did of Kinta and myself last night - it is at the 'starting stages' although unfortunately trying to video it yourself AND train is hard - so please excuse the times I go out of frame (and the chatter ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edW3fPb2O_0

ETA - the times I am feeding her with my hand I would usually throw the food - but we didn't have enough room last night .... so hand feeding it was

Edited June 14, 2007 by leopuppy04