*** W I N ***

[dog geek]

Yay! I am soooooo loving my little guy right now!

I took the Poms for an off-leash walk today. We had a lovely half hour's exploration with treats offered every time he came back to me, whether it was in response to my recall or just him "checking in" and saying hi.

So I noticed he was falling into a "heel" position about half the time... and next time he did it, and looked up at me, I 'marked' it -with Good Boy- and treated him. That was OK by him... and the next four or five times he turned up at my side and looked at me, he got the mark and the treat.

It then progressed to his deliberately turning up and looking up in expectation of a reward. Which he got. And from then, every time he turned back up after bouncing off to sniff around - I said Good Heel! And treated him.

I had time for about seven more repetitions of this last step, before we got back to the car. When they saw the car, Comet took off for it. I spoke my "Atten-HUT!" cue (actually, I use "wassis?") in a firm (car was near road, so I rather urgently wanted him to stop) voice, and he stopped instantly and watched me. I got down and did the recall, where his response was great - he bolted back to me. As he got close I told him to heel - and he did!!!

So - I got a great walk today. It was gorgeous weather, the little dogs were relaxed and happy and had a great time. AND Comet taught himself to heel.

[Jigsaw]

Well done!!

[Tassie]

Gotta luv days like that. :D

[Missymoo]

what a great little man!!

[dog geek]

Aaaaww... thankyou, guys! I was pretty impressed, he has been a little ... um... unfocused (*hyper*) when trying to get him to do training sessions at home - obviously I need to rethink... and rearrange how I look at training him!

Here he is:

[Ons]

well done

and what an absolute cutie!

[dog geek]

I read about that technique on DOL, of course :D but we do not often walk offleash because of my anxiety that they will be attacked.

We went again today - and after a little reminder I had him heeling again!

I took the opportuntiy to encourage him to stay in the heel position as we walked, it worked for several metres (mmmm.... morsels of porterhouse) but he is a very busy boy, there is a lot that needs his wee attention.

Thanks, he is a little cutiepie!