Teaching A Little Dog To Heel

[whitka]

So im having a little trouble getting my little guy to heel with me. He sits in the heel position and when he's sitting in heel position he is watching me but then I lose him when I start walking. I've been trying to teach him to heel by luring him with food but im finding that hard with having to bend so low. Any tips that can help us? How did those with little dogs do it?

Edited December 3, 2013 by whitka

[Misteri]

You could try a target stick and train him to touch the object with his nose (I used a wooden spoon like utensil). When you say walking, how many steps are we talking about? If he is not staying in position and you're only going 1-3 steps, I'd be doing more stationary work.

[Podengo]

Check out Denise Fenzi's facebook, she is an awesome obedience trainer and has juts adopted a small dog and is documenting all of their training together :)

[whitka]

You could try a target stick and train him to touch the object with his nose (I used a wooden spoon like utensil). When you say walking, how many steps are we talking about? If he is not staying in position and you're only going 1-3 steps, I'd be doing more stationary work.

He's fine at the start of the heeling because im luring him with food but when I stand up straight I lose him.

[pie]

I'd probably be inclined to take a different approach and try and shape it with a clicker rather than luring if you can.

I'd be marking the stationary position (Have the dog in a sit and step in next to the dog in heel position and click - they learn that's the best position to be in) then shape it to move it so the dog lines up with you instead of you with it, then move forward a step at a time, that's how I did it with Trixie, but we've never trialed obedience, she does decent basic heelwork at home and is very good at lining up in position (exceot for the jumping up on me midway around haha). I hope that all makes sense.

I have also heard of using a wooden spoon with peanut butter on it to reward the dog in position.

Maybe RubyStar will pop in she has trained a Mini Schnauzer to do lovely heelwork, also Sue & Waldo has a MS as well.

[Cleo's Corgwyn]

I train Cardigan Corgis, which while not little, are definitely short! I got a lot of Denise's training (as recommended by Disco Dobe. I did a workshop with her when she was in Australia this year, and I've also done some of her online courses, which are great.

If you're luring, just start slowly, as Pie said, and reward heavily for stationary position (sitting in heel) and then just for a single step at a time. I also use play a lot for heeling with my pup; ie I give him little shoulder pushes, take off in funny directions and reward heavily when he finds heel position again. I'm really happy with the way his heeling is coming along, as he is really happy and focused when we do it, as he thinks it is all a big game. I retrained my older girl using toys and food games, and she went from being a lagger to quite an enthusiastic heeler, although she'll never be as precise as my pup is.

If you're finding it hard to bend, things like licky sticks (like a gravy in a roll on tube) or soft food on the end of a wooden spoon can be quite handy. I also teach food chasing games ( ie do the right thing, and I'll throw the food for you to chase, which actually increases the reward value for most dogs). Spotted Devil has written up a good explanation of this in the training thread, or you can google 'Two Food game'.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Cleo's Corgwyn

[Guest Clover]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsvNvK8T1z8

You can also try perch/ box work. My little fella's heeling has come a long way since starting this.

[RiverStar-Aura]

Whilst it killed my back, I just persevered with bending down for Kirah. I somehow managed a good heel on the right hand side but she won't heel on the left. :/

[whitka]

Thanks guys, all really great sounding tips :)

[RubyStar]

Much of what everyone else has said :) Except I've personally never used a target to teach heeling, I am useless with too many things in my hand and I would rather the dog see the end picture from the start and not have to worry about fading the prop.

You have to do a bit of bending at the start for rapid rewarding (unless your dog is awesome at catching falling food and staying in position!), but you can/should move quickly from that and again, I try to give the end picture as soon as possible. I don't do bending for signals even though the dog is little, I am still upright to deliver my down and stand signals. I started this by kneeling next to the dog in heel position and keeping my upper body upright and got the dog used to the signals that way.

After doing some work on stationary position and making it a good place to be, at the beginning of moving I was rewarding every step or two. Keeps the dog in position (make sure reward is delivered in position!!) and keeps their attention on you. Gradually build this up in duration and what I also did is if the dog looked away or stopped or just got out of position, I ran away. Dog notices, runs after you, reward and praise when dog finds its way back into position. But if this is happening too much, then you have moved too quickly and need to go back to rewarding in position more frequently before you lose them. After a small amount of success of rewarding in position as you heel (you don't want to do too much at once and bore the dog), you should break it off before you lose them and have a game! Two food game, tug, personal play/hand touches, etc etc! Heelwork can be fun :D

Edited December 4, 2013 by RubyStar