I've been working hard on loose lead/heel training and Libby is definitely 'getting it' but when she goes too far ahead and I say "heel" she turns, walks past me on the right and around my back to get into position on the left...I'm sure she thinks I want the whole routine! How does your dog get back to position?
This is why I regret training "round the back" with Shadow. When I have a lead, it's really annoying! Willow never picked it up, so I put it on hold and never finished it. She comes back on the same side. I've worked on this with Shadow, so he now usually flips, but every now and then he'll go around still. If I only back up a few paces, though, Shadow runs backwards
haha! Bramble gets into heel on my left.. ready for a "walk" cue..etc...BUT..she makes a BIG thing of it...huge loop round, looks a bit messy! I think she would be far neater going round my back then into heel position
Because I made a massive game when training it, sometimes my two get a bit over-enthusiastic and do a flyball turn off my tummy....
Oban just fades back to heel on the left. BUT, he does that around me thing when he is allowed to sniff. He goes ahead, sniffs, ends up on my right side, gets behind and circles behind me back to heel. Why are the good sniffs always on my right side when he is on the leash? I'm either twirling to keep the leash on my left side or passing it over my head.
Coco isn't that well trained at this. I try "heel" but it doesn't have the desired effect. I think I've poisoned "heel", or probably more like OH has poisoned it - he just moves on willy nilly with the dog at full stretch saying "heel". Without realising, I've trained "back" to mean step back (only when ahead on as lead) and he steps backwards.
I don't cue my dogs to come back into position on a long lead. If they are on a loose lead, I never cue 'heel' (I use 'close') I just expect a default loose lead so if they pull I stop and I'm silent until the lead is loose. If they are heeling, then they are on a short lead and can't get far enough ahead to be swinging round the back of me etc. I will cue close to start walking and I don't cue it again.
It's a good question DebzC, we've been having similar issues! So JulieT how do yours come back into position if they pulled during loose leading? Do they turn around, walk back on your left then turn again back in position? And when they are walking to heel on lead, their lead is shorter, so in that case if they make a mistake and tighten the lead, do they just slow down so you catch up? Or walk backwards? I'm having problems with indie's lead walking sometimes as I am not clear what I want from her. I began teaching loose lead walking by stopping/turning whenever she put pressure on the lead, but now she walks slightly ahead of me at a slight angle towards me with the lead almost tight but not quite, which is really annoying and makes it hard for me to know whether to stop or carry on, and I'm being inconsistent. And when I stop, I'm not sure what I want her to do to get back into position - I haven't really taught her any method yet, so what do you think would be the best method to introduce?
Well, it depends what you mean by 'loose lead'. I don't mean what other people seem to mean which is a very loose heel (e.g. at my side, head up). On a loose lead my lead is 2m long, and my dogs can do what they want apart from pull or zig zag quickly to change sides. So if they pull, I stop, and they have to take the tension off the lead and look at me to get me to start walking again. So I cue 'loose lead' when I start walking to let them know that's what I expect, and off we go. I don't cue 'loose lead' again. If they pull, I stop, they look at me, I walk. My lead is short so the dog hardly moves out of position and there is tension on the lead. So the dog only has to move back a bit to take the tension off the lead. But really because I don't ask for a massively precise heel, all the dog has to do is stop pulling forward rather than make a big adjustment to its position. I train heel with treats though (I don't train loose lead with treats) and I only train where the dog is going to be successful. If the dog was making loads of errors, I'd cue loose lead and give up training heel. It doesn't matter really what method you use, and different methods work for different dogs. My younger girl was completely different from my older dog, and I didn't train them the same way. You have to sit down and work out exactly what you want the end result to be, and exactly what you want your dog to do, then choose a way of training that and stick to it. The first thing is how do you want her to walk? What is 'loose lead'? Is it really a loose lead, or is it an approximation of heel?
Homer idea of heal is to walk around me in a circle. Walk three steps, lead gets to full length then round the back to heal, three steps and round the back, repeat, repeat, repeat. We can do better. I never put in as much effort into heal (loose lead) training as I should have. He only has to go half a block on lead to off lead on the tow path. We were getting better going for walks along the roads away from the park and common especially with his Halti nose collar but then there was a big bang of a delivery van so going that way is a no, no at the moment. He is good at off lead walking, he walks a couple of steps ahead of me but will stop instantly on command.
He isn't heeling then, really. If a dog moves out to the end of a long lead he has way abandoned any kind of heel position before he is stopped and he should not do that before you give a release cue. This is a puzzlement to me in people training heel on a longer lead - it's fine to use the lead just as a 'safety net' as though you were training an off lead heel, but the dog has failed in maintaining a heel position way before he get to the end of the lead. It seems to me as though you need a release like for off lead heel. This is why I use long lead = loose lead, short lead = heel and I can release to a loose lead.
Thanks so much, this is v helpful! Yep I think I am going for an approximation of heel - I want her broadly alongside me, and I don't mind her head being ahead but not much more. But I want the lead loose, so she is maintaining position herself rather than me keeping her there. So sorry one final question - where you say , if there is normally tension on the lead, what constitutes an 'error' for your dogs when walking to heel? Just curious as currently I am using lead tension as the 'error' and stopping/turning when I feel it...
There isn't normally tension on my lead! Because my dogs don't move out of position and if they did, I'd change something to make it easier for them to be successful. Remember, my heel is not your loose lead - by heel I mean a proper heel. My loose lead is completely different.
@Lara This would be a good one to work on when we meet up! It's driving me more mad than any other thing tbh
Oh sorry where you said 'the dog hardly moves out of position and there is tension on the lead' I misread it as meaning there WAS tension on the lead. I get it now it sounds like your heel is what I am aiming for...one day when Indie is an old lady maybe I'll achieve it
Yes please! Indie is perfect sometimes and then other times it's like she's back to square one. She's an infuriating little piglet.
What is it that you want to do with Indie? How long do you want her to walk 'at heel' for? And through what kind of distractions? Asking a dog to heel is, I think it was Rachel that said this, like asking a human to walk through an art gallery blindfold. Smells, and sniffs are what makes a dog's life worth living (well, and chasing stuff and cuddles and food...etc ) so asking a dog to do a walk at heel is just a training exercise for the dog. It's work. And moving at the pace of a human is no kind of exercise for a fit dog that is hugely more athletic than the average human. That's why my loose lead allows the dog to sniff, and explore, and wander about - just not pull.
Yes I see your point. She generally only has to walk short distances on lead nicely before we get to an off lead (well, training line currently) place, so she is not getting deprived of sniffs or being doggy for very long. But I would like her not to lunge towards distractions in these brief walks. I see it as a short period of training - not recreation for the dog. I would think differently if she was spending most of her time on a short lead. Sometimes my husband takes her for a 'short lead only' walk, but that consists of him jogging, her at a comfortable fast trot on a back-harness attached lead on his right so hopefully feels very different, and they stop for her to sniff about a lot (well, him to catch his breath too I think!). I try to break up her off lead sniffing/playing time with short bursts of walking to heal on lead too, just as I would any other training exercise. She seems to like it because it involves treats currently! In the future I'd like to teach a longer 'sniffing is allowed' lead walk and cues for switching between the two, but I felt I needed to get the basic heel right first. If I can't teach that, I'm not sure I'd get very far with the rest! Also, we have very narrow pavements through our village with a busy road, so I didn't want her too much freedom so that she could suddenly step into the road to smell a leaf or something...
