Good morning, Can you teach “heel” by having your dog walk beside you while leading him with a treat in your closed fist down by your side and saying heel as he comes alongside and holds position as you walk (off lead)?
I taught my Lab heel slightly differently in that I rewarded him with a titbit when he was in the heel position and used the clicker. I didn't use the word until he thoroughly understood. However, I don't see why you couldn't do it the way you mentioned, but the danger is you might always have to lure your dog in the heel position with a treat in your hand.
I would never advise luring walking in heel position, or luring more than 2 or 3 times for any training. Click and treat certainly every step and gradually extend number of steps required to earn the click and treat for maintaining position. A problemwuth luring if it continues as suggested to get a heel walk is that it isn't so much a lure as a bribe and the dog often ends up saying no treat on my nose, no walk heel
I run hunt-tests so I want my lab focused out in the field while heeling and not looking up at my eyes like most conventional obedience training. Also I skijor with my labs so I want them to enjoy pulling. Therefore I teach heeling without a collar and leash. I first teach pup remote sit and a recall whistle. Then on our daily puppy walks I recall pup from a remote sit and using a treat I lure pup into the heel position and feed after pup sits. I teach pup a left arm movement is a cue to heel on the left side, a right arm movement is to heel on the right side. They typically get really good at this because we go on puppy walks 2-3 times a day and it is our routine. I'm teaching pup the heeling position, not actual heeling at this stage. Before actually heeling I teach pup the heel position is next to my leg. I also do this every time I feed pup. I also teach them to auto-sit when I stop and follow my lead leg to heel, sit and steady if my right leg leads. I do this as a routine that I continue as our routine even when pup is a year old: Pup learns to focus on my leg movement. When pup makes a heeling mistake, usually I backup and pup backward heels (praise), then I stop, pup auto-sits(praise), and then we continue heeling on our walk, praising as pup is in the correct heeling position.
To teach pup to follow my lead leg, I use a tennis ball first to teach pup a silent auto-sit when I stop as we are heeling. At first we heel and I stop and say sit, the instant pup starts to sit I toss a tennis ball and release for a retrieve. So pup learns to sit quickly as soon as my lead leg starts to slow down. Timing is important here and I want to tennis ball to bounce the instant pup is sitting, so I toss it the instant he starts to sit. Here is an example where pup is not rewarded on the first auto-sit, but still auto-sits hoping that will trigger a retrieving opportunity (eventually he is rewarded Hope that makes sense to you.
Great videos. That is how taught the heel position. I don't suppose you have any tips to keep a dog steady in line when there is shot and dummies flying etc..?
The videos of your own dog are great. However I really liked the one of the Boxer, as it shows a behaviour being taught in ‘real-time’ (so many training videos on YouTube are of dogs who already know the behaviour) and it was a great demonstration of how to train a dog to follow only the near leg. Also good to see a heeling video with a breed other than a Collie.
I like what they call in the USA "stand alone marks" as I can get to the dummy before pup if he breaks, which I have not had happen because he knows that. I also like stand alone marks because you can vary the distance pup retrieves: Here is a older dog with shot bumper and stand alone marks up to 200 meters at the end of the video:
