It seems one of the most difficult things to get right is the walk to heal. The more I think about it it seems the potential to inadvertently reward incorrect walking is high. Widgeon I 7mths and with his head collar and a bit of effort and few distractions he will walk next to me nicely, on a 'normal' walk with distractions and a slip-lead he seems to be in front, lead almost straight. He is improving by stopping and checking him as he gets in front. How much concentration does a 7mth pup generally have? At what age did your dog start to walk calmly? I suspect its difficult for an excitable lad to be calm with lots if smells and noises but maybe I'm wrong and everyone else had cracked it long ago??
Re: When did you crack the heal walk? That sounds familiar Riley is two and a half and still needs reminding that's he's supposed to be at heel every now and then. Usually when there's another dog about. I would say he very, very rarely pulls (and not hard just gets to the end of his lead) and a quick ah ah reminds him. It's not a battle, he's nice to walk with He probably walks better off lead as then we're both concentrating a bit more. We're not at the stage where he'll walk 'under orders' until told otherwise. One day......... :
Re: When did you crack the heal walk? Sam started to improve greatly when he got to about 14 months of age ( sorry : ) He walks pretty nicely now, especially after his off lead run , but still has his moments if he spots a friend
Re: When did you crack the heal walk? I'm not sure if we just have a very laid back/chilled chcolate lab but our little fella (6 months) has never been a problem on the lead, he just seems to plod alongside us. We get the odd pull when he see's another dog but nothing too bad. Think we have been quite lucky (TOUCH WOOD QUICKLY!!!)
Re: When did you crack the heal walk? Please don't be sorry Kate, that us what I wanted to hear!! I didn't want to hear lots if people saying "my dog's 5 months and walks perfectly" - "clearly you're a dreadfull daddy"!!! I'm fairly happy with how he is, he walks better than done much older dogs I've seen on shoots!!! Obviously it's an ongoing project and as long as I'm not way off the pace it's all fine. I know as long as his behaviour suits us and is not effecting anyone else but most dogs I see are on shoots and clearly well behaved it easy to get a slightly squed vision of labs in general!! I'll continue to enjoy my new found best-friend- in-the-world.
Re: When did you crack the heal walk? Hi again, We really are having similar problems! I'm now practicing 3/4 times a day and have been for a week, I can now walk about 10-12 steps with a right turn almost perfectly. Oddly left turns are a challenge and Bey only does this on my patio area - take her to the drive and she's useless again so we have regular sessions. I'm keen to crack this before 2014!! Keep practicing and restrict all other lead/walks until you have perfected it. BR Dan
Re: When did you crack the heal walk? [quote author=Widgeon link=topic=3684.msg41529#msg41529 date=1387196183] It seems one of the most difficult things to get right is the walk to heal. The more I think about it it seems the potential to inadvertently reward incorrect walking is high. Widgeon I 7mths and with his head collar and a bit of effort and few distractions he will walk next to me nicely, on a 'normal' walk with distractions and a slip-lead he seems to be in front, lead almost straight. He is improving by stopping and checking him as he gets in front. How much concentration does a 7mth pup generally have? At what age did your dog start to walk calmly? I suspect its difficult for an excitable lad to be calm with lots if smells and noises but maybe I'm wrong and everyone else had cracked it long ago?? [/quote] I think it is difficult for excitable puppies, yes. My boy is nearly 10 months now, and I'd say he got a lot better - in that he started to be able to do longer walks - at about 7/8 months. I still don't ask him to do more than 10 minutes "at heel" - by that I mean his shoulder in line with my knee. The rest of the time we walk so long as the lead is slack. In super exciting situations, where I haven't got a hope of getting him to walk nicely, I still put him on a back fastening harness, to stop him pulling or lagging or dancing about on a collar/lead combination that I'm using for his lead training and him getting used to misbehaving on it. I wondered about the head collar and then slip lead you mention - I'm not sure having him on a head collar will help him walk properly on a slip lead. I think you'll have to train on the slip lead if you want him in the heel position using it (although it's not a good lead, with a choke action, to start training with unless he doesn't pull or lunge already, obviously). The type of lead I have on Charlie, and what training I've done using it, absolutely determines how well he behaves.
Re: When did you crack the heal walk? I'm starting to realise Dan the problems we are facing are 'normal, healthy, lab puppy behaviour'!! I had been told by the lady I got him from to use the slip lead and the head collars are fine if you intend to use them all the time. The dog trainer who I am going to seems to think the world will stop turning if anyone goes against 'his ways' one of which is the collar. I'd have to say it had been easier since I've use it and I swap from slip to head on different walks. I think for his age and the amount of time I'm forced to go to work (get in the way rather!!) he's doing ok. I've found, like you, there is quite a small period of time he'll concentrate for. In an ideal world I'd do 4 or 5 short 10min walks a day and never let him in front or be rewarded by sniffing or eating when pulling but it's proving to be almost impossible!! I'm sure we'll get there at some point, good to hear others are at a similar stage.
