I've been working on Willow's and Shadow's on-lead heel work recently. I'm generally pleased with how it's coming on. If they pull, I stop and wait for them to come back to me before continuing on our way. Other than one day where the road was covered in sheep poo and Willow was too distracted by that to concentrate, we're doing well with this technique. My question comes from this morning's walk with Shadow when, a couple of times, rather than coming back to me, he sat down, looking at me instead. I continued when he did this, "collecting" him as I walked past him, but I don't know if that's what I should be doing? Should I have waited for him to come back? Should I have made a noise to encourage him to me?
Re: What should I wait for when stopping a pull? With Riley who knows what he should be doing I always wait or just change to a very slow pace which he clocks and goes "oops I'm too far ahead" and readjusts. When he was a puppy I used to take some slow steps away from him to get him back to me. With Obi spaniel I'm doing lots of off lead, follow my leader type stuff and ignoring his on lead behaviour at the moment. I'm keeping his on lead stuff to an absolute minimum, mostly he's off lead somewhere safe. I'm still quicker than him at the moment though (won't be for long!)
Re: What should I wait for when stopping a pull? Was Shadow on or off the lead when he sat down rather than coming back?
Re: What should I wait for when stopping a pull? I would try and encourage him back to you with your voice or patting your leg and if that doesn't work turn away from him and walk if possible or even just wait it out.
Re: What should I wait for when stopping a pull? With Shadow, I'd have waited him to come back, then prompted him if he didn't figure it out. Coming back and sitting are very different, I'd try to stick to doing exactly the same thing. I think asking the dog to return to position is best. I have a strong hand "target" cue which works even with distractions. If necessary, if the distractions are such that he forgets what to do, I will use this to have Charlie return to my side by simply holding my hand in the target position on my left - so I do wait for his attention to return to me and for him to see the target. When he returns to my side, we count to 10 (if a dog cannot sit or stand at your side, he certainly cannot walk by your side, and to break the chain of pull - return/target - pull) then we start again with me setting off left leg first. If my hand target doesn't work, or I need to use it more than 3 times quickly, I know I'm in a place that Charlie can't cope with. I try to get something ok, then switch collar and lead, or switch to a harness (unless I've forgotten them in which case I'm stuck in a bad place!) and we walk on a "go sniff" walk where I do not ask for a position by my side. If you are walking Willow in places where she can't walk properly (eg the sheep poo) there is an advantage in having some cues that say "ok, we're doing something different now".
Re: What should I wait for when stopping a pull? The way we were taught to deal with this was as follows. I walked with Mira on lead on my left, holding the end of the lead in my right hand and left hand holding the middle of it. If she pulled, I said her name to get her to look at me, and started to walk backwards with a treat in my right hand down at my left knee. She would turn and walk towards me and do a figure of eight so that she was then walking at my side again with her nose glued to my hand/knee. I would keep walking backwards until she was in that position, say 'heel' 'good girl' and she would get the treat. We spent a lot of time walking backwards but it did work. I still have to do it sometimes! :
Re: What should I wait for when stopping a pull? Thanks all. I like the idea of walking backwards. I'll give that a go when the situation next arises
Re: What should I wait for when stopping a pull? Just avoid pulling on the lead yourself. I guess what you do depends on what you're aiming for. When on lead, I don't aim for heeling, just a loose lead. So if there's pulling I stop and my criterion for moving again is any slackening of the lead - I don't care what the dog's physical position is though. But if you are aiming for a heel then I'd wait for (or try to elicit) movement towards you as the others have mentioned.
