How do I teach the heel command?

Question

My 10 month old German Shepherd is pulling ahead when i
take her walking. How do I teach her the "heel" command?

Answer 1

There are a couple of ways to teach this.

One of my favorites is the "heeling game." Pick a starting point and an ending point (start small, a distance of 10 feet to begin with is good). This works especially well if there is something tempting at the ending point (like a plate full of dog treats or a favorite person). Start from the starting point with the dog in heel position. As soon as she breaks the heel position, tell her no or uh-uh or oops! or too bad. This isn't a correction so don't say it harshly or with a particularly firm tone, it's just a verbal marker that what she has done isn't what you are looking for. Go immediately back to the starting point. Try again. Even if you are almost to the end point, as soon as she breaks the heel position, give your no-reward marker and go straight back to the beginning. Once you finally reach the end point, she gets a jackpot! Lots of happy praise and some super-yummy treats (if you are using dog treats at the finish to tempt her I would recommend no allowing her to have them and using something even tastier as the reward, this will not only help teach her to heel but will help to teach her impulse control too).

Another exercise that you can do at home is the "choose to heel." Get a bunch of yummy treats out and kind of wander around the house (make sure she knows you have the treats). every time she is in the heel position, reward her with a treat. Then change direction. She only gets the treat when she is in the heel position...any other position results in you totally ignoring her. Pretty soon she will pick up on the game and realize that being in a heel position is very rewarding for her. Once she reaches that point, you can start to say "heel" (or whatever you want to use as your heel command) as she puts herself in the correct position, followed by praise and treats for being in the heel position.

Another thing I do with both of my dogs when we are out on a walk and they start pulling is to stop dead in my tracks and not move an inch until they come back to me. This isn't so much teaching them to heel as it is teaching them that too much tension on the leash results in us going absolutely nowhere. If I have to stop too often and they are continuing to pull, I will simply change direction and go the opposite direction of what we were going. this is usually enough to break their concentration on whatever they were focusing on.

Another option is to simply not give her a choice. Keep the leash short and make sure she keeps her head up. If she pulls hard and it hurts you to physically make her stay in the heel position you could try using a head halter to give you more control.

Answer 2

Your dog probably doesn't fully see you as the alpha dog. Proper leash training will take care of that. First... make sure you're holding the leash correctly. Customarily, you hold the end on the leash with your right hand. The leash should cross your body. Hold the other end of the leash with about two feet between you and your dog. The left hand will be used for correction when needed.
By holding the leash this way, the dog is already close to where he should be. You want the dog to walk with his shoulders even with your left leg. As you walk make frequent changes in direction... each time using the "heel" command. Should the dog stop, try to pull ahead or walk in another direction you will want to make a sharp tug on the leash and say "heel". This should not be a vilolent tug... just a sudden tug to get his attention. With large dogs, such as the German Shepherd, some use a choke chain for better control. I will let you make that choice. But NEVER use a pinch collar. I believe those are cruel. I used a choke chain on an Akita, and she leash trained very well with no pain. Just don't pull too hard.
Each time your dog heels with only the command... make sure you praise him verbally with a higher than normal tone. This conveys excitement to your dog so he knows you're happy with him. You might even want to carry treats with you as an added praise.
It's best to keep trainng sessions less than 20 minutes at a time. With a little work and patience, your dog should do very well.

Answer 3

The Monks of New Skete just had this issue on their show this past Monday on Animal Planet at 8 Et. The show is called Devine Canine, and it is training tips from the Brother who did the books that are published by the Monks of New Skete. He demonstrated one of the techniques some has already mentioned. Begin with the puppy at a sitting heel position next to you. Say heel and begin to walk forward. If the puppy begins to get ahead of you, turn sharply, either 180 degrees or just 90 degrees. The point is that you are change the direction and it causes a snap in the line. Unlike jerking on the leash which can cause neck and spinal injury, this mostly just causes an audible pop. Once the dog comes back to position, praise the puppy and reward with treats. I have a 5 month old German Shepherd Puppy that this has worked pretty well for, and in just 4 days of work since I saw the show.

Answer 4

Good question. I like the turn around method that a couple of others have suggested. I find it works the fastest. I've taught dogs this "heel" command in just one 20 minute session and a small follow up session the next day. It works like this: start out walking with the dog on the leash the minute the dog moves ahead of you, turn around in the opposite direction and issue the "heel" command. Keep doing this until the dog starts to pay attention to where you are. Why does this work? One of my hobbies is nature study and when hiking I noticed that on a trail with switchbacks there would always be a game trail continuing past the switchback. This is because animals know where they are going and hate to change directions. Same with your dog. It starts out in one direction and if you reverse direction the dog does not like this as it thinks it is going back. A common mistake is to allow the dog to get forward of you to where it feels tension on the leash, not exactly pulling but just no slack. People become comfortable with this and this is not good as the leash is now becoming the command. The leash should never be the command. This is one of the few areas that Cesar Milan and I dissagree. He occasionally uses the leash to get a dogs attention, not often but occasionally. In the "heel" command the dog should not get its front shoulders in front of your step. Once your dog is reliable with the "heel" command on leash then you can work on the command off leash.

Answer 5

When your dog walks out in front of you, quickly turn 180 degrees in the other direction, allowing the leash to snap. Say "heel!" Keep changing directions as often as needed.

When you stop, ask your dog to sit next to you until you walk again.

Use small treats and a "good heel!" voice for pos. reinforcement.

Keep your dog thinking during the heeling exercises. Change directions often. Do figure 8's. Practice at home, during walks, at the dog park, etc. You must be persistant for the training to be effective.

Good luck!

Bruce (below) is right on!!! The Monks of New Skete are EXPERTS at raising GSD's!

Answer 6

A dog should be trained on how to eat, walk with you, not to bark, potty training and sleep on its place etc. You can teach anything to your puppy, dogs get trained easily with some good instructions. If you want some good training tips visit https://tr.im/Oy0xT

If properly trained, they should also understand whistle and gesture equivalents for all the relevant commands, e.g. short whistle or finger raised sit, long whistle or flat hand lay down, and so on.

It's important that they also get gestures and whistles as voice may not be sufficient over long distances and under certain circumstances.

Answer 7

Pull the dog back to your side while saying HEEL. You will have to do this a lot. I highly recommend going to Pet smart or some other place that will help you train your dog.

Answer 8

When training your dog to heel, you need to make it fun for the dog. Also, do not just walk in a line, change directions and correcting the dog when you move telling the dog to heel when you change directions. When you stop, tell your dog to sit. My dogs sit when I stop in the heel position for AKC obedience.

Answer 9

Hmm. this is exciting. on the single hand, it would desire to confuse the two canines, and on the different, it would desire to thoroughly paintings. attempt the "launch" command. paintings with one canines at a time and the right 2nd whilst they get in front of you, say launch and manage. convey the canines lower back to heel, walk 30/40 ft, attempt the launch command lower back. walk one canines at a time until eventually they the two get it. The undesirable difficulty approximately this is in case you 'launch' them the two on the comparable time, I hassle which you would be pulled around particularly than bounced off of. Restraint desires to check honestly. you will desire to attempt those joint leashes, yet that could sidestep heeling completely simply by fact the two canines would desire to be in front of you for it to paintings. sturdy success, i'm going to famous individual. with a bit of luck my contacts would have perception!

Answer 10

take off your shoe and put it up to your dogs mouth and tell him to command the heel