How to Teach a Dog to Heel

Video Transcript

" Hi! I am Melanie McLeroy with Taurus Training for Expert Village and today we are going to talk about training dogs. We are going to talk about how to teach a dog to heel. This is Shira, Shira is a very lovely and attentive dog, but my husband and I took her to an event about a month ago and she pulled like a crazy dog. She was a sled dog. So this is something we really need to work on. One thing is that she was not really used to being on a leash, and being on a leash more and being positively reinforced for checking in is really going to help her. So I have got Shira on a no-pull harness, because she is really a soft dog and I want to use something that is gentle. I am going to use the name game a lot and show her what the heel command is. The heel itself is a position, Shira, I am using my body to show her, good, where I want her to be. Her right shoulder should be even with my left leg. It does not matter which side you choose, traditionally dogs heel on the left for hunting and military reasons but just be consistent. So your dog knows which side to be on, good girl, we want to leave the leash loose, and Shira, good, I am going to start off with her, good, paying attention and just start moving slowly. Now one thing you can do is actually use food to keep your dog in the heel position. This is a fine thing to do but remember you are going to have to reduce your dog’s dependence upon the food. Best thing is probably to use a combination of food, oh! That is cheese, and the name game heel, Shira, good, and move around a lot, change your speed, change your position, do lots of turns, good girl, really reinforce her when she is paying attention to you. You always want the leash to be loose. The most important thing about heeling is to do it slowly; you cannot take your eight-week old puppy to the hike and bike trail and expect them not to be pulling like crazy. It is so exciting there that you are positively reinforcing them from the get-go to pulling the leash. You also want to stay away from being pulling so hard on her collar because it can really hurt their neck. Start slowly in your house, in your backyard, constantly reinforcing your dog for checking in with you, then loose leash walking is going to be breeze, be patient, you have a lifetime with your dog and it is worth it. "