Teach your dog how to heel
How to Teach your Dog to Walk to Heel (loose lead)
Dogs pulling on the lead is the most common everyday problem owners struggle with. It is a dog’s natural instinct to want to walk ahead and teamed with excitement and enthusiasm, this can lead to dragging their humans all the way to the park! Teaching a dog to walk to heel is definitely the most challenging because it takes time, patience and connection.
Firstly, try to understand with compassion from your dog’s point of view as to why they may be pulling in the first place.
Obviously your dog is excited to get out of the house and ready for walkies and this enthusiasm is expressed at speed—they simply cannot wait to get there! The other main issue is that any tension you cause on the lead, or any pulling back, lead corrections or jerking will actually trigger an ‘opposition reflex’, which means that the more you pull, the more your dog will pull in the opposite direction. Lead correction or jerking can cause physical harm to your dog’s spine and trachea and a create a negative emotional response to lead walking, which in turn can cause a behavioural issue such as lead reactivity. For this reason, if your dog is seriously pulling on the leash, then we recommend the use of a good fitting harness until you have trained our dog to heel successfully.
Contrastingly, when practising heel, you can pop the lead onto the collar so that your dog can start to associate the collar with heel work. At all other times, in between training sessions when you cannot practise heel, and you think your dog may pull, use can use the harness instead. This will ensure they never get into the habit of pulling on a collar and damaging the trachea. Eventually you may be able to phase out the harness once your dog is habitually walking on a nice loose lead.
There are many different techniques to teach the heel position, however positive reinforcement has a much faster success rate because lends itself to the basic psychology for how dogs learn (operant conditioning).
If a behaviour is rewarded it is likely to be repeated, until eventually the behaviour becomes habitual. Also consider that we increase the success rate of learning if it is an enjoyable and bonding experience for both the dog and the owner. Think about communicating in a compassionate way that builds your connection and strengthens your relationship to work together.
To train a dog to heel ask your dog to sit in the heel position, not in front or behind. It does not matter which side, but the treat should be in the hand closest to your dog and the lead held loosely in the other. Remember any tension you put on that lead will trigger the opposition reflex! Show your dog the treat and tuck into your body just above their head, this will encourage them to connect with you and follow you with the promise of positive rewards.
Once your dog is connected to you and looking at you, take one step so that your dog follows the treat looking at your hand beside you. Treat after one step if they successfully stay at your side.
Repeat this five times, teaching the word association ‘heel’ and reward when your dog is at your side.
Communication is also key so ensure that you are using the word heel in a positive, upbeat and fun tone.
Now that your dog is connected and staying at your side, then you can start to add distance, increasing one step at a time between treats.
If your dog does disconnect and walks in front of you, avoid using the lead to pull them back as this will activate pulling!
Instead stop, reconnect, lure them with the treat hand back into position by your side and start again.
Do not reward a reset though, ask your dog to walk to heel before the reward.
If your dog keeps jumping for the treat do not reward this and avoid dangling it above their head. Instead tuck the treat hand more into your body instead.
The first ten steps are the hardest to grasp for dog and owner, but once your dog starts to understand what you want, it will get much easier.
Practise this around the home and garden at first around minimal distractions to set your dog up for success. Once they are successfully able to do 20-30 steps start to practise outside on your way home when your dog is relaxed, then in the park and finally you may be able to add the big distraction of excitement on your way to your walks too.
It is important to ensure your dog will not always be dependant on the food lure to heel. Once you have a solid fifty steps of heel on walks then start to put your treat in your pouch and not in your hand and reward intermittently.
Eventually you will only need to treat occasionally, especially once the behaviour has become habitual.
As for all training, the most important thing to remember is compassion, communication and connection. Regular eye contact, encouraging voices and positive rewards all help to establish a beautiful bond of trust and connection that will mean you walk together to the park and everywhere.