wide heelwork off lead

I have a three year old border collie, who is now learning 'open' work. Her heel work was fantastic on lead, but I find that now her off lead heel work is getting further and further away from me. She is quite a nervous dog, and wonder if this is the cause. She used to watch me, but not now. Can anyone give me advice as to how I can get her back to heel with me. She is food orientated, but I can't always use this on her. Other than the heel work, loves the rest of the open work

Can I recommend a really good book for you?

Clicker Training for Obedience: Shaping Top Performance-Positively

When it comes to obedience training, Morgan Spector is my hero.

reply to heelwork

Thank you for your reply. I have trained Nara with the clicker, but can't get her to look at me without using the clicker. This seems to be the only way I can get her attention (which I know is incorrect).

will she give you attention if she's just sitting next to you in heel? i'd go back and do baby steps for awhile. get out the wonderous treats and reward her for attention in heel position. play the heel game in the house, off leash- move around in all directions and mark and lavishly reward any time she hits heel. then move to the backyard and do it, etc.

make heel a REALLY REALLY GOOD place to be if she's offlead.

if she starts to get wide, stop the exercise (i use a no-reward marker "oops!") and reset it. don't continue on with her in the incorrect place. the more time she spends in the wrong place, even if she's not being rewarded, the more likely she'll migrate there, so you want to not let her get there in the first place.

The book will also tell you how to use the clicker properly.

Hi,
Thanks again for your replies (which I will try).
Thanks again for your reply Mordy. I will try to get the book and learn from it. I learn't the clicker from the 'net', as its not widely used in Australia. I find it a delight to train my dog, and wish more people would use this method. I do know that it should not be used to get the attention, but didn't know what else to do. Thanks again.

I think you will have a lot of fun, Elsie!

The book really is awesome. It's main content is teaching U.S. style obedience exercises from novice to utility level, but that aside it is a great instruction manual on how to exacly "get the point across", to get your dog to understand just what exactly you want, and then to perform the task reliably.

I wish I had had this resource 20 years ago.