Just a couple of Finn and I doing heelwork

[AllieMackie]

I had a friend stop by tonight in the middle of Finn and I doing heelwork in the backyard, so I got her to snag my camera and get a few pics of us doing it. He does great with heelwork on walks now, too.

He only heels in short bursts before I give a release command, but I'll slowly lengthen the time. For the most part he's allowed to explore freely as long as he keeps a loose leash, but I feel that a strong heel command is important.

(Firefly geeks should take mote of my shirt.)

Heeling. Great focus!

During this one he thought I had a treat in my hand, haha

Released, but keeping loose leash.

That's all! I guess it's a mini-brag; we've been working on this for a long time.

 

[HayleyMarie]

Yah Finn. You two look great.

 

[Baxter'smybaby]

I am jealous--perhaps my next dog will not be one driven by his nose....then maybe I can teach him to heel! Well done Finn! (and Allie!)

 

[chanda]

Way to go Finn, job well done for both of you!

 

[Crowsfeet]

Finn is such a handsome guy...

Would you mind at all, answering how you have been teaching him to heel?

 

[puppydog]

God! He is a gorgeous dog!

 

[Lizmo]

Good boy, Finn!

 

[AllieMackie]

Finn is such a handsome guy...

Would you mind at all, answering how you have been teaching him to heel?

I don't mind! I've actually been keeping it pretty simple. Nothing official for obedience or anything.

For the first short while, I treated for heeling, to give him the idea quickly that heeling was something I wanted him to do. So, luring with treat into a walk-beside-me position. I only did this 5-6 times. After that, I removed the food reward 50% of the time, and only rewarded for eye contact while heeling. Now, I only reward about 25% of the time, the other times I give jubilant praise.

For Finn, learning the heel happened within one walk. Holding the heel is the difficult part for him. Now he'll hold a short heel with minimal distraction with no food reward, but we're currently working on extended heels. The release is often the reward in itself, but for good, focused, longer heels I give a food reward.

Every time I work on a longer focused heel, we train in the backyard like in the photos. I believe highly in thresholds; Finn's at a good threshold level for just about any new exercise when he's outside in the backyard; from there, I can ramp it up to being on a walk with cars and noise, to people, and then eventually to dogs as well (his biggest distraction).

I've been training both right and left heels; I know left heeling is proper for rally and such, but right heels are important to me on walks, since we tend to pass people on the right, I want Finn to be able to heel to my right in case someone walking by is not fond of dogs.

That was winded; I hope it makes sense! Long story short, I reward heavily first thing, but phase food rewards out as we up the difficulties, and reward for more difficult maneuvers instead. This works for Finn, so we go with it.