Both previous posts are spot on!
A couple of years ago, I joined a dog club (I live in Germany) and they were offering one particular award programme which put heavy emphasis on heel work. We decided to give it a try and practised at every opportunity, all lead walking became stressful for both of us as, although Humphrey walks beautifully to heel off lead, when necessary, the minute the lead is on, the stress is there again.
About six months ago, having failed the original award miserably, I decided to have a go at a completely different scheme which was basically teaching the dog (and the handler) good manners. Humphrey wasn‘t expected to walk to heel but, as Mari describes, learned to stay focused on me.
The difference is incredible, he still pulls because that‘s what cockers do but I give him more space and time now, I‘ll let him stop and sniff a bit and then jolly him along and he‘ll happily join me, until the next interesting smell and then we stop and repeat!
What has, unfortunately, taken me over 4 years to realize is, that constantly trying to get him to walk obediently at my side (as you see in loads of videos but very rarely with spaniels!) was causing stress to him and to me and achieving nothing but frustration. I don‘t „take him for a walk“ now, we go „together“ (or rather I accompany him!
) . I know it probably goes against a lot of the conservative training methods but none of them worked for me anyway. Walks are a pleasure now, I don‘t balk any longer at the thought of having to walk him on lead in a busy area, the only regret is that I didn’t realize it earlier!
Relax, don’t seek perfection but rather focus on managing a walk that you both enjoy, its more important that he learns not to inconvenience others (you can insist on a short heel, or walking on your other side when approaching small children or other dogs, for instance) than expecting him to stay glued to your heel. There‘s dog training and Cocker Training - its two different things!,