Please help me!! I'm in despair with walking to heel!!

[Dinah]

Top Barks you do give sensible advice!  My cocker walks to heel brilliantly when he's had a good run but can be tricky if I have to start off on the lead.  I've never used clicker training - is it too late for that now as he's 5 years old?

[Top Barks]

nope!

[daisy_and_sam]

I know I am no expert like Mark but the hand targetting exercise has worked wonders for me with my excitable little boy Sam.  I have been doing Canine Freestyle classes with both my dogs and they were both awful with heelwork (all my fault I am sure).  Moving slowly forward with hand targetting has worked wonders and we now even get a relatively good heel when starting a walk which was unheard of before.  Good luck!

[Top Barks]

 

[Happygal]

Can you expain the hand targetting please? 

[daisy_and_sam]

I am sure that Mark would be able to explain it very succinctly (I probably can;t so well) but I recently shared this link on my facebook page as I thought it demos quite well.  Correct me if I am wrong with this recommendation Mark

http://www.dogstardaily.com/videos/home/teaching-hand-target

[Top Barks]

Looks fine to me

[pipkoi]

I've never used clicker training - is it too late for that now as he's 5 years old?

For reasons best known to ...... whoever we did little or no training with Jasper. He started rally & clicker training,  with our puppy Charlie last April & took to it like a duck to water. Moved quickly onto agility & is doing brilliantly
He celebrated his 10th birthday last Christmas
Good luck

[harveyroan]

All good advice been given. I did start to use food when mine was a young pup but didn't have a lot of success. He's 11 month old now and not perfect but we are getting there. When you use the about turn do you turn when the dog gets a head and then let the dog hit the end of the lead? how longs your lead you need a longish one. I wasn't convinced when I was first shown this method but with in a week or so he stopped pulling. Also you DON'T need long walks.

I now spend time perfecting his heel work on a shorter slip lead walking in square's and circles using minor corrections. Consistancy is the key

[willowstar]

Thank you very much to all who replied!

My husband and I have alreaady started some of your suggestions, we now don't leave the house until she is calm. Yesterday my OH put her lead on and kept opening the door, she ran out in front so he calmly brought her back in and went and busied himself leaving her waiting by the door. He did this about 10 times until she finally realised that she wouldn't get walked until she calmed down. Then when she was on the walk, she walked pretty much to heel the entire way!!!!! When she did pull out in front he just stopped still, using the tree approach which was suggested.

We are also going to try doing most of her of training after her frisby games, she's exhausted after those!! 

And lastly we will also change our direction on the walk as well to keep her on her toes, and bring out the clicker and very tasty treats! We feed her lots of treats at home for free, so this is partly why she is so well behaved in the house!

With all of these training exercises and perseverance I'm sure we'll get there, now all we need is for her to come back when she's called and she'll be perfect 

Thanks again very much!!!
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[harveyroan]

Glad your getting somewhere. I also use treats for some training, If you do use food I wouldn't feed her 'free' treats. In fact cut the meal portions down and feed her from your pocket. That way training time means meal time

[mooching]

We feed her lots of treats at home for free

Could I just ask how come?

At home Alfie tends to get quite ordinary treats - we save the medium and high value ones for loose leash training and recall.

With all of these training exercises and perseverance I'm sure we'll get there, now all we need is for her to come back when she's called and she'll be perfect

Have you read Top Barks' thread on teaching a reliable recall? It's a "sticky" at the top of this folder. I can thoroughly recommend it!

[Sarah1985]

Personally I start this in my kitchen and my hallway as I am doing now with my pup to get the dog used to walking next to me without distraction.
I also teach a solid hand target so my pup will follow my hand rather than having to carry food in it all the time.
I reward just a few steps of loose lead walking and build this up by counting to myself how many steps we do and  so i might get two steps of loose lead walking then I click and reward by my leg ( never out in front of me) next time I'll count to four steps before clicking and rewarding, then 6 and so on.
When outside avoid walking in one direction for to long, change direction frequently. either guide your dog back to your side or change direction if the dog heads out in front but NEVER follow otherwise you will reinforce the pulling.
When working outside, will the dog stand next to you? If not he sure as hell won't be able to walk next to you so there you have a starting point.
My biggest tip is to separate all lead walking training from exercise, do not worry about getting from point A to point B at the moment as if you do you will lapse and allow your dog to pull you. For exercise take your dog to the local field, let them have a run and play with them and if you are worried about recall do this on a  trailing line.
Don't go down the flexi lead route or you will teach a dog that ranging out in front of you and going to the end of the lead is the done thing.

I have a question thats slightly off topic. I have a tiny cocker and Im quite tall so umless I walk bent over slightly she cant target my hand without jumping up so I taught a formal heel with a target stick. Now I want to take it to the next step and have her walk to heel without the stick. How do I move away from this for formal heel work? I was wondering if I should have started out with her targeting a spot of my leg rather than the stick, What would you suggest?

I used the be a tree approach for loose lead informal walking but Id like her to be able to have a formal heel as it looks much nicer for Rally O and whenever I get roped into any obedience shows with our local dog training club.

[Top Barks]

Possibly, could you just not lift the target stick or indeed maybe some gaffer tape on your leg and get her to tatget that and then gradually decrease the size of the tape until she just targets that area of your leg.
Personally I find that when you have taught a hand target that even if you lift your hand all the way up to your chest they will follow it so no need for bending and if they are jumping i just lift the hand higher and again click and reward when the dog walks nicely with four paws on the floor, If the dog keeps jumping then somehow it is a behaviour that is being reinforced.