Very quick question on loose leash

[CockerCanuck]

Heel, is a bit of a unique command in my experience. It comes MUCH more easily to some dogs than others, and I don't think it is simply a matter of drive and desire. I do think it is much harder to train with a dog has had a period of being allowed to pull and conditioned himself to think this is normal and even enjoy pulling the boss around wherever the dog want's to go.

There are many ways to teach it and I agree with the advice to pick one and stick with it. All the various ideas and techniques in this thread may not be helpful because they offer too many choices when the dog really just needs a determined effort with one of them. There is no quick fix for this.

[newf]

Since we're sharing methodology, here is Chris Burns training a springer to heel. May not be your cup of tea but it is simple and effective. In the video, the dog is not happy because of pressure to learn and adapt but all that will soon fade as the dog learns to control his position and focus on the trainer. Confidence and good attitude will fill in with more practice and success.

https://youtu.be/x4Kx771gNpA

[Naj]

I’m guessing that kicking and throttling your dog wouldn’t be everybidy’s Idea of a nice cup of tea, or of how you earn the ‘respect’ of a dog. Never did like this video and would have thought there are better ones that illustrate how to use aversives to train correctly.

Naj

[Springfield Pointers]

Since we're sharing methodology, here is Chris Burns training a springer to heel. May not be your cup of tea but it is simple and effective. In the video, the dog is not happy because of pressure to learn and adapt but all that will soon fade as the dog learns to control his position and focus on the trainer. Confidence and good attitude will fill in with more practice and success.

https://youtu.be/x4Kx771gNpA

That dog is unhappy, because that guy is confusing the hell out of it.

[Stacia]

The dog has no idea what the chap wants!

[newf]

What makes you think the dog does not know what is wanted, he isn't pulling ? The behavior that gets him in trouble is the hope he displays for his owner to allow an escape from focus and compliance of this new trainer. His owner to which he is attempting to focus on, well, he has her number, to which she admits several times. In short order, the dog will be heeling just fine and with attention to which praise will pick him up again.

One could pass out hundreds of treats to encourage the dog to follow along at your left side but it would take forever to become reliable because it only mimics the behavior. Distraction proofing would always be a challenge because there would be a missing part to the communication, namely, how to stop the lack of focus when other things suddenly appear and have more appeal to the dog. Chris Burns is not only teaching the behavior but reinforcing simultaneously with both adversives and praise. This builds a social relationship which will exceed the heeling behavior and carry over benficially into all other gundog training.

[Springfield Pointers]

What is the purpose of brow beating a dog that is doing its best to comply? The dog is by no means a problem on the leash and has enough manners to work with. Trying to outsmart the dog at every turn to somehow demonstrate a technique is wholly unproductive.

[newf]

What is the purpose of brow beating a dog that is doing its best to comply? The dog is by no means a problem on the leash and has enough manners to work with. Trying to outsmart the dog at every turn to somehow demonstrate a technique is wholly unproductive.

He's not a problem on the leash now because he has trainer whom he can't read. The owner he can and that is why she finds him unruly in her hands. Chris Burns, unproductive ? If he was, he would not have any accomplishments in the gundog world.

[Springfield Pointers]

I said trying to outsmart the dog (in my opinion) is unproductive. I'm sure he is very successful - however that does not eliminate the fact that dog looks unhappy, confused and puzzled at being corrected for things it seems to be doing without a problem.

[ips]

I don't get this, the vid I see is a bloke doing direction changes on a narrow path, I don't see any aversive...has the link been edited or something??