Heeling on the lead please help!!

[Andrew Douglas]

I have a 7 month old ESS and she pulls like mad on the lead. I have had to buy a canny collar and she still pulls. She can sit, stay her recall is good its just the lead pull. I need her to heel on the lead then she will be able to heel without the lead. can anyone help? I just need some tips and thanks in advance.

[Nonehpets]

Welcome Andrew. I have a 5 month Pointerdor so probably around the same weight as Poppy but still a little less far along in his training. Here is my approach to lead walking with Dicey - and this is whether it is just him walking with me or I am walking both my dogs together.

I use training leads and wear them round my waist - in fact I have extended Dicey's with a brace chain so I have two optional lengths of lead for him. I aim to never use my hands on the leads unless it is for correction in an emergency. I try to use my whistle rather than my voice - it is easier to keep from sounding frustrated.

I have kibble in my hand but I only treat when the dogs achieve a stop and hup or a hup stay.

We start before we leave the house - at all times he is expected to be behind me and he is expected to hup stay with the front door open until I walk on and tell him heel. I set off walking making sure Dicey is in the right place - every time he starts to tighten the lead I stop or turn and sometimes both - trying to keep it unpredictable and using the whistle to indicate which he is to do.

At intervals I will put in some turning drills just because - I expect him to keep up with me but have not introduced too much change of pace as yet since he is still prone to occasionally darting in front of me or wrapping the lead round my legs. *He 'wombles' collecting litter as he goes if I am not quick enough or if I haven't told him "leave"

Before I use my hands to correct him I will also try walking backwards a few steps.

On our 1 hour daily walks he is on lead about 20 minutes in 2 sessions and sometimes I have taken him out on his own as well/instead and have been following the above regime for around a month since he could manage the distance. I would say he is around 80% of the way to reliable loose lead walking most of which is at heel. Off lead he can be relied upon to walk within 5m of me 60% of the time and we will work some of that in closer for off lead heel.

Our route takes in a busy A road with an extensive grass verge next to the footpath; a quiet country lane and woodland. Obviously on A road footpath he is on a short lead at all times for the moment. Quiet lane I vary whether he has a long or a short lead or whether he is off lead - and whichever if cars approach he is recalled, hupped and practices his stay for kibble. In the woodland he is off lead and is reliable at stopping at the road end on the return.

This might not work for everyone - and especially if you want quick results but at 5 months I am content to allow him the time at the moment to polish what is a social skill.

Cathy

PS I do use a Canny Collar on my 9 year old GSP - he is still expected to walk at heel so doesn't pull on the head collar but I use it because when he sees other dogs he gets on his toes and anxious and then pulls like a train given the chance - the head collar allows me to still retain control of him with confidence.

[DesO'Neile]

At the risk of being accused of hair splitting there is walking to heel and there is walking on the lead. I presume this is walking on the lead.
Obviously walking on the lead, as well as being a goal in itself, is the first step in walking to heel. It is crucial to get it sorted, I'm not saying some don't exist, but a dog that won't walk on the lead probably won't heel either.
Whip sounds emotive but I use a dressage whip because it's long and I can reach the outside dog easily if I need to and also because it reacts uniformly.
Put the dog on the lead. Position it on the desired side and walk off. EVERY time the dog's nose passes your knee TAP it on the nose. EVERY TIME.
As the Meerkat says "Simples!".

PS. For the predictable question about the desired side. Left handed guns and falconers sometimes prefer their dog on the right and when I had more dogs I trained the fifth and subsequent dogs to walk on the other side.
Some practical people actually want the dog's head in front of the knee to aid marking. I've never taught it buit shouldn't be that big an issue if required.

[Hepe]

Ok, this might sound horrible but what i do is skip the drat walks on lead entirely. Not my thing at all. Instead i spend time training/playing with my dogs. I still have to train heelwork occasionally but that i do a few minutes at a time (as few minutes as possible to be honest, not my favourite thing, especially not with spaniels). So consider what you aim at...a gundog i assume? Instead of walking around with a pulling dog, get going and train!!

Helene

[DesO'Neile]

Instead of walking around with a pulling dog, get going and train!!

I've never seen a dog killed on the road while on a lead. I agree with the training bit but not the first. Having a dog at heel by the road is irresponsible but please yourself.

[Hepe]

Instead of walking around with a pulling dog, get going and train!!

I've never seen a dog killed on the road while on a lead. I agree with the training bit but not the first. Having a dog at heel by the road is irresponsible but please yourself.

Yes i know i am fortunate with where i live down in the woodsie with just two neighbours, still i also once lived in a flat in the suburbans. Even then i disliked those walks on leash and aimed to as fast as possible get to a pasture or a woodsie spot to train and play even if it was just behind the parking lot! Use what you got i say, don't get hung up with walking around with your dog pulling, that isn't fun for anyone really and if i would judge my ability to train a spaniel by how badly i manage leash walk - i'd be crying all day!

Helene

[Stacia]

I once put the lead round my waist, all was going brilliantly until OH suddenly appeared and dog rushed toward him, my feet were taken from under me and I fell hard on the back of my head. I thought I was dead

So take care.

Jelinga

[leeky]

I once put the lead round my waist, all was going brilliantly until OH suddenly appeared and dog rushed toward him, my feet were taken from under me and I fell hard on the back of my head. I thought I was dead

So take care.

Jelinga

I know a trainer, small in stature, who walks two rottweilers this way, but she has them well-trained already so it's more out of choice than a training approach. I think if you want a handsfree element to walking your dog/s that's great as long as they are already trained to walk on a loose leash and you consider them to be under your control, but i'm sorry, i dont think it's a good idea for anyone actually training their dog to walk on a loose lead or to heel, unless it's a yorkie or a chihuahua

[Nonehpets]

Thanks for your concern but I am not insubstantial - although have lost a lot of weight being out of work and walking miles - but my two together would have to do something extreme to pull me over; they would be more successful if the leads were in my hands and had an extra cantilever to exert a tug on. It also gives me free hands to give them hand signals with for alternatives to the whistle.

It is about balancing the control - that is why I teach stop hup at intervals and hup stay - and them realising that if they want to go somewhere fun they need to be compliant. But it is also about competition between them - neither of them want to be pushed aside by the other so they stick pretty close. Schilling has been walking on a waist lead most of his life - so I am only training the pup and not both of them.

Hepe I sympathise with your impatience for lead work however for me it is a fact of life - I live in a rural area but whichever way I go there is a 10 minute walk to off lead exercise areas. I don't have the luxury of a car or dog van so they walk on leads. I also take them on public transport - so they need to be on leads. It is not a non-option so they have to do it well and calmly.

In terms of which side to walk them - Schilling is definitely a left hand walking dog so I am deliberately training Dicey for both.

Cathy

[andyshaw]

Mylo is one of those strange dogs that walks to heal off lead, but not on the lead. I think on the lead he associates it with getting to somewhere fun, which he is right (me also living in semi-rural). When hes of the lead, he knows where at 'somewhere fun', and he knows if he walks to heel, hell get a retrieve etc out of it. Although he will walk nicely, most of the time....

Ive found walking his normal route, he tries to pull worse because he thinks he knows where hes going, so hes in a hurry, if where somewhere new he walks fine! So i no confuse him and tke wrong turns etc. Or ive got the pram with me and he walks perfectly when the pram is out as we use to use a head collar with it, so now he doesnt even try to pull! Strange animal....

One thing i found helps is walking in a corridor, in my case down the side of some tenis courts, any time he walks in front, he gets a 'ah ah' and he backs of, then i practised this in a half corridor e.g. just one side, then in open space etc etc

Maybe teach her to walk to heel first? E.g. in the house of the lead with treats?, then add this when hes on the lead? Although my dog wont walk to heel on the lead as such, just walks ok without pulling, sometimes!