can you teach an older pup to heel.

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Megibo

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as title, my rottie is now 9 months and the minute i stopped taking treats on walks he stopped walking at heel!
as a result he has to wear a doggy headcollar and that stops him pulling me around.
can i re-teach him to heel before it's too late ?!

thanks for any replies :o
 
I've just trained a seven year old, blind, Basset hound to walk at heel so a 9 month Rottie should be a doddle.
 
Course you can. I'm currently teaching a four year old lunatic beagle to heel. It is, at the moment, a little bit like teaching a three year old child to play Paganini's Caprice No. 24 on the hurdy-gurdy, but we are getting there :D

This is taken from my Mum's website:
"Start by walking your dog in little circles both ways on either side of your legs in the garden using little treats, and you should see a nice movement as the dog goes along. Do figure of eights, and left and right circles. Make it varied, inserting plenty of downs, stays, recalls and returns to the dog. Sit the dog from time to time to treat and praise.

If the dog pulls, immediately stand still and wait for him to come back to you. As soon as he makes that move you can move off again. Patience is a virtue! It may take some time to move any distance but it does work if used consistently!"


I particularly like that, whilst you're using treats for bribery to start off with, you don't treat during the actual heelwork, but instead during a sit. I've found that this means that the heelwork doesn't just disappear when the treats do ;)
 
Of course you can, you can teach any age of dog to heel!
'Heel' and 'walking on a loose lead' are two different things.

Katie means, you can't just stop the treats dead. You fade them out, so at the minute, I had been feeding my dog constantly for keeping eye contact (or walking to heel in your case), now he is getting older I feed him every five or ten steps, and eventually will make it very occasional and of course not at all if we are competing.
Very few dogs walk to heel because they like it and want to please you and be near you, they do it because you incentivise it, IE food, ball, praise etc.

For walking on a loose lead, I use a command like 'steady' or 'follow'.

I do treat during the heelwork, instead the dog will think it is only getting rewarded for sitting beside you, I find.

There is no cut-off point or 'too late' in dog training, you don't one day acquire a magically trained dog that needs no refreshing whatsoever for the rest of it's life, it's an ongoing thing :)
 
CaveCanem said:
Of course you can, you can teach any age of dog to heel!
'Heel' and 'walking on a loose lead' are two different things.

Katie means, you can't just stop the treats dead. You fade them out, so at the minute, I had been feeding my dog constantly for keeping eye contact (or walking to heel in your case), now he is getting older I feed him every five or ten steps, and eventually will make it very occasional and of course not at all if we are competing.
Very few dogs walk to heel because they like it and want to please you and be near you, they do it because you incentivise it, IE food, ball, praise etc.

For walking on a loose lead, I use a command like 'steady' or 'follow'.

I do treat during the heelwork, instead the dog will think it is only getting rewarded for sitting beside you, I find.

There is no cut-off point or 'too late' in dog training, you don't one day acquire a magically trained dog that needs no refreshing whatsoever for the rest of it's life, it's an ongoing thing :)
Click to expand...

Ah okay I see. Well he does walk on a loose lead i'd just like him to walk with his shoulder next to my left thigh when i want more control in a situation or walking up the road without him arguing with me about it!
I will work on it. He does heel when we're doing work in the house but in the context that he does 'close' where he sits right infront of me with his nose on my bellybutton (hes looking up) and when i say heel he moves round to my left thigh and sits there.
 
I don't know many nine month olds with perfect heelwork so don't stress :)

Take what you do in the house, to the yard or garden, then to the street right outside, then the park, etc etc etc.
Sounds like he is keen to work for you so incentivise it, feed him a little of his daily allowance of food from your pocket or keep a ball in a pocket if he is that way orientated, to keep him focused on you out and about.
 
Yep- I trained my loon on a harness of all things (do not recommend for heel training) at 18-24 months..... Although I imagine what I call walking to heel and what CC calls walking to heel are probably two VERY different things!
 
We keep one toy that is specifically for 'work rewards' (i.e. they don't get to play with it just as a house toy/walkies toy etc) and our obsessive collies have all adored it and will do anything for it, then are the happiest dogs in the world when they do get it. Our neurotic lunatic useless collie has been known to leave food when he caught sight of the work toy. For him it is the ultimate treat :D
 
I'm just teaching my 3 1/2 year old pointer to heal as I want another and really don't want to be pulled around by 2! I have joined a gundog training group - for pets as well - and have been to 3 sessions only and am really hooked it's great fun. The trainer does not allow treats as the dog should respond to you and not do it for the food.

I have a slip lead and it is worn high up on the neck, this does not hurt the dog. When she pulls I do a quick tug upwards and say heal. Do not tug backwards or the dog can pull against. After only a couple of weeks she is walking very nicely on the lead and we are halfway towards no lead. This is done, when the dog is ready, by using a very loose lead to start and then when the dog walks too far infront a quick (not hard) poke on the shoulder to correct and use the heal command. Change direction and pace often.

It's very rewarding when they eventually get it, but it is hard being patient.
 
I use two red balls-on-ropes worn either in a back or breast pocket - one for reward and another to bring him back from playing with the reward :o so even if you forget the balls, one would hope that he would be looking up to see if the balls are going to magically emerge :p

I don't agree that no dogs need treats and I don't see it as 'treats' per se anyway - it's part of the dog's daily allowance of food tipped into my pockets and he has to work for it.

Certain dogs have certain drives and you often have to manipulate that to get the behaviour you want :)
By saying the dog has to do what you tell it, you become the person who is always telling the dog what to do with no reward at all, not 'the person who I want to walk along with because it is fun for me'.
Just my opinion and I am by no means against pulling out the slip lead or check chain on more difficult customers, but with pups I think you should always start positive :) and of course stopping dead, directional changes and circling are good tips too.
 
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Yes of course you can... and if you do it right, the dog is STILL working for you and not for the food... Henry is more than capable of working without food (right round an agility course twice, over the 'A' frame for the first time and everything without a treat in sight this weekend) but IMO you'd be a loon to cut yourself off from a very useful training aid for the sake of some idea that the dog won't respect you if you have a bit of cheese in your pocket.

Changes of direction and speed are good for getting the dog's attention, and don't forget to mark the good behaviour with a really happy 'GOOD heel' every time he's in the right place. It's very easy to get into the habit of letting the dog wander off ahead, then saying 'heel' because you want it back with you, and actually what you're doing is teaching the dog that 'heel' means wander on out in front!
 
ok i did it, and with no food! :D

The 9 year old is a lost cause, the worst puller I think nothing we did stopped him towing my brother along like a train.

As for my 9 month old pup who this post is about, on his very first pull i said 'ah-ah, no pull!' and praised when he came back to me. had to do this firmly the first few times and then being the smartie pants he is he learnt very quickly what i wanted and was very polite at his heel. i had full control when another dog went at him and he listened to me.

if i can get him to do this on every walk (no doubt he will try it on) could he eventually go without a dog version of a controller headcollar and be walked with the lead attached to his collar?
Also any tips for the older dog who just will not come to heel? he wears a control headcollar too and there is just no stopping him...
 
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