How To Clicker Train "Heel" Position (Dog Training)

A couple of you have been asking how I teach heel, so here it is! The first thing I work on is getting the dog to find the heel position. They have to be VERY good at this first step if we want a reliable, tight and focused heel.

A good technique to remove the 'chair' is to put it further away by an inch every day for a week. By the end of the week you will likely no longer need it.

Teaching a dog to come around to your side also has a very useful application in loose leash walking. I will go over this in my next video, which will be up in 2 days!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• clicker
• training
• dog
• positive
• reinforcement
• heel
• teach
• reinforce
• reward
• food
• treat
• how
• to

[SUPERMANGO19]

OMG. THANK YOU.

your videos on dog training are amazing. so detailed and to the point.

i just joined a petsmart training class, and they dont even teach as well as you do!

i think i might withdraw! haha

ive only be to one class though XD

thank you so much!

my dog doesnt seem to follow my hand with the treat.

how do you think i can make it work?

[tab289]

@SUPERMANGO19 Sometimes you can encourage luring by initially rewarding the dog for just looking at the treat. Raise that criteria slowly, and next click only for a tiny movement towards it, even if it's just a centimeter. Soon you can work your way up to luring for longer distances.

[issie49]

This is such a great help to me to teach my Rough collie Shylah to heel very close to me and no lead on Solea great. I am in a wheel chair and it is hard to do some things I see from my wheels but this will really help me.Wwould you train just this all week or do other traning as well? I am never quite sure how many things to train daily.

I think you are both great

issie Shylah

[tab289]

@issie49 I personally like to work on a few different things per day so that it doesn't get boring. Just like if we were to play the same game all day everyday, we would get pretty tired of it! At the same time, we don't want to work on too many things at once either. It all depends on you and your dog and I'm sure you'll be able to determine how much you can work on and keep her interested :)

[Suffix95]

I once took a class in everyday obedience with one of our pups. They taught the exact same heel position, by instructing us to have the dog on leash and pull it around your back to the right side. This method is however a lot better, and it's also the method I've used :)

Great video once again, tab! Solea is gorgeous!

- Nenne, Della, and Cherie

[tab289]

@Suffix95 Isn't it always so much better when the dog chooses to do it? Learning is just way faster and better retained that way.

[RealAviatorOSR]

@SexySheerah You should combine food reward with praise or a toy, after your puppy does something you want him to do the first time give him food, then the second time just praise him. It's going to take a lot of repetitiveness but eventually he should realize that food won't always come, but he will get a positive reward. Mix it up

[TheGermanShepfan]

Ok do you know how some people turn in circles one way and then turn in circles the other way and the dog stayes next to them? I have seen it when the dog can go backwards heeling. it's kindof hard to explain, im sorry if you don't understand what im talking about. but I don't know how to train my dog to heel backwards.

[pawwbla]

This combines with your previous video sounds really cool. I never tried to teach heeling because I didn't know a non-cohersive method for a precise heeling.

Two questions:

1) Have you done any video with you starting to walk with you dog? If not, I'd really appreciate it.

2) Do you have verbal cues for right and left side? If so, which are them?

PS. Are you working with socks only? Hahaha, I do the same!

[SexySheerah]

I tried the food method. It only worked as long as there were treats. :( After the treats were gone my puppy just ignore me again. What am I going to do then?

[FvckOffDorks]

@TheFanneyErla try to train your dog when he's bored :D he will listen to you more.. you'll notice it :D

[TheFanneyErla]

Hi I am train a Golden Retriver but he is so stuborn tha he just don´t want to listen. I´m not werry paitent but I am trying to calm him down.

[XxBanDitXx77]

wat type of food do you use? their small and well the ones i use are like long and i got to cut em up and its hard

[rachelrosss]

@MadaraPeinNaruto you could just use your voice and say "yes"..but my dog was super afraid of the clicker too in the beginning. We had gotten a refular box clicker which are suuper loud. I found a softer one (a black one from petco) and started clicking it behind my back so it would be even softer. He'd still jump in the beginning, but would stay cuz he knew treats were coming lol Now he's not scared of it at all :)

[gsd767]

Lovely. Looking gsd I have 2 Sophie and kaizer