How to teach your dog to heel & walk properly on a leash
how’s it going folks this is Wallace
from Golden’s Glynn Golden’s he is doing
a board and train with us here he’s
picking up things pretty fast I like
where we’re at right now in today’s
video I’m going to show you guys the
heeling exercise I had someone come on
the channel recently I don’t know if
they’re at raw I mean they were
obviously trolling I don’t know if
they’re they were a child or just
someone with nothing better to do but
they came on to one of my videos and
said you know hey I’m gonna walk my dog
on a flexi leash which you should not do
for many reasons I’ll talk about that in
a separate video and I have other videos
on my channel that discuss that as to
why you should not use that type of
leash but anyway they came on the
channel saying like you know you haven’t
showed us how to teach a dog how to heal
you can’t show us how to do it I’m
walking my dog on this I don’t think
they were being serious I think they
were trolling but in short that’s that’s
the point of today’s video and what I
want to talk about here just real
briefly is when you first get your puppy
and you bring it home it is important to
get the dog or the puppy I should say
used to a leash and a collar and what I
will say with that though is a lot of
people they get frustrated with the
puppy very quickly because they take the
puppy on the walk and the dog is just
kind of zig zag zig zagging going all
over the place does that make sense
and that’s frustrating for new owners
because they want to have some control
and so what I’m trying to say is the dog
is not going to learn how to walk
properly on a leash or the dog in other
words it’s not going to learn how to
heel on the walk does that make sense
there’s just too much going on
especially for a young dog like this or
your puppy or your puppy at you know
eight weeks or so that’s another thing
too so like you wanna you want to curb
all neurotic behaviors and so he’s you
know this is the first time I pulled him
out this morning that we’re working on
obedience he’s fired up he’s ready to go
and right now I’m talking
but you you don’t want the dog again
engaging in neurotic behaviors chewing
their tail going crazy over the water
ball going crazy over the hose those
sort of things you want to nip those
things in the bud because the dog is
sort of in this erratic mind staying can
be out of control and they won’t listen
so anyway but going back to the walk a
young dog like this or your young puppy
yet you know seven eight weeks when you
bring it home there’s just too much
going on on the walk you know there’s
other dogs there’s other human beings
there’s new sights there’s new smells
new sounds you know there’s all sorts of
things cars and trucks and it’s just
over stimulating especially for a young
dog and so in other words know in other
words the dog is not going to learn how
to heel and how to walk properly on even
a short walk let alone a very long walk
does that make sense you have to set up
the dog in a very small area which I’ll
show you here in a second and start the
dog that way okay so I’ll show you guys
how to do that now alright so what I’m
going to what I’m going to show you guys
here is I’m gonna and I’m gonna change
the shot around but you see how we have
these two cones right here now when you
first start they’re not gonna be this
far apart okay they’re gonna be much
closer they’re gonna be maybe ten paces
at most apart okay and you want to keep
them pretty straight they’re not exact
you know here just giving the terrain
and the layout of my yard but you want
to keep your your path as straight as
possible as that makes sense
and when you’re first starting you
always want to go left okay and you want
to indicate the heel command by staying
heel or staying heel and slapping your
left thigh you know all dogs all dogs
communicate primarily through their body
language and that’s sort of indicates
that it all hey once you’re right here
we’re going through a turn okay does
that make sense so in short two cones it
doesn’t have to be cones it could be two
boxes from Amazon or two you know
it just two markers that are you know
that the dog visually can see and are
there and they understand this is where
the exercise is going to be and this is
where we’re going to implement in our
turns does that make sense
okay so dogs on my left-hand side you
want to ideally you want a nice loose
leash you don’t want a lot of tension in
your line because that will cause the
dog to go forward and pull even more
okay so I know it sounds a little
contradictory because the dog is
probably all over the place at this
point when you’re trying to teach them
this but and it’s that’s another thing
too this is not going to go very well
the first couple times you do it because
it’s a new thing to the dog and it takes
time to master it Wallace has been here
for some time now so he’s picked up on
this he kind of understands what he
needs to do we still need to smooth out
the right turn with him and also sort of
smooth out the figure eight pattern
which I’ll talk about later but in short
this is not going to go really well your
first couple sessions and what I’m
saying in short is is try to have as the
loose of a leash as possible and if the
dog gets out in front or is lagging way
behind or way out to the side give them
a leash you give them a leash pop to get
back into position so if they’re too far
in front
it’s a leash pop back if they’re too far
behind you it’s a leash pop cord and if
they’re way out to the side out of the
healing pocket it’s a leash pop inward
okay no heel that’s that’s what it is
but in short you don’t want to have all
this tension on the line because that
causes the dog to go forward and pull
even harder does that make sense so you
want a nice loose leash and when the dog
is getting out of position you can mark
that with an O or stay heel for instance
no heel or get back a heel dog and then
you can also use your leash as a
reinforcement tool in conjunction with
your verbal commands does that make
sense alright so here we go heel
so you know this nice loose leash the
dog is attentive to the handler like I
said this is not gonna go easy for you
the first time he’ll
good boy
good alright so I’m gonna switch the
camera angles around for you all right
so I’ve moved the cones around sit I
move the cones around just so you guys
can maybe have a better angle I’m just
kind of doing this on the fly I know the
lighting with the Sun doesn’t look so
great but when you first do this again
you want the cones to be maybe only ten
paces apart okay see here we go heel
so again what a nice loose leash and if
the dog gets out of position you mark
that with an O or no heel heel this
remaining humor go through the turn and
you give the dog a pop on the line to
get back into position
now the dog is not the dog is not a
robot so you have to let them know when
the turn is coming that’s why I’m
repeating the command see I’ll do it
again
heel
and when you come to a stop the dog
should stop and think with the handlers
left leg or left knee does that make
sense and everything in your training or
at least the way that we train
everything is taught as an implied stay
so when you put the dog in a sit when
you put the dog in it down whatever it
is so the dog is at heel the dog has to
hold that position until you freed them
now he is a collar conditioned on an
e-collar technologies many educator so I
can communicate to him from a distance
but this is certainly not a tool like if
your first if your first you know if
you’re just teaching your dog how to
heel and they don’t know and like get
what I’m saying
the e-collar you don’t use the e collar
until the back end of training when
everything the dog has picked things up
does that make sense so don’t worry
about an e collar yet okay does that
make sense
Wallace has been with us for some time
he’s on the back end back end of his
training now we’re just out out doing
some drilling and working on some
fundamentals today
so again set up your cones
my head’s kind of cutting the one off
there but get you get yourself two cones
ideally these are the big large size
that they sell at Home Depot or Lowe’s
they’re like you know 16 or 17 bucks
apiece they’re not cheap but I’ve had
these for like two years now and they’re
still like brand-new but get some cones
it could be boxes it could be anything
again set them up in a small area and
just start working the dog in one
direction you know again start left and
then you can start going right so I’ll
show you that now
heel boy heel all right so this time
we’re going to go right and like I said
we still have to smooth this out
going right or the outside turn is
harder for the dog he’ll know you
yeah
all right so I hope that makes sense I
mean let me flip the camera around so
again when you’re doing this one a nice
loose asleep okay so here we go
you you’re gonna go left heel good boy
now we’re gonna go right we’re gonna do
an outside turn on this code heel
all right now these would not be this
close for him at this point in training
but this might be where somebody with a
very young puppy or a very green dog did
first trying to teach this would start
okay let’s just see how many paces these
are you
okay so those are right at 10 right at
10 paces okay so this is where a new
person would start so just to show you
what a nice loose leash and the dog
should be attentive yield to the
handlers left leg where the handlers
left knee shoulder blade gets past your
left knee heel that that indicates that
the dog is too far in front
if the dog got if the dog’s head got in
front of your in front of your excuse me
if the dog shoulder blade right shoulder
blade got in front of your left knee
that means the dog is too far in front
and you need to tell the dog no get back
at heel and if they don’t then you would
give them a leash pop in other words a
correction on the leash to get the dog
back in position
okay so again not to be redundant but
when you start this exercise you know
you want to have your cones set up you
know no more than 10 or 15 paces apart I
would start at 10 do that for a couple
days as you get success going only left
increase it to maybe 12 or 15 paces
apart then you can get to 18 or 20 25 30
and you can really space them out and as
you’re getting as you’re getting success
doing that then you can start
implementing in the right turn okay and
do this for a couple weeks some trainers
will call this doing your yard work or
doing your practice the dog has to hey
sit the dog has to learn how to do this
at home in a very small area and you
build upon that before you start taking
them out into the real world okay
because otherwise like I said there’s
just way too much going on especially
for a young dog like this or for your
puppy at seven eight weeks okay so start
small build upon it make it bigger and
as you work on this for a month or so
then you can start taking the dog on
walks because the dog will understand
what the heel command means it means hey
I need to be attentive to the handler
need to be on the left hand side and
sync with them not zigzagging and
pulling on the leash okay this makes
sense so this could be an exercise you
start doing doing with your puppy right
away and then as you have questions as
the dog gets stronger a little bit
bigger you know then you can start
looking into professional training and
sending the dog off for a board train or
working with a private trainer depending
on how you want to do it and how they
how they do their business so anyway
this is Wallace he’s from Golden’s
glynne’s
golden Golden’s Glen scold ins sorry I
hope you guys enjoyed this video I know
the lighting is kind of crappy I’ll try
to think
that out later on as we go on but anyway
this is Wallace he’s doing great thanks
for watching and stay tuned
