Heeling

[LISA MORRIS]

Hi,

I have a 10 month old GSD, who still struggles with Heel. The rest of her training is going well, but she can only heel for a very short time, then starts to walk ahead again. I've tried luring her into position, treats when she's in the right position and I stop walking if she get ahead. I'm obviously missing something crucial (and I have trained and owned dogs for over 40 years!) Any suggestions would be appreciated as my pup is in training to be a Service Dog. So loose leash and close quarter heel is vital for her role.

Thanks,

Lisa 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi Lisa, welcome to the forums!

So at 10 months, your pup is actually quite young considering that it takes approximately two years of hard, solid work to train a service dog and most service dogs are fully trained by the time they are 2-3 years old. Service dog candidates should be mentally and physically mature before they're able to handle what a service dog will need to handle. Asking too much, too soon, may lead to burnout so it's important to work at the dog's pace. I am sure you are doing this already, but wanted to just point this out because it's easy to sometimes get carried away and place too high expectations especially if we happen to see other dogs doing perfect heelwork and get frustrated.

Perfect heelwork is a work in progress that requires a strong foundation of practice in low distraction areas before moving to areas with more distractions.  Because dogs walk naturally faster than us, it comes instinctive for them to resume their normal pace after walking at our (unnatural) pace, and some dogs think the exercise is over once we deliver the treat to reinforce staying in heeling position, so this can sometimes lead to what I call "yo-yo" walking. 

So let's do some troubleshooting:

-When you mention that she can heel for a very short time, can you quantify that? Is it just a couple of steps?  Two seconds? Five seconds? One minute?

-How long ago did you start working on heel with her?

-When she's pulling ahead is she moving towards something that's distracting her? To sniff something? Meet a dog or person? 

-Where are you practicing when this happens? 

-When you stop walking when she gets ahead, what happens next? What does she do? What do you do?

-Are you working on regular heeling or actual attention heeling (with the dog looking up to you? this latter require much more concentration)

Thanks!