Reward success with the food bowl, and keep your training sessions short and positive sessions. The key here is to use frequent changes in direction to keep the pup guessing and beside your left knee. Make it easy for the dog at this stage and give gentle praise when they are walking in the desired position. The puppy’s interest in the food will entice him or her to follow you - at the same time, tap your left leg and turn your body so that it faces to the left to encourage the pup to walk on your left, not your right. Assuming you want the dog to walk on your left, hold a bowl of food in your right hand and calmly walk with the dog off the lead, tapping your left leg with your left hand as you go. Gundog Training Exercises To Teach A Dog To Heelīegin your training in a confined area with no distractions - a hallway or corner of the garden is ideal. With this in mind, you can try the exercises detailed below. If you carry your gun over the crook of your right arm, it makes sense to teach your dog to walk just behind your left knee, and vice versa. As with all gundog training, I start with very simple exercises that can be built on over time, altering variables, such as the environment, duration, whether the dog is on or off the lead, and distractions, as we go.Ī young dog must first be taught the ‘close’ or dog heel command - and the trick is to do this without the dog realising that it is being trained. I train my puppies at their mealtimes, when all eyes are on me. You needn’t be rigid with training sessions - they must be fun and stimulating. Master The Dog Heel Command Early OnĪs with all basic training, the foundations are best established with your dog as a pup. The following advice is written with young dogs in mind, but for an older dog with poor heelwork, I recommend going back to basics and using a very similar routine. If your dog is already at the stage where he or she is pulling on the lead and not walking nicely to heel, you will have to be prepared to invest a lot of time (and patience!) to master the dog heel command, but it can be done. Too much nagging, for example - a typical reaction to the symptoms of moving through heelwork training too fast - can knock the drive out of a dog and cause it to be less responsive to your commands.Īs a result, many spaniel trainers don’t restrict their dogs too much or expect them to be inch-perfect at heel much better is the spaniel that will hunt with enthusiasm and respond to voice and whistle than one that lacks any real desire to quarter as a result of over-bearing heelwork sessions. The way a dog is taught to walk to heel is key if you are to avoid affecting other areas of its training. Where To Start With Training A Dog To Heel However, off the lead, a dog that hasn’t been taught to stay by your side will be a liability, and it can be a constant battle to keep it close and out of trouble. While on a lead, your dog is safe, as you know where it is. Indeed, some people appear not to see the dog heel command as a priority - hunting, stop whistles, hand signals and retrieving are far more exciting, after all.īut a dog that doesn’t walk to heel can cause problems. Of all the various aspects of gundog training, training a dog to walk to heel properly is one that many people fail to invest the necessary time in.
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