How to Train a Dog to "Heel" (K9-1.com)

we're going to go over how to teach a phase-one he'll command heels a very specific position where your dog's front feet should not pass the back of your left heel when we're teaching heel we're going to use treats or a toy to reward or dog whenever they're in the right position the first step in teaching heel is to lower the dog into the stationary position which is to sit behind your left heel you want to start off with the dog facing you use a treat in your left hand show the treat to the dog and

you're going to do sort of an arc swinging your arm back behind you and then lift up to finish in the same position gypsy heel paternal if your dog doesn't move out of the field position you can just turn and face your dog and start again gypsy heel good girl gypsy heel good good good girl the longer your dog is the wider your arc has to be gypsy is pretty tiny so I can do a pretty close arc but the longer your dog is you're going to have to go out and behind you in a

pretty wide arc in the beginning just to teach the dog to turn completely around if you do it too narrow you notice the dog sits sideways to you so that'll be an indication that you need to be using a more dramatic arc juicy heel girl with certain dogs as you try and lower them back behind your leg sometimes they hesitate a little bit to pass the back of your leg so an alternate method that you can use is to do a half step back with your left leg so that you're faking moving backwards and it

encourages the dog to move behind you juicy heel good girl for dogs that are tentative to move behind you don't expect the sit once they move into position initially when they're moving behind you readily then you can add in the sit gypsy heel juicy feel a girl once your dog is following the lure and it's finishing in the sitting position behind your left heel you're ready to start adding in some movement gypsy heel good girl good girl you'll notice I only took one step and then fed her once she sat behind my left heel you

want to start small and then gradually add up to more movement you also notice that I kept my left hand behind my left leg that's to encourage her to stay behind my left heel gypsy heel good girl good girl gypsy oh girl just heel good girl good girl see gypsy feel good girl good girl you'll want to use a leash for this command if your dog is easily distracted outdoors or in a group setting make sure you don't use the leash to correct your dog into the heel position but only for regular leash manners so

if your dog is putting tension or pulling you somewhere you can give your regular leash manners correction otherwise you're going to use the treat as a lure and repeat the heel command tick seal good girl heel good girl good girl good girl the next step is to build on healing for longer periods of time we're going to start by using an interval reward schedule where we're rewarding the dog every couple of seconds while they're in the heel position gypsy yo good girl good girl good girl thank you yeah hi girl heel good girl good girl

good girl at this stage of training if your dog moves out to heel position all you're going to do is just use the tree to lower the back in position and use the word heel gypsy heel good girl good girl good feel good girl good girl heel good girl good girl pay attention to your timing you want to make sure you're only rewarding your dog when they're in the right position if you're having trouble keeping your dog behind your left heel troubleshoot your hand position make sure you're only delivering treats with your hand behind your

left leg thank you yep you're going to work on increasing the duration between your interval rewards so you're only having to reward every 5 or 10 seconds or so next we're going to move on to only reward the dog on the free command gypsy heel clicker hero free gypsy gypsy heel good girl good girl free gypsy heel good girl free good job girl gypsy good girl gypsy heel good girl good girl good girl free as you're practicing heal you want to start adding in things like changing your pace or right and left turns or even

stepping to the side you want to teach your dog to follow you in all different contexts if your dog steps up please just use the treat as a lure and reward them once they get back into the heel position gypsy heel victory row girl good girl good girl good girl thank you to her yeah gypsy gypsy girl good girl yep good girl good girl good girl hey girl