# healing off leash



## MurphyTeller (Sep 28, 2008)

What methods are you using to work heeling on leash? Do you have attention from him on leash? Do you have stationary attention? Do you have a reliable come? Does your dog understand what heel position is? 

I believe that heeling is the dog's responsibility - and that's how I teach it. When I teach heelwork I start it by shaping it - when the dog is in heel position he is rewarded. I ignore the out of position initially - there is very little leash at all - I use a parachute nylon check cord (very light) - it was 20' now it's about 6' and I carry it in my right hand so the dog's picture never changes. My personal method is a modified version of "choose to heel". 

What do you do when the leash comes off? Have you worked on a long-line? Without knowing what your methods are I really can't give you better advice...What has your instructor advised you to fix the off-leash?

Erica


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## Bogart'sMom (Sep 16, 2005)

I have two comands for "heeling". Heeling I train with Bogart for competions where I want his attention head up looking at me staying right by my side. One Q for him is "Ready" Head goes up and then heel. 
Everyday walks I don't expect that of him, I tell him "with me" first with me were on leash now he does it off leash. When he is ahead of me and someone comes toughts us I call him to me and he goes "with me" I don't want him to socialize with strangers ( sometimes they don't care for friendly goldens. He has gotten really good walking by people without bothering them. I use food rewards for a job well done. Bogart has been clicker trained from basic obedience class on. He learned his sit, downs, stays, recalls all with the clicker. He is 3.5 years old now and I don't use the clicker for these comands anymore. I use the clicker only for new things anymore and he LOVES it his attention on me is 1000% with the clicker. He has gotten very solid over the last year, very reliable off leash.
For attention work I think the clicker might be a great tool for any dog owner.
All the best,


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## Bugsfire (Dec 11, 2007)

Choke chain while doing heeling on leash.

His recall - sometimes he will not sit in front of me, will go to my side. However, in strong distraction, total failure for recall.  

His heeling is ok with the leash. its when I off-leash him, he knows he is off-leashed and runs off. Or sometimes, he will do abit of heel work and runs off. 

What i usually do is i will do with him a few rounds of 'on-leashed', make him sit then off leash and 'heel'. 

Can you share with me about the 'Long line"? My trainer get us to click and unclick the 'light line' which i believe is the nylon cord. However, during the times there is no light line and we unclick, thats when he runs off!!! 

My trainer told me to forget abt the off-leash for now, work on the heel and automatic sit for the next 2 weeks until i rejoin an exisiting class which is half way through and go through everything again. 





MurphyTeller said:


> What methods are you using to work heeling on leash? Do you have attention from him on leash? Do you have stationary attention? Do you have a reliable come? Does your dog understand what heel position is?
> 
> I believe that heeling is the dog's responsibility - and that's how I teach it. When I teach heelwork I start it by shaping it - when the dog is in heel position he is rewarded. I ignore the out of position initially - there is very little leash at all - I use a parachute nylon check cord (very light) - it was 20' now it's about 6' and I carry it in my right hand so the dog's picture never changes. My personal method is a modified version of "choose to heel".
> 
> ...


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## MurphyTeller (Sep 28, 2008)

Bugsfire said:


> Choke chain while doing heeling on leash..


I don't use a choke chain - I don't as a general rule use leash corrections with my guys ever. I'm not arguing that there isn't a valid method that uses a choke chain - and with my first couple of dogs I did try something similar to the Kholer method - but I didn't like the results and even training with OTCH trainers I never had a dog that really wanted to work with me - was it the dog or the application of physical corrections? I don't know...I had goldens and golden mixes and an aussie - they had GSDs - very different dogs and working styles. Not every method works for every dog.

An observation which may or may not be relevant is that I see a lot of problems with off-leash heeling from people who are using a physical correction based method. Once the dog realizes that he isn't going to be corrected for making a mistake he takes advantage of that and leaves. There's something lost in the translation between on leash and off - so a lot of the physical correction based trainers wean off the leash to a shark line, then a long line and actually NEVER work off-leash heeling except when they are in the ring. 

Now, when I use the word correction I don't necessarily mean a yank and pop or stringing a dog up by the choke. I use correction in a broader term - to fix, to correct. So in my vernacular a correction for a crooked front might be to take a step backwards, help the dog find a straight front - praise the straight front, ask for another one and reward the correct one that he got on his own. 

You might very well have a dog that isn't responding to one particular method of training - I'm not a "purely positive" trainer - I reward the good behavior but my dogs do know when they've made a mistake and we fix it. If I were to break out a choke chain with either of them and start popping them for out of position I'd be in trouble - they wouldn't want to play the game. So I'm careful to make sure my corrections (my fixes) are fair - that the dog knows what he did wrong - and more importantly what he needs to do to be right.

If you have the space to do this safely I'd suggest trying a choose to heel session. You take your dog offleash in a relatively small but safe area. You say NOTHING (that's the hardest part). Start walking around the room - or space - while ignoring your dog. When your dog comes towards you (walking or running near your left side) reward that behavior (intially I'd mark the coming towards me and then lure into heel position, praise and treat), then walk away - again, saying nothing, doing nothing - not even looking at the dog. You dog is either going to stay with you (at which point you'll mark the behavior and reward again) or he will resume his exploring of the room. You're still silent - let the dog think about what his job is. It's the "choose to heel" method: http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTO162



Bugsfire said:


> His recall - sometimes he will not sit in front of me, will go to my side. However, in strong distraction, total failure for recall.  .


If you don't have a 100% recall you need to go back and work this separately. I'm not worried or concerned about the sitting in front at this moment. I'd want to see him stop and turn around when you call his name. Play some hide and seek games. In the same method as choosing to heel - have him off-leash in a safe area, call him - when he comes to you throw the treat behind you (he needs to see where it's thrown so use something obvious) then run the other way, as you are running call him again - mark the coming towards you - throw the treat behind you, run, etc etc etc. Get some excitement in the recalls. If you are doing stationary recalls occaisionally throw the treat between your legs. If you know he's not going to come to you in a strong distraction don't have him off-leash - and don't call him when you know he's not going to come - letting him ignore a recall once is the path to letting him think that a recall is optional (it's not).



Bugsfire said:


> His heeling is ok with the leash. its when I off-leash him, he knows he is off-leashed and runs off. Or sometimes, he will do abit of heel work and runs off. What i usually do is i will do with him a few rounds of 'on-leashed', make him sit then off leash and 'heel'. .


Again, I don't think he understands what the job is - if he understands the job he doesn't like it. If heeling is OK with the leash what is making it OK? Are you constantly reminding him to be in position either verbally or physically? To some extent letting the dog make a mistake (out of position on-leash heeling) and then just waiting for the dog to fix it (and rewarding in position) goes a long way to helping the dog understand that it is his job to maintain heel position - not your job to put and keep him there. When he's heeling on-leash is he "up" and "bright"? Is he happily heeling along or is he doing what Terri Arnold calls "a poop face". If he's a poop face you need to work on attitude before you work on the actual exercise.



Bugsfire said:


> Can you share with me about the 'Long line"? My trainer get us to click and unclick the 'light line' which i believe is the nylon cord. However, during the times there is no light line and we unclick, thats when he runs off!!! .


A long line is a well, long line. Clean run sells an ultralight line: http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=247&ParentCat=97 you can make your own with clothesline. Use cotton rather than nylon as cotton is easier on the hands...You can tie it on your belt or let them drag it. Again they're somewhat off-leash but still within your control.



Bugsfire said:


> My trainer told me to forget abt the off-leash for now, work on the heel and automatic sit for the next 2 weeks until i rejoin an exisiting class which is half way through and go through everything again.


I'd suggest that you work on attention and some relationship stuff - your dog has to want to be with you on the off-leash heeling - back up to the beginning and make heeling a want to rather than a have to. Break out some stronger positive reinforcement - food, toys, etc.

Does that help?
Erica


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## Bugsfire (Dec 11, 2007)

thanks for the indepth comments. I will take it up and try.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

I generally am of the idea that if it's not fun and rewarding enough when the dog is heeling with you on-leash, there's no way he'll want to do it when he realizes there is no leash and you can't "make" him.

What techniques/methods do you presently use to make on-leash heeling enjoyable?


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## Bogart'sMom (Sep 16, 2005)

our rallyo trainer turned us on to choose to heel also it works well.


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