I have a couple problems with my dog's heeling work.

1st - I am trying to get an automatic sit when I stop and I am not sure whether I should correct my dog or not. I did a lot of practice with heeling and then stopping and giving the sit command. I am not sure if I should start to correct(prong correction) my dog for not sitting without giving him a command to sit. If I stop and he fails to sit and I give him a no he will sit, but he never automatically sits?

The other problem is that when he sits he moves away from me about 45 degrees and actually faces me. This really confounds me. I want him to sit flush against my side - right? I've tried to slide him over but he doesn't seem to get the point and gets all worked up when I do it breaking the sit and acting confused.

Any thoughts?

I'm not the most experienced trainer around here, but I walk with 3 dogs together on a daily basis and I've dealt with this with many dogs in the past...

Keep the leash short and stop walking... the little bit of pull that the dog gets from the leash/prong collar works as a slight correction. You don't need to "pop" the leash like you would if he had willfully disobeyed a known command. Just a little tension does the trick. Also, when they're first learning, I usually try to give my dog a signal that I'm about to stop. One of my feet drags ever so slightly before I stop. It's actually a fairly natural motion, I just exaggerated it a little in the beginning so the dog learns what cues to look for.

When the dog moves away from you while he's supposed to be heeling (or sitting in heel) you just gently pull the dog back into the proper position. Eventually, he'll understand that when he's heeling, he's supposed to stay facing the same direction as you and within a few inches of the side of your leg. I'm not sure there's a trick to it. Just be gentle so the his confusion over your repositioning him doesn't get frustrating and you let your frustration show. Eventually, he'll get it. Then, after enough time, you'll see the difference between his not understanding the concept and him deciding to give in to a distraction and intentionally disobeying... that's when you can give a correction for sloppy positioning.

I'm not sure how old your dog is or how you taught heeling.

When I teach a young puppy, I nurse hotdogs to the puppy keeping their head and body in correct alignment and when I come to a stop, I tilt the hotdog up so they automatically come into a sit. Since I've kept them aligned with me the whole time, their sit is usually correct. At the same time, I say sit. This works for dogs with enough food drive for the hotdog. Later I wean them off the hotdogs but by then the position is so solitified that the corrections that come are clear to the dog.

With your automatic sit, what does the dog do when you don't give the command? Try weaning him off the command by giving it spontaniously. The proper correction kind of depends on the dog. One dog I was training I couldn't get him to sit so I had to slap his butt, which got it fast and dependable. Then he started sitting sidways so I lightly flanked him into me and he began fixing it himself. This was a dog that was not handler sensitive and didn't have any problems with the corrections. If its a young/weak dog, fix the position by just taking a step forward and guiding with food. His position is probably due to where you are showing/giving the food from (move it so he can watch it while keeping his body straight). A lot of the advice that can be given is dependant on how you are training it thus far and how the dog is temperamentally.

Just some thoughts.

My dog is 15 months and he can handle corrections fine. I just felt it was unfair to give him a correction without giving him the command. He is up against me during the heel, but then moves away on the sit. If I don't give him the sit he just stands there.

I train him with his tug. I think I was supposed to do it in incremental steps, but I just started out doing full on heels. I use hotdogs all the time but I never really used it for the heel and while he loves hotdogs he will not stare at me during the heel. Even for his tug - he quickly loses interest. I guess I just didn't have the patience to do a few foot heel and started in on big distances with turns.

He is not so great with turns as well. He obviously doesnt focus on me enough which is my lack of experience/understanding.

I also have a hard time making left turns. He gets in the way and is confused about what I am trying to do.

WOW, in reviewing my last post it is really obvious I just don't know what I am doing!!!!!

First I think you should take a step back. I usually do only a few seconds of a heel, this is enough to teach them to do the exercise without stressing them and keep them 'happy' while doing it.

If you have problems with the sit and he is in position for the heel, do it quickly: step, sit, praise, step sit, step sit, praise, etc. Basically do it really fast so the next time you stop he'll anticipate the command and sit, and then praise him WILDLY for this and start playing with him. If his drive for the tug isn't that good yet, I think you won't go wrong with some nice food--if he's not that interested in the food either maybe do the training first thing in the morning when he's hungry or make him skip a meal before training.

I sent you a PM.

The problem I am guessing is that you are heeling but have not taught the heel position. Take a step back and teach the dog the position of heel. Call him to heel and reward when the dog is in the correct position. Do this a million times, progressively changiing the angle at which you are standing and making it harder. Once the dog knows what the heel position is, then take a few steps. Since you have taught the position, everytime you stop the dog will sit because that is what you have conditioned the dog to do.

Hope that helps.

Whenever my dog’s positioning gets a little sloppy I’ll heel him along a baseball field fence so he is in-between myself and the fence….he has no choice but to sit correctly.

I work my “auto sits” the same as Kristine illustrated and it works real well. The rapid repetition has resulted in lightning fast sits. Take a good hard look at your body language and how you are stopping YOUR heel. Is it consistent that you are stopping on the same foot every time? If you are not, the dog will become confused about what you are asking him to do.

There are a million “tricks” that come to mind on how to help you….too many to list here. Training and excelling in obedience is an art form and takes time. Some of Ed’s videos will help a lot too! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

 Quote:

There are a million “tricks” that come to mind on how to help you….too many to list here. Training and excelling in obedience is an art form and takes time.

So true. You can't just follow a regime or whatever--depending on your dog you use an element from here and an element from there, and often for myself I have to analyze the principle of the advice offered to me, and make my own 'trick' from there. That's what makes it so much fun though.