Please can anyone help? I have an 18 month old neutered GSD who has a high prey drive. I have trained him to come and sit using his Prey Drive but am having huge trouble teaching him to heel. As soon as he sees or smells his prtey item he goes berserk - dancing around me, pulling, sitting, running through his repertoire to get me to throw the toy but the one thing he cannot/will not do is walk peacefully at heel even for two or three steps so that I can then reward him by throwing the toy. What am I doing wrong??? Or should I be teaching him heel and stay commands using a different method such as e-collar or clicker?

Have you tried starting out with food so that he's calmer?

My young male shepherd was the same way as yours - crazy and unfocused with his prey item.
I taught him to heel using food (dropped from my mouth so he'd watch my face) and switched to a toy once he was solid on the command. The toy really brought him up in drive during the heel. The jumping around was no longer a problem since he already knew the command.

Worked beautifully

Thank you so much for that suggestion. I will give it a go! He is bred on working lines and is actually a bit too much dog for me! I have had to lift my game A LOT to try and get the degree of control over him that I have had with past dogs. He just has no *off* switch!

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the one thing he cannot/will not do is walk peacefully at heel even for two or three steps so that I can then reward him by throwing the toy. What am I doing wrong???

You need to teach him to focus first. THIS VIDEO will show you how that is done

Thanks Jason. However I am in Australia and am not sure that the DVDs sold here will play in our region. Any other suggestions?

Brooke - my DVD's play in Australia - we sell a ton to your country. In tech terms our DVD's are " REGION ZERO" - which means they play everywhere.

great to hear Ed - stand by for an order!! Now I just have to decide how many to get - they all sound really useful and I know I have a lot to learn!

 Quote: brookemcowley

...so that I can then reward him by throwing the toy. What am I doing wrong???...

Aside from yes, you need to teach him to focus first, you're making the same mistake I did for many months, which is to throw the ball. This resulted in my dog way out in front and even "herding" me - pushing me around, trying to get to my right side in anticipation of me throwing the ball (I'm right handed). Finally went to a Bernhard Flinks seminar couple weeks ago and he said (a) never hold toy/ball in right hand and (b) don't throw the ball, DROP it on your left side. It should fall straight down so that he can only catch it in the air when he's in the correct position. A few times of having it bounce off his back/shoulders so he has to scurry around to catch it, and he should start to realize he'll get "success" faster if he's in the right spot. It took me longer to learn to drop correctly than it did my dog to figure out where to position himself. I never had to pop him with the leash or even hold the leash.

I was really amazed how well and quickly this worked. One week of 2-3 sessions a day of 2-3 minutes each and we were up to about 10 metres of nearly perfect heeling. Still a bit too far ahead at times, but nothing like before, and it's getting better every day.

But this quick improvement was only possible, I believe, because I spent the last year working diligently on the techniques in that video. So my dog did know by the seminar not to jump for the ball. Do that first. It shouldn't take you a year, by the way, I just had no idea how to proceed once I'd built the focus. Here are, roughly, the next steps (experienced trainers please amend / correct):

1. Dog must be focused and controlled enough to sit and wait for the ball.

2. When dog is sitting, you move next to him so he's in heel position. Hold ball in your left hand at your shoulder so he can see it. Pick up the leash, say "Fuss" and take one step forward. Drop the ball straight down. If he moves ahead too fast, it'll land on his back. No problem. As I said, a few times of that and he'll pay more attention.

3. When he can do one step and catch the ball in his mouth, try 2 steps.

4. When he can do 2 steps, try 3 steps.

5. Keep building the distance, but don't always make the distance longer. Mix up the number of steps so he never knows when the ball will drop. Do 3 steps, then 10, then 15, then 2, then 7.

6. When he's reliably doing this with the ball visible in your left hand, tuck it under your arm, showing him where you're putting it, and keep it partially visible. Or leave the string visible (did I mention the ball should be on a string?) so he knows where the ball is.

7. Repeat steps 2-5. It should go much faster this time.

8. When he's reliable at this, then hold the ball under your arm so he can NOT see it. Again repeat steps 2-5.

9. Gradually increase the length of time he has to work before he gets the ball. But remember to keep the length variable. If you sometimes surprise him with a reward after a short time, he'll be more inclined to pay attention from the very beginning of the "fuss" command.

10. One day (still a gleam in my eye, but now I think I know how to get there), you can put the ball under your shirt, beneath your neck, letting the dog know it's there. And ultimately you learn a sleight-of-hand where you give the ball to someone else just before you enter a competition ring, but in a way the dog doesn't see so he thinks the ball is still there.

Good luck, but get that video and teach him to focus and wait for you to release the ball. He HAS to learn self-control first. Once he does, you'll have a really powerful training tool.

Cheers,

Anita

Anita - that is perfect!!! Thank you for taking the time to explain both the why and the how! I am really grateful and know that I can do this even while I wait for my DVD to arrive. Do you also own a GSD?

You're welcome, Brooke. I'm happy if I can spare others (dogs and people) from the same agony I went through until the process was explained to me.

One other nuance I just recalled: Initially, you don't care if the ball drops on his back, because it'll take time for the dog to realize "Oh, the rules have changed - that's where the ball drops now." However, once he figures this out and begins to position himself in the correct spot, then start dropping the ball when he's in that spot, so he gets rewarded for the right thing. Try to drop it one step before you see he's about to break, forge, or look away -- so he gets success. You might still have to drop the ball on his back now and then if he forgets himself, but you want to move away from that towards only rewarding when he's correct. (At least, that's my interpretation.)

Yes, I have a GSD, too. He's 17 months old, working lines and full of exuberance, so teaching him self-control was no easy task. But once I learned to use his energy to my advantage with the "Magic Ball on a String", it really made training fun.

Cheers,

Anita