My dogs heel pretty well, however they drift a little forward here and there, but will return with a "hey!". When they calm down a bit they heal fine, but my they walk with their head in front of me. How can I get them to drop back a bit so that if I turn suddenly I will turn in front of them. I want to know that they are paying attention to me for direction. At this point I know they pay attention to me, I'd just like to fine tune them.

Did you train your heeling/focus with food or a toy or neither. Norman

I trained both my dogs with food, however I've recently started training my black lab with a toy also because I've noticed his intense drive to tug. When I hold his favorite tug at my chest and walk he looks like a competition heeling dog.

Peter here are my thoughts on your heeling problem. I have never been able to correctly shape a behavior with a toy for the reason you pointed out, but have used them later on once the behavior is *completely* learned to increase drive. Here's my problem with shaping a behavior with toys, once you give the dog the toy you have to get it back in order to continue teaching and because of that the number of times you can reward/teach is limited. Once the dog is in the correct position and you reward with food you can continue at different intervals in order for the dog to learn on his own what gets him the food ( the position). Moreover once the dog gets the toy a few times all he wants to do is play, because that what toys mean to him therefore it is hard to get him back. If a toy introduced to soon, before a behavior is learned, prey driven dogs such a Lab's become to high in drive (obsessed) and therefore it is difficult for them to learn because all they are thinking about is that toy. That makes the transition from putting the toy where the dog can't see while he is maintaining correct position is very difficult. If the dog has a clean out that is another thing but from your description you this is not the case. I have previously posted some training obedience videos with a GSD pup you might find of interest. Norman Epstein

Interesting, Norman,

I also have a problem with my dog with the heeling part, his drive for the toy is just too high, he walks too fast, too far away from me. He does very well in the Focus (when he has to sit down, and focus and wait untill I let the ball fall in front of him. He is not interested in food however. Could you give me some tips here or privately (by mail)?

Hey Rosalinda, it may have to do with where you are holding the ball and when you are giving it to him. Are you using the Building Drive and Focus DVD?

Rosalinda van den Ham wrote:

<snip> He is not interested in food however.

He isn't hungry enough? If you want to develop food drive that is weak then you must make food more attractive to the dog. You do this by cutting his rations in half or if that doesn't work, don't feed him the day before you train. Trust me that won't hurt him as most dogs are overweight anyway (G). Now don't think you will then have to starve the dog every time you train obedience, you won't but the dog doesn't know that. Moreover once the behavior, in your case proper position, is shaped you can go back to his normal feeding. I would if I were you go back to sit and proper focus and until you have that with food don't go any further in heeling work. If you still have questions email me and I will give you my phone number. Good luck and good training and don't get discouraged, I know that's easy for me to say LOL. Norman

Ok, I will go back in training the Focus with food instead of a toy. When that goes well I will then proceed with the heeling part. Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it

Hey, Norman, I have been using food, and you are right, it goes a lot better. I still have a question, if I may, if it is not too much trouble, concerning the switch to toy. Check your pm.