I should have started proper heeling with Zuki at a young age but now she is 2 and always is pulling forward a little when I do the heel. I never taught her the formal heel but did try teaching her heel without her looking up at me the whole time so I could take a walk with her. This was before I found leerburg and also before I understood any form of dog training.

So I have a dog that will not heel without being told no-nope every 5-10 seconds to make her come in line with me again. How do I "retrain" the heel? It makes it no fun to take her on walks. I can use a 20 foot lead and she will go to the end and keep it tight. Makes no difference how long it is. She is not pulling me but keeping it tight the whole time.
Keiko is much better on this but also has a little of the same problem which assures me that it is something I am doing/not doing that is causing it. I just can't figure what.

BTW I just got the DVD on heeling

If it's loose leash walking you want have you tried the stopping method?

Normal length leash, you walk forward, any pressure on the leash stop....don't move until she releases the pressure, then move again. Makes for a couple rather long walks but it does work.

If she's more hard headed try turning around or backing up (this is what I had to do with Ryuk) every time she pulls forward


If you want a heel with her staring up at you it would be a littler different. I had to reteach this heel for schutzhund which I did by first focusing on eye contact, then eye contact while in the right position. We started with just getting eye contact for a half a step, now we can walk about 100 yards with eye contact consistantly under distraction.

Well I copied your reply into word so I can review what you said again... I will have to try that. I did to the stopping method for a while but probably not long enough.

with my boys once they got the basic concept of follow the left leg and eye contact lots of turning helped keep the fun and focus going

I am so with you, Elizabeth, you could have described Jethro. No matter how long the leash was, he had a habit of drifting forward until there was tension on the leash. If I got him into position and praised him, he would take a jump forward.

I see you describing two modes of walking, one is with a loose leash, the other is a close Heel with full attention on the handler.

I have recently taken off the prong collar and started working with Jethro on a flat collar, using Turid Rugaas' method for getting Jethro to walk with a loose leash. It is transforming our relationship, as I learn to better read Jethro's body language and use my body language to communicate with him.

Jethro is recovering from diarrhea, so I haven't been able to use treats at all with him. That has been a big change in our training, too! I didn't realize how much I was using treats as lures, and not getting to the next level of training.

Anyway, I highly recommend "My Dog Pulls, What Do I Do?" by Turid Rugaas. For the first time I am walking with Jethro and he is positioned beside me and the leash is dangling between us. Not only that, but he is learning to keep slack on the long line when we are playing and sniffing about.

As far as the close Heel goes, I used treats to lure and keep Jethro in position. He would walk, not very far, giving me eye contact as long as I had the bait bag open and he knew there was a treat coming. Once he is well I am going to work on getting to the next level, of having him work for the reward, rather than being lured into place.

Good luck! And much patience. Turid's method was conducted over 30 days, and she saw a big decline in dogs pulling on the leash when she developed her method. Things don't change in a week or two. And we have to be absolutely consistent in our behaviour - pulling means we stop, loose leash means we go.

For myself I made heel and loose leash walking 2 different things. The "heel" for competitive heeling with the dogs attention, correctness and focus a beautiful thing. The DVD will definitely help.
I taught the attention phase first while standing still if your dog can't focus while standing still he won't be able to while moving.

"Close" for loose leash every day walks not expecting the dog to be focused on my face allowing them to look around sniff around but on a loose leash. In the beginning the about turn method and the stop method but maybe the best results with marking the correct position on my left side and rewarding.
After awhile she knew good things come when she was at my side.

With my 5 month old boxer puppy she use to walk a little in front of me when we walk around the neighborhood. I use a six foot and start off keeping a close leash. When I notice my dog getting a little ahead of me I would tell her "no" and if she didn't listen within one second I would give her a correction so she knew to slow down, we would continue to walk and if she doesn't stay in the heel position I would tell her "no" in a louder voice and if she didn't listen within one second give her a harder correction, the third time she starts to get away from the heel then I would swing my right leg out in front of her, she would stop and we would do a left about turn. So I've given her 2 chances to listen before I do a left about turn. I also like to walk a few yards, call her name see if her ears move a little and tell her to sit. Once that sit command comes that butt better be headed towards the ground. If she's doing well and actually walking in the heel position, I like to reinforce that with a lot of puppy talk in a high pitched Mickey Mouse like voice, I will also reach down and pet her and let her know she's doing a good job. I just try to make sure she's paying attention on our walks.

I have taken Jethro off the prong entirely. I am using Turid Rugaas' method and it is working very well. Here is a clip of Michael Ellis advising not to use a prong collar on a fearful reactive dog.

http://leerburg.com/flix/player.php?id=818&utm_source=nlist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12122011

This makes sense in my experience. Jethro is spooky and my handling with the prong did not help him reduce that issue. With this new method, we are getting better at averting problems, but also, if a problem arises, a prong collar is not making Jethro's experience more intensely distressing.

 Quote: Jenny Arntzen

I have taken Jethro off the prong entirely. I am using Turid Rugaas' method and it is working very well. Here is a clip of Michael Ellis advising not to use a prong collar on a fearful reactive dog.

http://leerburg.com/flix/player.php?id=818&utm_source=nlist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12122011

This makes sense in my experience. Jethro is spooky and my handling with the prong did not help him reduce that issue. With this new method, we are getting better at averting problems, but also, if a problem arises, a prong collar is not making Jethro's experience more intensely distressing.

There is so much wisdom in that little clip .... I think that clip contains something for MANY owners.

I taught my heeling one step at a time. Fuss, step, stop. Repeat. Only reward when the dog is sitting straight. Once you've got this down, add another step. Then another, and another, and so on. Once I had the basic position down for a few steps I started downing her and walking forward. Then telling her fuss and popping the leash a little bit forward. She never mistook the position, so I can't tell you how to troubleshoot if your dog doesn't. Then I started teaching her how to move her butt in towards me. Now when she sits crooked, I can pop on the leash with a fuss and she'll swing into basic position. She'll also come into fuss from behind or in front of me (without any leash pressure).

Now we fuss all over the place.

It's kinda hard to explain and I don't think I did a great job of it. It's a lot easier to show you how I did it.