Training versus playing
I want him to know when it's ok to "play" walk and when we are obedience walking. I don't really want to obedience walk him all the time- no fun for him. Any suggestions? Lally BTW- What I plan on working with him on is heel and stay. |
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well my trainer says never use an extendable leash 
The first walks should be walks to teach them not to pull and to follow your lead. WHat we are doing with mr newfie puppy is stopping when he pulls. we don't move again until he comes over and walks by us - this is a relatively painless (although time consuming) way to teach tem to generally heal. |
| Not sure I fully understand but...yeah, not a fan of retractable leashes either.. Probably OK for a fully trained dog who doesn't need one
Here's the thing: you don't teach formal heeling on walks. Well, you can throw in a quick heeling stretch here and there once they have some foundation, past a distraction or something like that, but it should be short. Formal (proper) heeling takes a lot of time to teach (in baby steps) and a lot of concentration on the dog's part. It should be short and upbeat with tiny little rewardable steps till you start to put it together to make it worthwhile for the dog. Let's face it, it's not a very natural behavior: making sure a certain part of your body is always in perfect alignment with a certain part of your handler's body and that your attention is solely on the handler, whilst not tripping over curbs and walking into trees of course.  It's doable with a well trained dog, certainly. But not much fun for a green dog on a walk.
So, question: do you mean formal obedience heeling or do you mean dog walks nicely at side not sniffing or pulling anyone's arms out of their sockets? Because as far as the dog is concerned, there's a huge difference. Kristine |
definitely not formal healing. notice I said generally heal - as in not pulling your arm sockets out  |
| I have my students (and my own dogs) alternate with training time and relaxed time while out on walks.
Especially for those who have dogs where walks are their primary source of exercise! I have the dog have short periods of training during the walk. Get their attention, say heel and do the exercises you are working on. I usually throw in heeling, (fast, slow and normal speed), halts with nice sits, circle left and right, about turns, U-turns, come-fors and such. I make it fun and upbeat, with good energy. After a few minutes of commands and after something that was done really well, I give my release word and we resume the walk in a less structured way. However, they are NOT allowed to pull me. They need to respect the leash boundary even when just walking. I repeat the training/unstructured walking several times throughout the walk. It works well, and the dogs seem to like the variety. That way they get training and exercise all in one walk! 
I use a regular 6 foot lead. I suppose you could use a retractable if you are in an area where it is suitable. Whenever I walk, I am in town , so a retractable isn't really an option. And at home on our farm, a retractable isn't needed. They are either on a lead/off lead working, or off lead with me in the yard/farm. |
| I live in a rural area where the roads are relatively traffic free with treed and grassy sides. And Max has had some form of formal obedience training; he doesn't pull when we walk. I was talking about formal heeling- I would like to eventually also get into therapy dog training.
Lally In other words, Max isn't a "green" dog. |
| NO RETRACTABLE LEASHES!!!!!
If the line gets wrapped around a finger or thumb even a small-medium sized dog can pull heard enough to sever your finger! As if to prove it, two years ago Joan and I were visiting a campground a man with a little dog on a retractable leash stopped by to say hello. I was wearing shorts and the little dog ran around me and his owner didn't lock the stupid retractable leash and it cut a deep gash into the back of my leg that took months to heal. |
lally wrote: I I was talking about formal heeling- I would like to eventually also get into therapy dog training..
That's great! Mind you, you don't need truly formal heeling for therapy work. You just need a dog who's under control and will walk nicely by your side, which it sounds like you already have. If you want to do competitive obedience or rally (fantastic, if so!) you can do as Dawn describes, but also find some parking lots, parks, flat areas where you can do a lot of left and right turns, u-turns, about turns, pivots, serpentines and figure eights etc in addition to pace changes. Straightline formal heeling for miles as a time makes your dog zzzzzzzzzz and you end up with a dog who heels by braille: He is, but he isn't really; he has probably zoned you out. You can recognize them in the obedience ring by things like dog lags habitually or handler does an about turn and dog stands there kind of in a daze: "what just happened here???" The quick directional and pace changes help teach him to pay attention to you and make things more interesting for both of you.
I don't differentiate between work and play. I want my dogs to think of working with me as just another extension of play. But you can build in cues to switch them on and off to some activity: for heeling, it's "heel" or whatever verbal command you use. And when they are no longer required to hold a formal heel position, it's "OK" or whatever your release word is. Are you getting ready for a TDI test or do you have something else in mind? Kristine |
Ron wrote: NO RETRACTABLE LEASHES!!!!!
If the line gets wrapped around a finger or thumb even a small-medium sized dog can pull heard enough to sever your finger! As if to prove it, two years ago Joan and I were visiting a campground a man with a little dog on a retractable leash stopped by to say hello. I was wearing shorts and the little dog ran around me and his owner didn't lock the stupid retractable leash and it cut a deep gash into the back of my leg that took months to heal. Aye. Both me and my wife wear a scar on the leg from 2 different dogs running by on a retractable. |
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