11. Heel

11. HEEL

LEVEL THREE

Left about turn with contact.

DISCUSSION: Heeling is arguably the most difficult behaviour most of us will ever teach a dog. Contact is essential. Whether that contact is EYE contact, HAND contact, or whatever, is your choice, but the dog needs to focusing on some part of you. Testing an eye contact turn will be easier than testing a knee contact turn, but don't let that influence your choice. Bear in mind we aren't asking the dog to be in Heel position at this point, merely to maintain contact! We start with the right about turn because it helps both dog and trainer focus on the behaviour rather than on how far they can walk. The about turn here is a 180 degree pivot to the handler's right (clockwise).

EASY BEGINNINGS: OK, You have eye contact, and you know how to pivot (Level Three Finish). Stand with your toe on the coin, the dog in front of you. Click X10 for eye contact, then, the 11th time you get contact, instead of clicking, turn your back on her by pivoting to your right. Don't look back over your shoulder, look straight ahead of you and down, exactly the body position you had before you turned. Here's you're looking for a "Hey, Stupid!" reaction. You want the dog to think "Hey, Stupid! We were playing this great eye contact game, and you went away in the middle of it!" If she wants to continue the game, she'll come running around and find your eyes again. Click! Give her another 5 clicks for contact, then turn again.

There are two ways to get the behaviour. The first way is to turn away FAST, getting her running around to find your eyes again. When she's done that enough, she'll be anticipating your "escape" and will start holding your eyes as she comes around with you instead of finding them later – et voila, a brilliant, fast, accurate about turn!

The second way is to turn slowly, clicking for the dog following you slowly and holding on to contact as you turn. Gradually speed up as she understands that she can walk and hold contact at the same time. When she's done that enough, she'll be anticipating the speed of your turn and will start running around with you holding your eyes as she comes – et voila, a brilliant, fast, accurate about turn. Which way you decide to explain this depends simply on what explanation you think your dog will understand best. Or try both, and let her decide.

PROBLEM SOLVING:

SHE'S NOT IN HEEL POSITION! HER BUTT IS SWUNG WAY OUT! Not a problem. Practise a little Heeling Zen on yourself here. At this Level, we're ONLY asking her to maintain contact while you turn around. We'll deal with her heel position in later Levels. Get that really solid contact, and it won't be difficult at all. On the other hand, if you get her contact absolutely perfect on your turn, you can turn faster… and faster… and faster… and when you're going fast enough, she'll naturally drop back into heel position. Click, if you're still standing up.

SHE HAS TO LOOK DOWN TO WALK! No, she doesn't, she just thinks she does. Can you get eye contact and then walk backwards with her still watching you? Can she follow a treat lure right in her face? How far away can you get that treat from her face while she's moving before she looks down again? If you can lure her along with a treat 2' from her nose, without her looking down to walk, you can get the same behaviour using your face as a lure – WHEN she's got the behaviour of making eye contact solid enough. So, more work on Watch!

ADDING A CUE: Not yet, the turn with contact is only a tiny part of heeling.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: Don't think about how strange you can make this turn. Think about how solid you can make it. So MUCH of what comes next in MANY behaviours will depend on the dog's ability to find and hold contact. Practise in different rooms, different places, wearing different clothing. Practise standing up and sitting down. Practise a full turn. But no matter what twists you're adding, remember that NO glancing around is acceptable, no wandering, no meandering, no dawdling. You're going for full contact in fast, eager, enthusiastic turns. If you're getting less than that, you're asking for too much. PLEASE ask for less and get this right!

LEVEL FOUR

Dog Heels an about turn, walks 10’ with contact, one cue only.

DISCUSSION: We add straightaways to the contact turns. It's starting to look a bit more like actual Heeling. We're still not asking for Heel position. If you trust me, keep working. If you don't trust me on this, work a lot on the Level Four Finish, progressing to the Level Five Finish, and hurry through the Level Four Heel on to Level Five, where we'll start to work the happy, enthusiastic, contact-seeking dog into Heel position.

Why am I teaching the dog to swing her butt out when we're heeling? Because eye contact is so important. Contact needs to be the MAIN default behavior for ANY sport at ANY level. When I teach contact as a default, I can then build in not-looking-at-me in certain situations (conformation gaiting, flyball, commitment to obstacles in agility) knowing that the dog is IN contact with me even though she's not MAKING contact with me. Give me a dog that knows nothing at all except to give me contact, and we're a team. So first, contact. To be sure, EYE contact. Eye contact will naturally pull the dog's butt out, but that's easy to fix once we have a solid swing Finish, and it's MUCH easier to fix in Heeling than it is to fix lagging or wandering off or just generally being "bored".

EASY BEGINNINGS: This Level will flow very naturally out of the Level Three Heel behaviour of being able to pivot with the dog holding eye contact. Start, as before, with the dog in front of you. Click X5 for eye contact. The sixth time you get contact, pivot right and click as she comes around holding your eyes. Work that X5, and then move on.

Start with her in front of you again, click once for contact. On the second contact, pivot right 180o and take ONE step forward. Click for contact. Be sure to click while both of you are still moving. Don't wait until you've stopped and she's swung back out! Did you notice that as you stepped forward, her eyes, head, and shoulders stayed with you, while her butt fell back almost into Heel position.

Work that pivot and single step a few times, then pivot, take a step, and, instead of clicking while you're taking that one step, pivot to your right again and click as she holds contact coming around. Wow! Two about turns and a straightaway! OK, OK, very SMALL straightaway, but there it is! From here it's only a matter of adding straightaway steps until you're walking 10' with contact between pivots.

PROBLEM SOLVING:

SHE ISN'T SITTING WHEN I STOP! Take a deep breath. It's likely that Heeling will be the most difficult thing you ever teach the dog, so we're going slow and making sure we've got good foundation behaviours. We're not asking for Sits yet because we haven't actually STOPPED yet. All your clicks have been for contact WHILE YOU AND THE DOG ARE STILL MOVING. Since the click ends the behaviour, there ARE no stops, and thus, no Sits yet. A "chain" is a series of behaviours that follow one another. Heeling is a chain – Sit, make eye contact, walk with me making contact, Sit when I stop. Chains aren't taught all at once, though. Teach each individual link in the chain, and THEN put them together. You started teaching her to Sit back in Level One, she's got that part of the chain. When all the other parts are in place, we'll start putting them together.

ADDING A CUE: Not yet.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: Concentrate on your body language. Stand up straight, keep your shoulders square with the direction you're traveling. Look at the dog out of the corner of your eye, not bending over. And, as always, different locations, different directions, different distractions.

LEVEL FIVE

About turn, 10’ straight, about turn with contact, 1 distraction. This behaviour must be done with no food or clicker anywhere in the room or area.

DISCUSSION: Before we get more than 20' of Heeling, we're going to start explaining that the reward may be hidden, so that doesn't come as a nasty surprise later. For conformation dogs, we're adding the full circle gait, and working on mat diving, and adding a freestack.

LEVEL SIX

Dog Heels 80’ with one about turn, a fast, a slow, and two Halts. Appropriate cues. This is an optional behaviour which must be done with no food or clicker in the room or area.

LEVEL SEVEN

Dog performs a full formal Heel Free exercise, complete with Figure 8, maintaining contact throughout. This is an optional behaviour which must be done with no food or clicker in the room or area.

DISCUSSION: Doodling is not only an excellent way of reinforcing Heel position in the dog's mind, but it also teaches all the "really hard" behaviours from Rally-O. And these Doodles make SUPER tricks for entertaining people!