Now, that you have got your dog walking at your left side in the heel position. Whenever you stop, you can just add the sit command, this is all heeling is and yes it can be taught just that easily. There are two other parts to heeling that I want to discuss, the finishes. Finishes mean your dog moves into the heel position when you say a specific word. There are two different finishes, the military finish and the around, the back finish.
The military finish is when your dog moves in a clockwise motion into position at the left side of your leg with his right shoulder. Generally, you teach this command by starting with your dog sitting directly in front of you toe-to-toe. You then say, finish or heel whichever word you have chosen and take one step forward so that you are standing directly next to your dog's left shoulder.
Since your dog knows what the heel command means, most often they move right in position at your left knee and you can say, sit. Do this five to ten times until each time it's done, your dog performs correctly. Once your dog does this 100% of the time, you can then take several steps forward before stopping again and asking your dog to sit. The other type of finish which I refer to as around the back is when your dog actually moves into the heel position by walking around your right side and over to your left side, behind your back.
Again, you can start in the toe-to-toe position with your dog sitting directly in front of you. You say heel, as you maneuver the dog with the hand in your right leash around switching to your left hand behind you and maneuvering your body, so your dog ends up on your left side and then you can command, sit. So for the go to heel position, you want to start with your dog on a leash on collar. Remember to check their attitude and I like to start with a dog siting in front of me, toe-to-toe.
Shug, sit, good boy, that's a good boy. So his toes are pointing towards my toes and for the military finish, you just take one step forward while you say the heel command like so. Shug, heel. Now, since your dog has already learned that heel means to be on your left side, they will almost automatically move into that position. Let's try that again. Shug, sit, good boy, that's a good sit. Shug heel, good boy, good boy, that's a good boy, good boy.
He should automatically sit in that position if he does not, you can just simply command him to sit. So to have your dog go into the heel position, moving around the back of you, you just switch hands with the leash like so. Shug, heel. Sit, good boy. That's a good, good boy. Let me demonstrate that again. Starting in the toe-to-toe position, sit, good boy. Shug, heel. Sit, good boy, that's a good boy, good, good boy.
So when commanding your dog to go into the heel position, I would recommend choosing two different commands depending on if you want your dog to go into the position using the military finish or if you want your dog to move into the position going around the back. I like to use the word either heel or finish, but again use any word that you wish. Be sure to use plenty of verbal praise as well as tactile or food treat as needed during this command.
As you can see, it can be a little complicated to get your dog into the around the back finish as described and shown. But once your dog understands they will do so quickly and efficiently.
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