Training Loose Lead Walking to Heel

Teaching Loose Lead walking with your dog

• Hardest thing to teach, takes time.
• At first, choose a non stimulating environment, garden or quiet field.
• Do it in stages, to learn properly.
• Holding the lead, have your hands at your waist... no tension on the lead
• Do 'Drunk walking' – ie Walk 5 steps in any direction, change direction, sideways, circle, diagonal, backwards, continue.
• If lead is slack, say 'Good' or a happy 'YES'! + reward with food to dog’s mouth.
• Don’t put any cue word in yet, like ‘Heel or ‘Let’s go’, dog doesn’t understand what this means.

The 4 components of Dog Learning

• Dogs learn by connecting their body Action, with the Hand movement (which eventually becomes the hand signal, the Verbal cue + the Reward
• ACTION by dog / HAND Signal by human / + Reward for dog + Verbal Cue word = LEARNING.
• Introduce the Command word WITH the Action.

Initially

• Don’t have food in the hand as a lure for a loose lead.
• The behaviour, loose lead should make me say 'Good or 'Yes' and then feed the dog
• Walking with me is the cue for a slack lead
• This is classical conditioning....the dog learns that slack lead means ‘a verbal Good’ and gets rewarded.
• Once this is imbedded, we move to operant conditioning

Move on to:

• When walking and lead goes slack, don’t immediately say Good, wait till dog looks at me, then say Good and reinforce with reward. The checking in with me gets rewarded.
• Deliver consequences for behaviour.
• The dog is LEARNING’ the behaviour AND checking in...brings reward. Learning.
• So, dog is learning that when on the move, and I look at owner, I get rewarded
• Dog can’t look and pull at the same time

 Add Distance, Duration + Distraction.

• Add more Distance before we turn
• Add more Duration when eyes connect and us saying good
• Practice in a Distracting environment – initially up and down the pavement outside your house.
• Work towards not needing food, but that he checks in to you as his reward.
• Reward early and often.
• Use your voice to bridge the gap between distraction and reward, with ‘hey, treat, yes’  type words.
• Put a ‘Let’s Go’ command in as the cue word to walk.
• If dog pulls in front, stand still, + wait for her to come back to heel, or change direction.

 Why might your dog ignore you?
1. Environment – dog starts to pull as soon as you go out the door. Start in house or garden. So, break things down for them so they achieve some success. up and down the pavement, Get a win and end that session.
2. Lead tension, don’t reward if tight, let it hang down in a ‘smile shape’. Lots of little adjustments are better than a big fix.
3. Manage your pace, not too slow, move purposely and deliberately, dog will be less distracted. Make turns.
4. Inconsistency. Keep up the training and be consistent.
5. Poor ‘Value’ and frequency of reward. Have a great food reward the dog loves and as frequently as necessary.

Equipment Choices
A normal collar and lead, not a retracting lead.
A Harness with 2 attachments, one on the back, one in the front, (or on the collar).
A head collar - Halti, Gencon often helps, but not if the dog pulls against it. 

Jill Timms BCCSDip.Adv.DogBhv – Canine Behaviourist and Dog Trainer.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/K9DreamersDogTraining/