Teaching your dog to heel can be a nightmare if you do not train him from the start or in the proper order. I tried for years to teach my first dog, a Whippet/Border Collie cross, to heel without first understanding the breed or understanding the motivation behind ‘heeling’ for the dog.

How many times to you see someone being towed down the road by their dog while periodically pulling on the leash and saying ‘No! Fido, heel!”. This was me many years ago and (surprise-surprise) that dog never learned to heel.

Yes, breed type does enter into how well and how quickly a dog learns to heel. That poor dog had mixed up instincts in every way: she never knew whether to chase things or herd them, she had the visual reaction of a sighthound but the hypnotizing eye of the Border Collie, all mixed with the coach potato attitude of the Whippet and the energy levels of the herding dog. How many mixed messages went through her brain on an average day? And now that I know better, I am amazed that she was as good of a dog as she was getting mixed up with an owner who did not understand her drives.

Always consider what breed your dog is and think about the bigger picture on how their natural instinct will affect their ability to learn a command. All breeds can learn every canine command (if they are physically able to at least) but what changes is the enthusiasm they may have for the job, the way you train the command, how long it will take to learn a command, and what techniques you may need to use to get them to understand what it is you want them to do.

What about teaching a Siberian Husky to heel? Their whole role in life is to pull things and now you want your pup to walk nicely beside you on a loose lead? You can do it, you might just need to be more patient then the average dog owner and understand that you need to make their reward for heeling far more valuable then the reward for pulling on the leash – food is a factor here!

In comparison, the Clumber Spaniel is bred to be a companion for the gentleman hunter. Heeling comes more easily for this breed as they are not bred to pull, but rather to amble along with their person while he may, or may not, shoot something. Sporting dogs in general are eager to please their owner and do not require as much bribery to learn a new command.

Your dog now knows ‘Sit’, ‘Down’, ‘Stay’ and on September 18th, you learned how to train the ‘look’ command. We are now going to implement all of this into walking nicely on a leash and heeling sessions in an attempt to make it all easier.

Start with your dog on your left in the ‘Sit’ position. Step off with your right foot and say ‘Fido, walk’ in a happy voice. Fido should walk along with you, possibly surging ahead depending on his enthusiasm. Give him an ‘eh, eh, eh’ noise and then a ‘Fido, look!’, holding a piece of food near your eye. Praise him with a ‘good, Fido, good look’ and the food when he stops pulling and looks up at you. The action of looking you in the eye while walking automatically puts him into a ‘heel’ position, pacing your speed perfectly. Hold another piece of food near your eye. When he is in a solid ‘heel’, tell him ‘good boy, good heel!’ and reward him with more food.

Continue this, letting him know when he is walking nicely with a ‘good boy’ and a reward and giving him an ‘eh, eh, eh’ when he misbehaves. Once he knows to look at you while walking on a leash, start implementing the turns and stops from last week. Soon he will be the best walking dog on the block!