Chapter 11. Straight-line Heeling

Straight-line Heeling is a precision exercise. Ever-greater demands are put on the dog to be more precise in the way he performs the exercise. The procedure is still regarded as Game-playing, since no pressure is put on the dog to perform; and the dog may refuse to "play" at any time, without penalty. Be assured, though, that your dog will be up to the task, whenever given the chance, because attractive foods and non-appetitive rewards await the dog for finishing a fine performance.

You will not do tidbit rewarding during the heeling work. The dog does not "break" for a food tidbit after hearing the GOOD sound, as he would in the normal Game-playing mode, but continues to perform. However, tangible rewards continue to follow the OUT sound.

In the heeling procedure that follows, the dog earns the chance to get a tasty grand reward or to take a pleasure stroll (other tangible rewards can be substituted). No harsh leash handling is necessary to get the dog to heel in a precise position and manner. For example, when you tell the dog to heel, follow with a light tug, or gently guide the dog into the heeling position.

Precision Heeling has relevance in these ways: (1) It's a challenging way for the dog to earn attractive rewards. (2) It has a disciplining quality—it's one of the things that the dog may have to do as a penalty for misbehaving and disobeying. (3) It's an excellent vehicle for learning the Disabling Sounds, NO and TIME. (4) It's an important component in a Competition-obedience exercise.

The Disabling Sounds, NO and TIME. These sounds are normally said whenever the dog disobeys or misbehaves in social settings. To effectively manage a dog's social behavior, the NO sound is used to mean, "Stop doing what you're doing;" and the sound TIME is taught to mean, "You continued to ignore the warning. For that, you've earned a punishment."

When heeling, the NO sound tells the dog that he's out of position, and that if he continues to do it, he may turn on the sound, TIME. The TIME sound tells the dog that he just earned some "penalty" work. In the heeling case, it means that he must do the exercise over again from the beginning.

Reinforcing as well as disabling sounds are used extensively in advanced training, to get the dog to perform well in competing events, such as Obedience Trials.

Timing and Sequencing. The dog must be "told" about the goodness of his responses at the precise moment the responses are made. That is, the "goodness-telling" sound, GOOD or OUT, is "timed" to come on precisely when the dog is making a correct response. Likewise, the sound, NO or TIME, comes on at the precise moment of an undesirable response.

The reward or punishment must not be delivered simultaneously with "goodness telling." It's poor technique to do that. They must be delivered in this sequence: The reinforcing sound comes on, then the reward is delivered; the disabling sound comes on, then the punishment is delivered. The "goodness telling" must come on before you start any movements to reward or punish the dog. After you say a reinforcing or disabling sound, the movement to deliver a reward or punishment is deliberate, but not necessarily hurried.

Step 1. The dog finds the Food Bowl

If your dog is not yet familiar with the location of the food bowl in the outdoor setting, then continue with this step. Otherwise, skip to step 2 and begin 'Straight-line Heeling' training.

1. Say READY before going out of doors. This alerts the dog to fun and games. Attach the leash to the dog's collar.
2. Take your dog wherever it's convenient to do the upcoming heeling work. Take along a can of tasty dog food, plastic can cover, spoon and food bowl.
3. Place the food bowl, food can, and spoon on the ground, sidewalk, road or lawn—off to the side where you'll be doing the heeling. Place a tablespoon of food into the dish. Don't let the dog get to it yet.
4. Lead the dog away from the dish. Don't heel the dog during the walk-away
5. When you about 20 feet away, say OUT.
6. Then and only then, turn and run to the food dish.

In the early trials, the dog will follow you to the bowl. Later, the dog will dash to the bowl without your help. Permit the dog to finish the food that's there. Put more food into the dish, and proceed as before for two more trials or until he knows the location of the food bowl.

Step 2. Straight-line Heeling

When Heeling, the sound, GOOD, is no longer followed by a tangible reward; the sound is meant only to inform the dog about the "goodness" of his responses. It means, "So far, so good—keep it up and you will turn on the reinforcing sound, OUT, and a grand reward."

Straight-line Heeling is simply that. It has no halts at Heel, starts at Heel, changes in speed or changes in direction (except the about-turn, which keeps the Heeling work ongoing in a small setting). If you intend to do Obedience competition work, you want your dog to know initially how to move alongside you in a precise way, which this training does. Later, you can add the accessory Heeling features to the Heeling exercise in more advanced work.

Getting Started

You said READY when still in the house. You made all of the usual work preparations, and are in the outdoor workplace. Choose a starting location for the heeling. It can be wherever you choose to put it. Schedule five OUT -reward trials in these early training sessions.

1. Walk your dog to the food dish; Place a tablespoon of canned dog food into the dish.
2. Allow the dog to sample the first spoonful of food.
3. After the food is eaten, place another dab of food into the food dish. Prevent the dog from getting at it.
4. Walk without heeling to the Starting line (see "Proper handling of the leash," below).
5. When you come close to the starting line, say HEEL. Without stopping, make an about turn, and step out into a brisk Heeling pace.

The leash is scarcely loose whenever the dog is in the proper Heel position, It's barely loose, so that you can swiftly and correctly perform the leash aid (see "Reinforcing a Correct Heeling Performance," and "Correcting an Improper Heeling Performance," below).

6. When the dog had been heeling for about 30 seconds and is fairly close to the proper heel position, say OUT. At first, you may say the OUT sound while physically holding the dog in the correct position and alignment.
7. Then turn and hurry to the food bowl. The dog will either run ahead of you, or run with you to the bowl. Don't start any movement toward the bowl until you've said the OUT sound.
8. Repeat actions 3 through 8 if you have more trials to do in the session.

When the training Session ends. Five or six such OUT-food trials make up the session in this training step. After the last trial, you may tie your dog to a tree or your car while you take the food and dish into the house. Refrigerate the food until the next outdoor session.

Come back to the dog, remove the leash from the collar and attach it to the harness (if you have one on the dog) and take him for a stroll. Allow the dog to fully enjoy the walk, without corrections. If you already started Walk-on-loose-lead training, you may prefer to have your dog do that while on the stroll. Also, the pleasure stroll can be interrupted one or more times for a short heeling session or any other work that you might care to do on the stroll.

The Dog Quits on You. The dog is allowed to stop working if he wishes, but then he forfeits the chance to earn rewards. You'll know when he wants to quit. When that happens, end the session without command or signal. Just lead the dog back into the house, or kennel, and leave him there until you are ready to resume the work, later. The dog will get the message!

Proper Handling of the Leash. As the dog follows you to the Starting Line, bunch up part of the leash in your right hand until you have just a little slack at the slip or leather collar. Place your closed right hand at chest level and keep it there during the exercise. Also, lightly grasp the lead in your left hand, as close as you can to the slip collar. You will be using the left hand to aid the dog back into the correct Heel position, when needed, as you walk. If your interest is Obedience Trialing, you will make two changes, later, in your leash handling: your left arm will hang at your side without touching the leash, and you will allow more slack in the leash, as held in your right hand.

Reinforcing a Correct Heeling Performance

When the dog feels no tug or pull on the leash, he is in the proper rewarding position—it is then that he hears the sound GOOD or OUT. The GOOD is not followed with food during the Heeling exercise. It tells the dog that he is doing well, and that continuing the good heeling performance will turn on the sound, OUT, and all the good things that follow.

Although you are teaching Straight-line Heeling to the dog, you may make an about turn if you get too far from the food bowl. A distance of about 50 feet from the starting line is about right before you turn and go in the opposite direction. Do no correcting on the turn.

Correcting Improper Heeling

The NO sound. Aid the dog adequately to be in the correct position. Whenever the dog drifts out of Heel position, say NO. Follow the NO sound with a light, smooth, pullback, pull-forward or pull-in on the leash as you continue walking at a brisk pace. The correction gets the dog back into the correct heel position. When he's back, say GOOD. Do the aiding in a gentle manner without snapping the lead. Quickly release tension on the lead when the dog is in position, and allow a little slack in the lead.

The leash correction should not, by itself, be something that the dog wants to avoid—no physical punishment is intended when you make a leash correction. Introduce the TIME sound and punishment into the training procedure after doing about a dozen heeling sessions. In the meantime use only the GOOD, NO and OUT sounds.

Early in the present procedure, NO is only an informational sound. It tells the dog that he is out of position. Later, in addition, the NO sound tells the dog that if he persists being out of position, he will get the Disabling sound, TIME, and a "work" penalty.

In this training mode, the dog may still refuse to work if he wishes, even when he's in a penalty situation. If he quits working, he only forfeits his chance for earning rewards. You will know when the dog out-and-out quits. However, it's rare for that to happen.

Punishing a Heeling Performance

Introducing the TIME sound. Continue the above procedures in all specifics, except these: (1) the dog now receives a "penalty" punishment occasionally when he strays from the proper heeling position. The TIME sound signals the penalty. The dog may work off a "TIME" penalty by doing the heeling work again from the beginning. (2) the trial ends either with the OUT or TIME sound. If it's the former sound, the dog goes to the food bowl; if it's the latter, the dog repeats the trial from the original or an intermediate starting line.

1. When the dog drifts away from heel, say NO, then immediately leash-prompt the correct heeling response, without snapping the lead. Quickly release and allow a little slack in the lead. Continue heeling. If the dog consistently fails to come to the precise position with just a light tug, then lead the dog fully into position, as often as you need to.
2. When the dog is back into heel position, say GOOD and continue walking. After several quick consecutive NO sounds and corrections, say TIME and follow with the "work penalty."
3. Immediately after the TIME sound, quickly raise the lead above the dog's head and keep it semi-taut as you walk back to the starting line, where he will work off the penalty. The lead should be kept taut without causing undue discomfort to the dog.

The "upward-raised, semi-taut lead" is a bridging event. A bridging event makes it easy for the dog to make a connection between two events that are separated by time. In the present case, the "semi-taut lead" bridges the time interval between the TIME sound, and the start of the work penalty at the starting line.

When you reach the original starting point (or some other arbitrary starting point, if it happens on a stroll), say HEEL, then release the light tension that you had on the lead; make your turn without missing a step, while simultaneously leading the dog into the proper Heel position; and begin the actual "punishment." The Heeling procedure is the same, whether the dog is doing it for rewards or to work off a penalty.

Schedule none, one or two TIME-punishments during each of the heeling trials. This means that on every occasion that TIME is sounded, the trial will abort, and the dog is made to repeat the work from the beginning. The trial continues until the dog hears the reinforcing sound, OUT. Make it easy for the dog to earn the OUT-grand reward after he's done the allotted number of TIME-punishments for that particular trial.

Team Training

You have a lot to do during the Heeling trial. So, why not have another Team Player do some of the trial events? You might do it this way: Team Player 2 walks alongside the dog's left side, about eight feet away, at the same speed as the dog-handler team.

Team Player 2 has the task of saying the sounds, GOOD, NO, TIME and OUT. She says GOOD, when the dog is in the correct Heel position; says NO when the dog is out of position; says TIME after several consecutive NO sounds; says OUT after several consecutive GOOD sounds. You, as Team Player 1, thus can work your dog without constantly looking sideways at him. You can then provide the proper consequence to whatever sound that you hear from Team Player 2. You can expect the dog to learn faster with Team Training.

Competition-obedience Heeling

(To be continued)

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