Chapter 8. The Heel Position

On occasion, you may want your Companion Dog to be at your side and under control. Getting the dog close to you is especially useful when a situation on the stroll appears threatening. Besides, when you get your dog to the Heel position, he is less likely be a nuisance to anyone, or get into mischief.

Working Dogs are brought to Heel for a different purpose. It's the position from which they are released to do some work. The Stand-stay at Heel is the normal controlled stance for many working dogs. When called to Heel, the working dog goes into an automatic Stand-stay. It's the stance that is geared for immediate action—the dog expects a command to do something of a work nature. However, when there is a lull in the working dog's activity, the handler will put the dog in a resting Sit or Down attitude with a command or signal.

In the present lesson, you will teach your dog to do an automatic Stand-stay, the Ready-for-action stance, when he comes to Heel—I'd imagine that a dog, faced with an imminent threat feels more vulnerable when he is in sit or down. You have the option, of course, of putting the dog into the resting Sit or Down whenever you wish, anytime, with a command.

Defining the classic Heel position: When you are standing still, the neck/shoulder region of the forward-facing dog is lined up with your left leg, and close alongside you.

In the early part of your training, you will gently guide your dog to the correct position. Then later, you will use the command, HEEL, to tell the dog to come to your left side, to the precise Heel position. In yet another step, the Heel command should not only get a "Come to Heel" response, but also an automatic "Stand-stay." If you are doing Obedience competition, your dog shall learn the automatic Sit and Stay at Heel, but in a later training step. However, you may choose to have your dog do the automatic Sit-stay, in any event.

Handling

No harsh leash handling is necessary to get the dog to learn a precise Heel position. Typically, you will gently guide the dog into Heel position. When the dog is there, he is told GOOD (or OUT), then is given a food tidbit (or grand reward). The dog is allowed to break from the heel position to pick up the food.

Correct timing

Precise timing of the reinforcing sounds, GOOD or OUT, is essential. In the first phase of this training, the reinforcing sound comes on at the moment the dog is correctly aligned at your left side. After you deliver the reinforcing sound, you can go about the business of rewarding the dog in a deliberate but unhurried way. You can even reach into your pocket or go to a nearby table for a food tidbit, after making the GOOD sound. Taking several seconds to find a food-piece will scarcely affect the dog's learning speed, since you already told the dog that he earned a reward when he made the correct response. Later in training, the command, HEEL, will mean, "Come to Heel, and Stay when you get there." In which case, you will deliver a reinforcing sound anytime the dog is in a Stand-stay (or Sit-stay).

"To Bait" or "Not to Bait"

Some trainers, who use the Reward Method, attract the dog to the heel position with "food baiting." Simply defined, "baiting" is a food-following technique—the dog follows the movement of the hand that holds an exposed food tidbit. Baiting is not a suitable technique to use in most training situations. The main problem with baiting is that it strengthens a strong "begging" response at a time when the dog is trying to do something else.

In the "non-baiting" procedure that we use, no food is in sight or evident to the dog before he makes the correct response. When the dog hears the reinforcing sound, GOOD or OUT, he is allowed to break from the response—that's when he can take on a begging stance, in anticipation of the imminent food reward. The reinforcing sound means: "You made a good response; come and get your reward."

Schedule

Two or more Come-to-Heel sessions may be done back to back—with a short one-minute break between sessions. Do 8 or 10 trials per session. A session takes one or two minutes to do. A tablespoon of a tasty canned dog food is a convenient Grand Reward that can follow the OUT sound in these sessions—you may replace the Grand food with "taking a stroll" reward at the end of one of the Come-to-Heel sessions.

Step 1: Teaching the Heel Position

If your dog is a runner, do the work in an enclosed space, such as a room in your house or small fenced area, with your dog off-leash. Do not command the dog to do anything—allow him the freedom to do whatever he wants in this early training step.

The procedure

1. Start the session with the READY sound.
2. Make the usual preparations (see "The Training Session" in Chapter 4).
3. When you are set, face the off-leash dog who is close-by. Let your left arm hang at your side. The closed right hand is held at midriff. You may hold the food tidbits in that hand or, preferably, have them in a dish on a table that's nearby.
4. When you have the dog's attention, move casually to his right side. The dog may try to maintain the facing position, since he was rewarded most often when he faced you. Be patient. You will eventually reach his right side, to complete the Heel position (as defined above).
5. You can speed up the procedure by using another person (identified in the text as a Team Player) to hold the dog gently in place for several trials—to keep the dog from moving about. The Team Player may kneel at the dog's left side. Continue the "Team Training" procedure until the dog holds still on his own.
6. When you and the dog come to be correctly aligned at heel (the neck/shoulder region of the dog is lined up with your left leg), say GOOD, then step away from heel position, and deliver a food tidbit. Be sure not to step away or begin a food delivery before you say GOOD. Also, this is not a Stay-at-heel response—the GOOD is sounded at the moment the position is correct.
7. Leave your dog to begin another trial (begin at action 3 again)
8. When you have done about 8 trials, do one more trial.
9. On the last trial of the session, deliver the OUT sound when the dog is in the correct heel position. Then go to the place where you keep the Goal food.
10. Give the dog a tablespoon of canned dog food, or something tasty from the refrigerator.

For a session or two, you will be making all of the moves that end with the dog in the proper heel position. That is, the dog hasn't yet learned how to make the correct alignment without your assistance. However, during these trials the dog is learning, by association, that reinforcement comes only when both of you are physically positioned in that select way to each other. Though he soon gets to know that, he still may not know that he can turn on the reinforcing sound, by making the position-response himself.

It may be awhile before the dog begins to move to the reinforcing position, without your help. But, even when the dog starts to make the right moves that bring him there, always make sure that the dog is precisely there before reinforcing the response: For awhile, you will have to make almost every response "look good" with an additional corrective movement yourself.

Do five sessions of "getting-acquainted with the heel position" daily for two days. These sessions will help the dog, in the next step, to be lightly-guided into heel with a leash.

Step 2: Guiding dog into heel position

In Step 1, the dog was permitted to walk about, if he so wished, on any of the training trials, except when you used another Team Player to hold the dog still. You were instructed to move casually to the dog to achieve the heel position. In the present step, you will make the same moves toward the dog's right side, but you will also lightly guide the dog in with a lead. Then, reinforce and reward, when you and the dog are in correct alignment.

Continue to do the work in an enclosed space, such as a room in your house. Put a leash on the dog. Do not say the dog's name, or voice-command him to do anything during the training session. Don't talk to the dog during the trial, except to say GOOD or OUT. Allow him freedom to move about between trials.

The procedure:

1. Call the dog to work with the READY sound.
2. Make the usual session preparations.
3. Put the dog on loose lead.
4. When ready, move four to six feet from the dog and face him.
5. Wait a second or more, and then walk normally toward the dog's right side. As you make the turn into the dog, nonchalantly take up the slack in the leash. Then, calmly, but deliberately, lead the dog into the correct Heel position. During this action, try to get the dog to make part of the effort, but do it without coercion.
6. When the dog is close to being correct in Heel position, make the final corrective movement so that both of you will be in precise alignment.
7. When the position is "right" for reinforcement, halt, say GOOD, then release any tension that you may still have on the leash.
8. Face the dog and give him a food tidbit. The dog is permitted to break from the heel position when he hears the reinforcing sounds, GOOD or OUT.
9. Go to action 3 for another tidbit-rewarding trial. If the next trial is the last one in the session, go to the next action.
10. For this last trial, replace the GOOD sound with OUT, then deliver a "grand" reward.
11. End of session.

Continue to assist the dog to make a "precise" response by making part of the move to the correct position yourself. End each session with OUT and a grand reward. To repeat, don't say the dog's name or tell the dog to come to Heel, at this stage. Continue the "Come-to-heel" work, along with any other work session.

Step 3. Dog gets a momentary leash tug

In the present step, a simple leash tug replaces the continued leash assistance. You will approach the dog to his right side as before. There, you will give the leash a light and momentary tug in a forward direction; Continue one step forward past the dog without pause, and halt. The aid that you give the dog to come to heel lasts only a moment—it's not continuous, as it was in the previous step. You want the dog to make the final step to come to Heel by himself. We find this step to be a nice transition between the one that gets the dog to know the heeling position (step 1) and one that gets control over the dog's heeling movement without any leash aid (step 4).

The procedure:

1. Say READY. Make training preparations.
2. Put the dog on loose lead.
3. Wait a second or two, then approach the standing dog from the side and rear.
4. As you walk casually past the dog's right side, with no pause in pace, give the leash a light forward tug.
5. Continue to walk one pace forward past the dog. The tug on the lead is supposed to tell the dog to come alongside you to the heel position.

If the momentary tug is not enough to get the dog to move to you, then gently guide him into position with the lead. You may still make a final move to the dog's position to make the perfect heel.

6. When the dog comes alongside you, reinforce with the sound, GOOD. Then turn to face the dog, and give him a tidbit. Do not break from the heel position before you say the reinforcing sound.
7. Go to action three if the next trial is still tidbit-rewarded. Go to the next action if the next trial is the last one in the session.
8. Say OUT when the dog makes the last good response in the session.
9. Go to the place where you keep the Grand-food. Put one tablespoon of a tasty canned dog food or a bit of table scraps into a food pan.
10. After the Grand-food is eaten, wait another minute, and then start another training session with the READY sound.

Continue the present trial procedure for the remainder of the training week, or longer, until the dog readily comes to heel when given a short-tug prompt. Be sure not to hurry through Step 1 training - it teaches the dog where the precise heeling position is reinforced. With just a bit more training in Step 2, your dog may quickly figure out that he can make the heel position happen—you see the dog make an effort to come to heel. In which case, you can accelerate the training. That is, keep walking slowly while lightly assisting the dog. As the dog tries to come to heel, guide him to the precise heel position with the leash. When he happens to be in the correct position, halt, and reinforce with the GOOD or OUT sound. Then turn to face the dog to reward him. Continue this training until the dog comes quickly into position with little or no leash-help. Otherwise, continue with training other tasks.

Step 4. The dog works off-leash

The procedure of this training step is like that of Step 3, but now, the dog gets no leash aid. By this time, the dog should feel comfortable being at your side and wants to be there. The dog should be able to make the appropriate movement into the proper position with little trouble when off leash.

1. Say READY, and make the necessary training preparations.
2. Have the dog off-leash.
3. Take a several steps away from the dog. You can expect the dog to follow wherever you go. For a couple of seconds or so, move about in a way that prevents the dog from coming to Heel.
4. Then, slowly approach the dog from his back and side.
5. Pass closely along the dog's right. Expect him to move with you.
6. When the dog comes close to being in the correct position, halt. You can make the heel position more correct by making a minor correction movement yourself.
7. Say GOOD.
8. Turn to face the dog and deliver a food tidbit.
9. If the next trial is tidbit-rewarded, go to action 3.
10. Continue the procedure until you are out of tidbits.
11. If the next trial is the last one in the session, say OUT when the response is a good one. Then deliver the Grand reward.

Step 5. Teaching the command, HEEL

Pairing the command HEEL with a leash-tug prompt.

1. Say READY. Make the necessary training preparations.
2. Put the dog back on leash.
3. Put the dog in a Stand-stay (see the section: "Sit-stay and Stand-stay training" in Chapter 7).
4. Walk about the room to the limit of the leash length. If the dog breaks from the Stand-stay, say a soft NO, then go to the dog and begin another Stand-stay.
5. When you are ready to give the Heel command, turn and walk toward him.
6. When you are two still two paces away from him, say HEEL, then abruptly make an about turn.
7. Follow your about-turn closely with a leash-tug in the direction of your left side.
8. If necessary, you may give the dog additional assistance, by moving toward the dog's right side, or by easing him toward you.
9. When the dog comes alongside, halt.
10. When the dog is correctly aligned at Heel, Say GOOD. Then reward. You may continue to help the dog by making part of the correct heel-position yourself.
11. For the next tidbit-reward trial, go to action 3. Repeat the HEEL-trial procedure about eight times.
12. A good Heel response on the last trial of the session, earns the sound, OUT, and the grand reward that follows.

Step 6. The Stand-stay at Heel

In the previous steps, you said the reinforcing sound, GOOD or OUT, at the precise moment the dog was in the correct Heel position. In this step, you are going to add a new response, an immediate Stand-stay after he comes to a halt at Heel.

The procedure

When the dog reaches the precise Heel position, say, STAY, rather than GOOD or OUT. Then help the dog to remain standing by gently holding the dog in the Stand attitude, if necessary. After the dog is in Stand-stay for one or more seconds, (vary the time), say GOOD or OUT, then reward as usual. Continue using the Stay-command assistance until you are sure that the dog remains standing without the Stay prompt. You may, after a week or so, stop saying STAY—the Stand-stay will be understood whenever the dog comes to Heel.

Step 7. The Resting Attitude at Heel

In this step, you will add another response to the chain—a response that was learned earlier. On an occasional trial, you may put the dog in a resting Sit or Down: After the dog's been in the Stand-stay-at-Heel for 3 or more seconds, Say SIT (or DOWN). When the dog has been in a resting attitude for about 10 seconds, say GOOD or OUT, then reward him. If the dog is still sitting at the end of a trial, then command and/or signal him to Rise (with assistance if necessary) for the next trial.

Automatic Sit-stay at Heel (optional)

You may prefer an automatic Sit-stay, rather than the automatic Stand-stay, when the dog comes to Heel (It's a requirement for Obedience trials). To get the automatic Sit-stay, you will do a variation of the Step 6 procedure.

The Procedure: Call the dog to Heel. At the precise moment the dog is in the correct Heel position, Say SIT—the dog should already know to Sit and Stay on the command, SIT. Nevertheless, prompt the Sit and Stay as you had in Chapter 6, "Sit and Rise." When you are sure that the dog will give you an automatic Sit-stay at Heel, you can eliminate the Sit and Stay commands. The command, HEEL, will then serve to get the dog to the Heel position, and without further asking the dog to Sit, he will automatically Sit, then Stay. Do not hurry through any of the training steps.

The automatic Sit-stay at Heel is also taught in chapter 10, "Front and Finish."

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