Heelwork Challenge!

HAH

HAH

Moderator
Location
Devon, UK
I didn’t video it, but at the beach today Kipper did the best loose lead walking EVER :D
I popped him on the lead for the busier last home stretch near the car park where all the families with dogs and small children congregate, and he was just fabulous; walking comfortably between OH and me, a lovely consistent heel (with lots of reinforcing from me!). Lots of distractions and the odd pull but frankly light years better than a few months ago. So pleased :)
 
Heidrun

Heidrun

A little bit of off lead heel work with Amy. She is quite distracted by my iPhone filming her and keeps looking up at me, but she is generally a very attentive dog and looks up at me often. I threw in a bit of distraction with one of my other dogs, Caddie is doing some free running in front of us. Heel work is not my favourite part of training and I only do enough to have a dog walking on and off lead without much hassle.
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
Watching everyone's videos has make me feel much better about how Carbon walks with me. The constant looking at me is something I'm just not used to - still - as it feels like food mugging to me. Along with @snowbunny's 'bribe vs reward' discussion a few weeks back, I'm getting over that. Maybe it's just a gun dog style as well (saying gun dog instead of labrador as obviously @Heidrun 's Amy is a checker-iner as well).

I'm constantly discovering just how much my training style - if you can call it that - was tailored to a Rottie vs. a Lab. I'm pretty slow but hopefully some day - and with a lot of help from here - I'll finally figure out this Lab thing. 😂
 
Heidrun

Heidrun

I think it depends on what you want from your dog. Because of the work my dogs do in the field it doesn’t bother me that they frequently look up at me when at heel. If I had labradors and did a lot of walked up shooting or field trials / working test with them I would have to rethink my training. One advantage of having spaniels is that walking to heel is never tested in a competition.
 
snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
I obviously don't do anything at the standard of Heidrun et al, but I find that my dogs look up at me a lot when walking at heel out and about, but when they know there's a chance of a retrieve, they look forwards. At the end of the day, they're looking for their reinforcer; when there is a retrieve on the line, that means their reinforcer is "out there". Outside of that context, any reinforcement comes from me.
 
Heidrun

Heidrun

snowbunny said:
I obviously don't do anything at the standard of Heidrun et al, but I find that my dogs look up at me a lot when walking at heel out and about, but when they know there's a chance of a retrieve, they look forwards. At the end of the day, they're looking for their reinforcer; when there is a retrieve on the line, that means their reinforcer is "out there". Outside of that context, any reinforcement comes from me.
Click to expand...
Yes, this is very true. In a field with a dummy thrower or guns ahead of us Amy would be busy scanning for anything falling rather than look up at me.
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
I think they all have their quirks to be honest. At nearly 11 months Mas STILL mouths me. Not as often and never ever breaks the skin but when he’s excited (so anything to do with a ball!) he still leaps around and pulls at my clothing etc.

Yet in school he can sit still as a rock whilst 300 children walk by and not even twitch 🙄
 
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