What is Heel, and Why Are We Doing It?

 2 min 49 sec

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Leash Grip and Length

3 minutes

The biggest thing that I want to stress from this video is the importance of maintaining slack on the leash. What many folks don't realize is that even the slightest amount of pressure on the leash allows your dog to be aware of your position relative to theirs without them having to check in with you. Because of this, if the leash is too short, many dogs will begin scanning the environment and becoming more aroused because they do not need to check in and use their brains to maintain an awareness of their handlers. I cannot stress enough that it is only when a dog maintains a slack leash that they learn to develop attentiveness and self-discipline.

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Creating a Boundary, Staying Relaxed, and Moving With Purpose

4 min 45 sec

You may want to watch that last video twice as it contains a substantial amount of a very important information. Here is a recap of the key points:

• Hold the leash with an overhand grip (Thumbs up, pinky down).
  Keep the leash short but not tight.
• Imagine an invisible boundary line across the front of your hips.
  Always correct your dog right at the boundary, not after he has already gone in front of you.
• Stay relaxed, let your arms hang at your side and swing naturally.
  Let the weight of you arm swinging do the work for you when correcting, just add an extra flick of your wrist.
• Walk at a good pace and with “purpose”. The slower you walk the more difficult it is for the dog. Purposeful movement makes the dog want to follow you naturally.

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Demonstrating With Sonny

2 min 35 sec

The only new piece of information from this video is that if you're working in an open/ non-linear area, make sure you move in straight lines, And if you turn make tight geometric corners. If you curve around too much it'll make both your job and the dog's job more difficult. From the dogs standpoint, if you are curving a lot your movement is less predictable and thus it is more challenging for them to follow you. From the handler standpoint, when we make sweeping curves our dogs will have a tendency to move out tangentially to us, which will cause them to be at the end of the leash throughout those curves.

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Starting and Stopping

7 min 10 sec

Key Points:

• Don't wait for your dog. Once you say heel start walking, your dog must learn that it is his responsibility to follow you.

• Stopping and sitting are two different things. Next video we will be teaching the auto sit, but make sure your dog is stopping well first.

• Used used to use the leash like a hand brake to stop your dog, giving a gentle pressure upward until the dog comes to a complete stop, Then release pressure.

• In the beginning stages practice stopping after an about turn. Make sure you take a couple steps after the turn before stopping.

• Practice the dynamic leash length to give you more control. The shorter the leash is, the more control you have over your dog's movement.

• Once your dog is doing good, try this exercise without the about turn prior to stopping.

• Notice how Sonny becomes more and more attentive to me as the exercise progresses. Practicing starting and stopping is a great way to develop your dog's attentiveness.

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Teaching the Sit

4 min 6 sec

I apologize for the bad audio in the above clip. Tonga (the dog) is a total nut, and has a hard time settling down. There another video of him on my YouTube channel if anyone is interested. 

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Adding the Sit to Heel

4 min 9 sec

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Putting it All Together

 4 min 8 sec

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Practice in the Real World and Giving Breaks

2 min 6 sec