From: fritzz@bud.megatek.uucp
Subject: Re: Heeling advice requested
Reply-To: megatek!fritzz@uunet.uu.net
Organization: Megatek Corporation, San Diego, California
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 15:27:08 GMT

In article <1992Apr16.123650.995@desire.wright.edu> bmann@desire.wright.edu writes:
>
>The problem: He surges ahead a lot and is very easily distracted by
>all the other things going on 
>
>What I've been told to do by various people (you will observe that
>it is impossible to do this all at once):
>	1. Talk to him constantly, praising him profusely when he 
>heels well.  (No advice from this person about what to talk to him
>about when he isn't heeling well!)
>	2. "Pop" the collar when he goes out of heel position -
>popping in a direction that urges him back to the right place.
>	3. Tell him "NO" at the same time I pop.
>	4. Repeat "Heel" at the same time I pop.
>	5. Use bait to keep his attention.
>	6. Don't use bait to keep his attention.

My recommendations: 1,2,4 & 6.

Your dog is looking for things to pay attention to. Talking to
him gives him something to focus on besides other dogs. What you
say isn't important, but don't be afraid to do it loud enough to
keep his attention.

Practice the pop. It should be quick enough so that he's not quite
sure what hit him. You don't need to physically move the dog back,
just ley him know he's breaking the rules. 

Saying "Heel" will teach your dog that the heel position is by
your side. If you plan to start working off lead your dog will
respond to this as if you had used a correction. (This is 
actually a long term training thing, it probably won't do
to much right away, but the more you do it the more effective
it becomes.) Make sure that you emphasize it so that it stands
out from the rest of your talking.

Bait training works as long as you keep bait training. That's fine
if you only need him to behave in a show ring (where you only
spend 1% of the time working your dog without bait). If you want
him to behave on  his own merit, use verbal and physical praise
as a reward. I think bait training may have its uses, but I don't
think it works well for teaching attention. You want the dog to
watch _you_, not the food.

Suggestions you haven't seen yet:

Take time. He won't learn everything in a month. A heel is something
you will see get tighter and tighter with  time. Don't try to rush it.

Forging tends to be a gradual thing: he will sneak forward slowley
so that is difficult to tell when to correct. Something you can do
when practicing onn your own (This doesn't work in class...) is cause
your dogs forging to make him _really_ lose his heel position.
When your do gets out in front of you, do a right turn. Take a good
sized step and the issue a correction. By making the right turn you
are walking away from your dog and increasing the distance that he is
out of heel so that he will know he did something wrong. After a while
he should start hanging back enough so that he will be able to follow
your right turns. Then start using left turns (bumping him in the chest
or shoulders with your legs) to teach him that he's still to far in front.
He should notice on his own that a proper heel position is the best place
to anticipate your moves. 

After a while this becomes a game, and you can try to shake him out
of heel position and he should be adept enough to keep up with some
pretty serious maneuvering.

Also, Binding works well, but can be difficult to do. It takes
some coordination and can be tough with a smaller dog (It should
work well with an Airdale though...) See Marla's post for more info...
-- 
-- "You are the knife. I am the meat."  -M. Lang
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