Heeling is a dog obedience command that means the dog puts her nose to the outside of your left knee. Obedience ring judges would have a stricter definition, but almost every pet owner would simply be happy if their dog would come to their side while walking.
Most dog trainers teach heeling by using leash jerking. The dog learns to stay by that left knee to avoid the painful leash jerk. Many younger positive-only dog trainers will use a dog treat to reward the dog once their nose gets to that left knee. Suffice to say that while either approach can work, there are shortcomings to both of them.
Those shortcomings become apparent whenever we ask the question “What happens when …?” For the traditional leash or shock collar approach, what happens when there is no leash, prong collar or electric collar? For the positive food approach, what happens when there is no treat or the dog isn’t feeling particularly food motivated? The real life answer to both of these questions is usually that the dog doesn’t respond appropriately. That’s another way of saying that the dog hasn’t really learned what you wanted her to learn.
A better approach
A simpler, faster and more durable training approach to teaching heeling is to forget the leash and start by using a high value food reward like a piece of cheese and then quickly shift to using one of the dog’s natural life rewards. In an enclosed area, while your dog is away from you, hold a piece of cheese or chicken or liver or whatever high value food reward she loves down next to whichever knee you’d like your dog to associate with heeling. When she gets to that cheese, say “heel” clearly and say your sweet “good girl” to her when she does it (or whatever verbal praise you normally use).
Dogs are smart. I guarantee you it won’t take more than a dozen repetitions of this before your dog is coming right to that knee every time you say “heel.” Once your dog starts coming directly to that knee for that reward, you start mixing it up with a life reward. Life rewards for dogs are things like running freely, chasing after something, chewing, tug of war, and being chased. They are dog equivalents of having fun. You’ll know what your dog enjoys doing when she’s free to decide what to do. For my border collie it’s chasing a tennis ball. Use whatever works with your dog.
So once your dog knows that the word “heel” means come straightaway to that knee to get a piece of cheese, every other time, start verbally rewarding your dog and then release her and give her that life reward. Eventually, move to only giving her cheese a third of the time while giving her the release to pursue one of her life rewards the other two times.
But don’t give the cheese robotically every third time. Instead, randomize it to even out at about a third of the time. Otherwise, she’ll just guess at what you’re doing and lose interest. Like I said, dogs are smart. And always stop training before she loses interest in the food reward or the life reward.
Then, after a while, only give her the cheese when you see her coming to heel really directly and more precisely. She’ll then learn that coming directly and precisely gets the most rewarded and will respond appropriately.
Because you’ve used not only food rewards but also self-reinforcing life rewards while training your dog, she will associate heeling with feeling good. She won’t ignore the command “heel” when she isn’t feeling food motivated. Instead, she’ll associate both the word “heel” and your presence with feeling good about life. You’ll have grown your bond. She’ll be happier and so will you!
In real life, you don’t want or need your dog to always heel while you’re walking her. Sometimes you want her to go and explore. It’s good! You got a dog not a robot after all. By teaching her this way, she keeps her innate desire to explore while learning that’s it’s rewarding and fun to listen to and respond to your voice.
Over time, she has also learned through this that she doesn’t need to choose between your “heel” and that squirrel running around over there. By paying attention to you, she gets to enjoy both the human-given reward and the natural-given reward. After all, this way she gets cheese, praise and exploring altogether instead of having to choose between them.
Best of all, every dog breed of every age will enjoy learning how to heel this way. Will some dogs learn faster and perform better? Of course! But every dog and every dog owner can enjoy both this training process and the results from it!