Finally I think Brodie and I have cracked this heeling business – although I hope I’m not tempting fate by writing this!
The books all make it sound so straight-forward but as a first time dog owner it’s taken me till he’s 13 months! Prior to the last few weeks he had been walking loosely on a lead on most occasions but he always took full advantage of the total length of a lead. However I find it more comfortable when he is at my side so after reading a few books on various techniques I started some intensive heel training just under 2 weeks ago – I’m not sure who’s been the most tired with it, Brodie or me! It did take me a huge amount of concentration and I felt mentally exhausted after some walks – maybe that’s just me getting old!
Anyway the result in just less than 2 weeks is that not only is he walking to heel on lead but he’s managing it off lead too. On Friday I decided to try him on his regular forest walk, at heel off lead, for short distances e.g. 25m, and after a few verbal corrections he managed no bother. On Saturday I upped the distance with no problem; I then progressed to walking him by the bird lake where a swan was sitting a metre from the edge again with no problem. By the Sunday I walked him 300m to heel with only 2 verbal corrections plus the distraction of a couple walking in the opposite direction and Jim cycling on a bike slowly alongside us. I just need to keep working on it and add in more distractions and locations over time.
I feel like I’ve been working on this for a year and it really shouldn’t have taken this long but at least we’ve made a huge step forward now. All you experienced dog owners are probably confused about how this could have taken me so long!
The reason Jim was on the bike at the weekend is that Brodie gets excited by them and runs up to meet them when he’s off lead, ignoring recalls. Within minutes I had him sitting and staying as Jim cycled passed by telling him off if he moved and giving him a bit liver when he behaved. We practised this lots through the walk with 100% success after the initial few failures but then when a real cyclist passed by us he went running up to meet them, ignoring recalls L. We took him out again the next day and he behaved perfectly with either Jim or I on the bike. I was thinking of recruiting my friends teenage kids that Brodie doesn’t know to cycle passed us, and take him on walks on lead where I think I’m more likely to see bikes. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Lovely pictures of Elsa, I like the pink tummies. I noticed Mazy had one too in her picture on the beach. Also some nice pictures of Maggie at Hall Barn, the setting does look lovely.
Zoe, the photo of Hudson and Connie on the daily dog was lovely. I hope Ali doesn’t mind me putting this link here but I found this web site last week and thought some of the articles were interesting. I noticed there’s one on barking explaining the different reasons dogs bark and some potential solutions http://www.aspcabehavior.org/
Also, I do agree with Elle regarding sharing information on a public blog, please be careful.
