Puppy Training Guide

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Training Your Puppy to Heel

Are you wondering why you should train your puppy to heel? You may well have heard people talking about heeling and wondering exactly what it involves.

The basis of the technique of heeling is making your puppy walk beside your heel, without pulling on their leash or stopping to sniff objects in the street. In fact, heeling also involves your puppy giving you its undivided attention, and not being distracted while in public. A good heeling technique is a great way for your puppy to walk safely in crowded areas and in busy streets.

To get started in training your puppy to heal, you should start practicing in the familiar surroundings of your home. This will stop your puppy being distracted by any unfamiliar sights and smells. One of the easiest ways to get started is to put your puppy on its leash and start to walk around your home. Using your friendly and excited voice, your puppy will happily follow you around while you play this 'game'.

Walk quite quickly so that your puppy has to trot to keep up, and be sure to make encouraging and praising sounds as you go. If you find that your puppy walks wide, then position yourself so that your puppy is between you and a wall, meaning that you can control how closely they will walk with you. As your dog walks close to you, say 'heel' and then praise them continually as they do the right thing.

It will take some time before your puppy fully understands what you are trying to achieve, but just keep using the heel and praising commands every time you notice your puppy walking along beside you, even if you were not specifically training at that time.

Slowly build up what the rewards that your offer your puppy. As first, it might be that you reward them for walking next to you for just a few steps, then you might stretch that out to half a dozen and so on.

One of the best things that you can do is it quit whole you are ahead. What this means is that you should always stop training while your puppy is doing the right thing. It's fine to do some more training later, just always try to end on a high note. Don't worry that you don't have a big yard or house to practice in, it's perfectly okay to walk in circles in the space that you do have when you are training your puppy.

When both you are your puppy get more confident, you can adding corners into your training schedule so that your puppy has another maneuver to learn.

When you have mastered the technique, you will find walking a much more enjoyable experience, and you will be able to steer your puppy away from obstacles in your path, as well as having confidence that your puppy will not obstruct passers by.

Remember that patience and persistence are key, and that mastering puppy training techniques will make both you and your dog much happier!