Category: Performance Events ¤
  Author: Shirley Chong ¤
   Title: More on Good Heeling ¤

Carol, YES it is possible to have a high scoring dog in obedience
without the dog wrapped around the handler's left leg! I haven't seen
Diane Bauman's name in competition results in a while, but she has great
heeling dogs and does not have them wrapped around her leg. Not only is
the wrapped position ugly to me to look at, I feel concerned for the
dog's musculature--I've had my hands on several dogs who had spent years
heeling in that position and the muscles on one side of the body are
shorter/bunchier than the other side. I'm not a vet or an expert, but it
doesn't seem healthy to me.
   What I aim for in a heeling dog is for the dog's spine to be straight
from the collar back to the tail. The dog's head is up (how far depends
on the dog's conformation) and tilted or turned towards me so that they
can see me. Depending on the dog's conformation, this ranges from
Delilah Borzoi's head being level and her nose canted towards me (which
is actually very pretty) to Chamois's head way up high and her neck
practically doing a right angle turn (I joke that she has a
double-jointed neck).
   I think that it would be easiest to re-teach heeling--drop her old
cue, shape heeling, and give it a new cue. The way I teach heeling
(which isn't intended as an end-all or be-all by any means) is to teach
the dog to watch a target spot, then affix that target spot on my body.
   How I start is by teaching the dog to target on anything (using a
nose bump). Then I put a piece of tape on my index finger and teach the
dog to target that, holding my finger in many different positions. When
the dog is targeting promptly, I start to click BEFORE they touch the
target. At first, they carry through with the touch but very quickly
they figure out that what is being clicked is looks at the target. 
   Then I stick the target onto my body. A very rough rule of thumb is
that the right heeling spot is about two inches above the dog's upraised
nose when they are sitting at heel position. Once you're actually moving
with the dog, you refine the position up a bit or down a bit so that the
dog is able to watch the target spot comfortably. It's preferable to
have the dog's head up so that their weight is shifted to the
hindquarters so that when they are heeling they are moving at a balanced
or collected trot rather than moving on the forehand. Depending on YOUR
personal conformation, you stick the dot anywhere from on the sideseam
of your jeans to about a 10:30 position on your body (if you were
looking down on yourself from above, your navel would be 12:00). It
needs to be far enough forward so that you can see your dog with your
peripheral vision but not so far that the dog has to forge or wrap to
see it. You can use a hand mirror to help you see the dog.
   Start out by sticking the tape to your body while the dog watches and
holding your finger on the tape. Slowly move the finger away from the
tape, until you can hold your hand behind your back and the dog is still
looking at the tape. Each time you start to work on heeling, start out
by having the dog sit at heel position and letting them watch you stick
the tape onto the target spot--this will eventually fade into a
legitimate signal you can use in the ring to show the dog where the
heeling target spot is!
   When the dog is sitting at heel and maintaining their gaze on the
heeling spot for two or three seconds (you get there by delaying the
click, so that you are reinforcing longer and longer looks), then it's
time to move. Start off by oozing forward SILENTLY--sloooooooowly move
your left foot forward, shift your weight forward, put your weight on
your left foot, lean forward sloooooowly, start bringing your right foot
forward. Click the dog as soon as they raise up off their hindquarters
in order to keep on watching the target spot. Keep raising your criteria
quickly here--you don't want to get stuck (change something on every
single trial).
   Once the dog has the idea that they can move in order to keep the
target spot in sight, you can start working towards moving at heeling
pace. What, you may ask, is heeling pace? Heeling pace is the speed at
which the dog is trotting comfortably and well. The other common
definition is: faster than the handler usually walks. <LOL> A good rule
of thumb is that your feet and the dog's front feet should be hitting
the ground in unison. To walk fast it is far more efficient
(mechanically) to make short fast strides rather than long, slower
strides. Taking long strides actually slows you down in proportion to
the energy expended. Use your toes to push off and imagine that you're
kicking your feet up, so that someone behind you could see the sole of
your shoes. 
   My experience is that when I've hit on the right combination of speed
and target spot it's almost like a physical click--all of a sudden, the
dog and I are moving as a unit, rather than as two individuals who
happen to be in the same place and going the same direction.
   Once the dog is moving well with me, it's time to fade the tape.
Start out by just sticking on smaller and smaller pieces of tape. If you
can find tape that closely matches the colour of your clothes, you can
shift to that. Finally, the tape spot is smaller than your index
fingertip. Rather than stick actual tape onto the target spot, start off
your heeling session by pantomiming doing it. Pretend to stick on that
tape, move your left hand to the position you hold it during heeling (I
prefer having my hand on my belt buckle--I'm short and fat and my dogs
are tall and have sticking-up ears!). And guess what? Now you have a
signal that you can take into the ring with you and use while you are
setting up for the heeling exercises! Nifty, huh?
   Remember that dogs are good at specifics and poor at generalizing.
Make sure that before you go into the trial ring that your dog has
heeled with you wearing that specific set of clothing. Especially if
your dog is sensitive about feet, make sure to wear your trial shoes
many times in heeling before you go into the ring--dogs that are
sensitive about feet are very sensitive to the sounds feet make.
   Obviously, I never had a chance to meet your mother, Carol. I know
she raised a wonderful daughter! No matter what you do or don't do with
Peaches, I am sure your mother is proud of you.

M. Shirley Chong
The Well Mannered Dog