Advise on teaching a lab to heel

[lones11]

What is everyone's advice on techniques for teaching a lab to heel?

[Will]

Wonder Lead

[slistoe]

Rattle the choke chain.

[crackerd]

Treats. Or buy this book http://www.gundogsupply.com/bkk-0523.html to see how it's done from the start without treats.

MG

[GUNDOGS]

A prong collar to prevent the pulling ahead, and a quick tug on the lead, repeat heel and put them next to you when they pull forward.....ruth

[gonehuntin']

A choke collar and a heeling stick. The heeling stick is one of the greatest dog training devices ever made and vastly under utilized by far too many people today.

[jimbo&rooster]

A prong collar to prevent the pulling ahead, and a quick tug on the lead, repeat heel and put them next to you when they pull forward.....ruth

This is how I did it.


Jim

[birddog1968]

A choke collar and a heeling stick. The heeling stick is one of the greatest dog training devices ever made and vastly under utilized by far too many people today.

+1

[SeniorCoot]

Agree on Heeling stick- I made a couple from oldhorse lunging whip and then discarded fishing rods-I use one every am- even with my coming on 3 YLM- just to reinforce heeling at all times esp when cows want to play-or deer runs across path or turkey comes out of woods and gobbles-I have used choke collars- prongs and Brit style lead- i like last best but others work fine also.

[ladder63ff]

A prong collar to prevent the pulling ahead, and a quick tug on the lead, repeat heel and put them next to you when they pull forward.....ruth

I did the same on my 90# lab.. the prong collar works wonders plus it doesnt hurt the dog like a chocker chain does. I would just put it on him and spend 5 minutes walking around the back repeating heel a few times a week. if he pulled ahead id stop walking pull him back and make him sit till I started walking again. If i stop he sits. A great book I found for training my lab is The 10 minute retriever by john and Amy Dahl. some reallly great training advice for just 10 minutes aday

[4dabirds]

I taught my dog to heal using a clicker in 15 minutes. He will even heal in reverse. After he learned what to do I used an e-collar to reinforce the command. But thats just me and my humble opinion.

[Redfishkilla]

"I taught my dog to heal using a clicker in 15 minutes. He will even heal in reverse. After he learned what to do I used an e-collar to reinforce the command. But thats just me and my humble opinion."

Me too, except replace the word clicker with leash.

[SeniorCoot]

15 minutes sounds like some sort of recoed- and they were both fool proof and bomb proof on Heel after 15 min??

[4dabirds]

15 minutes sounds like some sort of recoed- and they were both fool proof and bomb proof on Heel after 15 min??

Taught and fully trained are two different things. Once the dog is generalized and 80% on the command the collar makes it bomb proof. With the clicker the dog learns real fast saving you from leash jerks which to me is using correction to teach a dog a command it does not know.

[Redfishkilla]

No, of course not fool proof, but taught. I do 5 minute sessions with minimal pressure for another 3 weeks before I start changing locations and really enforcing, which takes another month. Brittanys pick things up a lot faster than some other breeds. The hip slap helps a lot too.

[gonehuntin']

I don't consider a dog "taught" until he is off leash with distractions.

[slistoe]

I took a look at a 5 yr. old Dalmation for some folks one time because they had never been able to get the dog to heel even through a couple of sessions of formal obedience classes. After 5 min. of walking around the yard with the chain and a lead the dog was glued to my knee. Does that count?