Teaching Force Free Off Leash Heeling

Another essential skill for Adventure dogs to master is Off Leash Heeling! While I always obey leash laws where required, there are so many times while hiking where they are not required that I find it far more comfortable for us both to take the leash off and use our training to create a dog equally under control whether on or off a leash. 

Emily has two natural hiking positions and it depends on circumstances as to which she adopts. She is either in front of me about 10-15 feet in a scout position, or directly behind me at my heels. I actually rarely have to ask her to heel, after the years of asking her to come to heel position in circumstances that I prefer more control, these days she just puts herself there in these situations before I even ask. However I can ask at anytime she assume the heel position and remain there until released. It no longer requires any control or reward and is a habit that she happily accepts when prompted. 

ALL of her training has been done force free, hands off, using emotions, connection and reward. She has never worn anything beyond a regular buckle collar. And has never been corrected beyond a ever so soft "uh Em, where ya going" gentle verbal reminder, she would absolutely melt into a puddle if I were to ever even suggest she was anything but wonderful. She's never worn a training collar, gentle leader or any kind of training system. 

It may take longer to train a dog using hands off positive techniques, and it takes a lot more work for the handler to figure out how to hold the dogs desire and focus. But the reward is, once you create the skill, you don't need other things to make it happen and you have the same level of control and compliance whether on or off a leash since it's not the leash creating the behavior. 

So follow along as I demonstrate the steps to teach your pup to heel off leash! 

A few tips and pointers:

• I do all my training off leash, you need to have access to a safe area you can work, if you do not have a safe fenced in area to work on the beginning steps you can practice in a large park and put your dog on a long line, do not hold the line and use it like a leash, either let it drag so that if your dog starts to leave you can step on it, or have someone else hold the end for you, or secure it to something, if securing it to something- attach it to a harness on your dog rather than a collar so they do not hit the end of a long line running and wrench their neck! 
• For the first step the common mistakes I see people make are moving the treat too fast and losing connection between the dogs nose and the treat, so the dog doesn't pass far enough to end up behind you to line up straight, and they end up stopping short and sitting towards you instead of beside you. Or forgetting to step back and just trying to move the dog with their hand, again this doesn't bring the dog far enough behind your leg to get a straight line up in the heel position. 
• When you feed the treat to your dog always do so with the palm of your hand facing their nose, if you have your palm forward they will bend around trying to get it and this causes them to sit out in front of you again instead of at your side. If you watch the video you can see me switch my hand as I step back forward again so my palm faces the pup's nose and I am able to stop her exactly at my side. 
• Be happy! Folks have a tendency to get caught up in trying to be correct and often get so serious the pup just wants outta there, so relax, have fun and just play with the technique until you get it figured out. 

Stay tuned for the next steps in both the off leash heeling & teaching a great come command!

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