Your puppy is ready to begin moving in heel position when he can get himself in straight heel position easily without using a target or a lure in the following situations.
- When the handler puts the puppy out of heel position by doing a quarter turn to the left.
- When the handler puts the puppy out of heel position by doing a side step to the right.
- When the puppy fails to get into good heal position the first time, they can correct themself.
Step 1 – Take One Step at Heel
Once your puppy understands how to do a hand touch to get in heel position and will stay seated in heel position giving good eye contact, it’s time to take a short step forward along the fence.
At this point in training, always take your first step at heel with your left foot. Initially, the dog will be following this left leg. He won’t be able to see very well what the right leg is doing. Therefore, after you step off with the left foot, the puppy should step off immediately as well.
When you stop, take the final full step with the right foot. Then bring your left foot forward to meet your right foot so that you end with your feet together.
At this point in training, puppies should have been repeatedly reinforced for sitting still. They have never been reinforced for moving. Therefore, you will very likely have a problem with a puppy that won’t move. Most puppies who’ve been heavily reinforced in a stay will tend to sit still when you take that first step forward.
Step 2 – Use Rapid Rewards or Luring Temporarily as Needed
If you take a small step forward and your puppy does not move with you, call him. If he still doesn’t come, lure him. As soon as your puppy lifts his butt off the ground, say “yes” and then use reward placement to get him to sit in the new location next to you one step in front of the old location.
If you step forward and the puppy looks away from you just before or as he starts to move, mark and reward quickly as soon as the puppy’s butt leaves the ground and before he has time to look around or at the ground. If the puppy continues to look away from you before starting, you may need to lure a few repetitions to build a habit of continuing to look at you without the brief look at the ground that many puppies tend to do.
Step 3 – Shift from Luring to Shaping to Get the Puppy to Move
When the puppy is consistently moving one step with you and maintaining relatively good eye contact, it’s time to stop the luring and the rapid rewards and to shift your training from luring to shaping. This time when you take a step and the puppy doesn’t move, wait a few seconds and see if your puppy moves forward with you. Again, mark as soon as the puppy’s butt leaves the ground and use reward placement to encourage him to sit in correct heel position next to you. Encourage him verbally if he doesn’t move. Don’t lure him again unless he absolutely will not move.
Stop using a lure as soon as the puppy will move without it.
After your puppy has successfully moved forward with you two or three times without a lure or your calling him, mark and reward him while you stand still and he remains seated in heel position. Otherwise, he will start anticipating movement before you move. Randomly alternate between marking and rewarding for sitting still and for moving while you take one step.
Step 4 – The One Step and Sit
Once your puppy is moving well when you move, we’ll start working on a third skill: sitting when you stop moving. We call this a one-step-and-sit. To train a one-step-and-sit, simply step forward one step and wait until your puppy moves forward and sits beside you. Mark and reward.
Practice a few one-step-and-sits. If the puppy moves with you but doesn’t sit, wait. If he takes the step with you and then starts to sit, mark before the puppy is all the way seated.
Prevent Crabbed Crooked Sits
Use reward placement to try to get the puppy straight to prevent a possible bad habit of sitting crooked. Most puppies will try to sit facing you. Reward to the puppy’s left. If the puppy expects that the reward will come from the left, it will compensate for his desire to turn right to face the trainer. It is easier to prevent bad habits from forming than to fix them when they’ve become ingrained.
If the puppy sits almost straight but facing a little bit toward you, take one more step and lure him to follow you. Encourage him to sit straight by placing the reward to the puppy’s left encouraging him to turn away from you. While you are rewarding, use your right hand to pull another treat from your bag (which is on your right hip). Treat with your left hand before the puppy has time to get up and turn toward you. Continue treating very quickly as long as the puppy remains in position facing the same way you are facing. The more prone your puppy is to turning to face you, the more you need to do rapid rewards while the puppy is sitting without popping up and turning towards you.
Prevent Forged Sits
Once puppies get the hang of moving when you move, many of them will charge forward and sit too far ahead of you.
If the puppy is just a bit ahead of you, move yourself forward to put the puppy in correct position while you are giving the puppy his reward. The puppy should be distracted with taking his food and not realize that you have moved forward. If he sees that you are moving forward, he will tend to move forward even more. Then mark and reward repeatedly while the puppy is in correct position.
If the puppy is more than 5 or 6 inches ahead of you, have him do a finger touch behind you to get back in better heel position.
Step 5 – Alternate Between Repeated Reinforcement for Remaining Seated, for Moving, and for the One-Step-and-Sit
Teach the one-step-and-sit on the fence alternating between marking over and over for simply sitting there, for raising their butt to move forward, and for the complete one-step-and-sit. Practice the three behaviors until they are solid.
Remember to continue fixing crooked and forged sits as you practice integrating all three of these behaviors together. Handle these out-of-position sits the same way you handled them when training the one-step-and-sit in Step 4.
Make sure you mark sometimes for movement. A very common mistake is for trainers to get so hung up on rewarding the sit that they forget to mark and reinforce movement. Eventually, unreinforced behaviors will fade. If you don’t reinforce movement at least randomly on occasion, the dog will want to sit after every step. He’ll have no modivation to move.
Step 6 – Proofing Eye Contact at Heel
Once your puppy is to the point in training that he is consistently looking up at you, it’s time to proof the marker. Do this by holding the food slightly behind you. If the puppy ignores the food and gives good eye contact, mark and reward. If he looks at the food, wait until he looks away from the food and into your eyes. Then mark and reward. Practice this occasionally if you notice your puppy looking at the food instead of at you.
If you need to use rapid rewards with your puppy in order to keep him from dipping his head just before moving at heel, it might temporarily un-do your puppy’s focus on you and away from the food. That’s okay. However, once your puppy no longer needs rapid rewards, proof the marker at heel again to fix the problem.
Step 7 – Occasionally Take Two Steps at Heel
The last step we’re going teach while on the fence is taking two steps at heel. When the puppy is proficient with staying in heel position for repeated reinforcement, moving when you move, and sitting when you stop, it’s time to occasionally take two steps forward before stopping. After you’ve taken two steps and stopped the puppy should sit. If he does, mark and reward. Then after taking two steps one time, go back to marking and rewarding for the already learned one-step-and-sit, for moving, and for remaining in a sit while you mark and reward repeatedly. Then take two steps again and mark and reward. Don’t take two steps for reward twice in a row. Always keep your puppy thinking that the reward could come at any time. If you take two steps multiple times, your puppy might loose confidence. Keep the work easy enough to maintain confidence and motivation.
