Question about walking

ange165 · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:07 pm Post subject:

I do this to Ruby as well.. She's a drooler as well. I freaked at first when I saw her doing it but then I couldn't stop laughing.
Ruby's release word os "OK", so we say stuff like "orange" "Get it" "no way" etc, anything really.
We still have to correct on occasions but she's getting fatastic at this.
We are working on our heeling as well. It's a VERY slow process.

NenaGunther · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:06 pm Post subject:

When Gunther is waiting to eat, he has big bubbles come out of the sides of his mouth, then the waterfall Very Happy

Asarra · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 6:47 am Post subject:

Storm doesn't drool when she is in her sit/stay before getting her meal. I may not be holding her long enough? I haven't tested her on words other than Okay. I bet she goes no matter what I say! I'll try "tacos" tonight.

As for the heeling, we gave it a try on the walk this morning. We went in an out of the heel periodically, and it went much better than expected. It is much easier to get her by dead squirrels now! Not nearly as miserable as during our training sessions. I'm going to try to increase heeling time each day until the entire walk is done heeling! Razz

I do think I need to work on the dominance thing, and the heeling will definitely help. Last night in group class we tried a dominance exercise where we put them on their back and put our legs across them. Storm fought me pretty hard but eventually gave up! Pretty funny that she was the only dog that struggled with it given all the german shepherds in the class!

DukesMom · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:51 pm Post subject:

DukesMom · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:53 pm Post subject:

And since he's 6 months I don't think it's unreasonable to make him heel the entire walk. Now with a 12 week old puppy it would be a bit unreasonable. Gracie is 7 months and she stays at heel for the entire walk. She's close to mastering it, but when I let her roam she is still wild, jumping and running all over the place. Duke on the other hand, on a loose leash still stays off to your side although not right at your side in heel but very very well behaved and calm with an entirely loose leash.

anne · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:25 pm Post subject:

I don't think anyone here defined HEEL. Heel to me means an obedience heel - that is, head at left leg, no sniffing, no eliminating, and sitting when I stop.
First I think it's a lot to ask a dog to heel for an entier walk. Possible of course but not exactly the purpose of walking (exercise and elimination). IMO walks are supposed to be fun for the human and dog and I wnat my dog to eliminate when I walk them. I DON"T want them to pull my arm out of its socked.
Therefore, I require that my dogs walk with a loose leash. I put them at heel when someone else is walking by or I need to squeeze thru a narrow area or whatever.

Also I don't buy the Cesar Milan thing about having the dog walk behind you. Nothing wrong with it, but I just don't agree that it's that important.

anne · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:27 pm Post subject:

Also if you don't make the dog heel all the time, they tend to be able to do it WITHOUT a training collar.

DukesMom · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:33 pm Post subject:

DukesMom · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:37 pm Post subject:

Well Anne I do agree, but if I let Gracie out of a heel she is a wild maniac. She is not ready. Since Duke knows what "heel" means and is really well behaved on a loose leash than we let him "roam" on walks. Gracie is not ready in my opinion. And I'm not willing to fight her for an entire walk! In heel she is totally focused on me and prances along like an angel. Let her on the full leash and she's jumping around like a fool. She's like a different dog and very very bad.....

versatilek9s · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:36 pm Post subject:

Rant coming up...

I think that Cesar is right about a lot of stuff, but having a hunting dog walk calmly beside/behind you because he wants to and respects you as pack leader is a load of bull. Any hunting breed worth it's dog food doesn't give a rip about your pack position on a walk--it wants to follow it's nose and sniff every tree, telephone pole, car tire, blade of grass it passes!

That being said, I do agree that my dogs need the restraint to not knock me over when I open the door, get up off of my spot on the couch when I'm headed for it, and not steal food out of my hand or off my plate. They also need to walk nicely when I tell them to rather than drag me down the street yelling and bleeding.

I can get all three of my dogs (yep, even the puppy, smart little girl!) to heel nicely when I tell them to. When we go on walks I demand that there is a loosh leash, but differentiate between the obedience command "heel" and "easy."

Rant done. Very Happy

Meredith

amazonstarlight · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 1:18 am Post subject:

One thing I do with my dogs to make sure they will stay in the "heal" position and not pull forward is this: I use 6 foot long leads and when ever one will pull forward I take about 3 foot of the lead and loosely swing in in big circles infront of the dogs faces. It doesn't hurt if they happen to get smacked on the face because they are soft nylon and it will make them back up to avoid getting bopped by the lead.

Hope that helps.

anne · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 3:10 am Post subject:

youhavenoidea · Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 1:04 am Post subject:

Asarra · Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:48 am Post subject:

Based on this topic, I have been working harder with Storm to get her to at least walk nice (we call it "with me") with occasional formal heel walking for her entire morning and evening walks. We reward her at the end with 10 minutes of running around crazy off lead. Some days have gone really well and some days have been miserable, constant pulling. When she pulls I make her stop and sit. Last night I didn't think we were going to make it far. She pulled so much it was embarrassing. We were at the park and there were tons of distractions. This morning, the direct opposite, she did great! I'm just going to keep it up. I'm sure she'll figure it out eventually. Thanks for all of your advice on this.