Welcome to Pawprint Academy, your blueprint to
raising better dogs. My name is Ryan, and I'll
be your host for this journey. I've got my trusty
co -host here, Brianna. Hello. And together,
we're bringing you real -world training insights
built on leadership, structure, and proven methods.
We record this podcast with live clients on the
line in one take with live, unscripted questions
and answers. At the end of the day, this podcast
is a lot more than just teaching your dog to
sit or stay. creating calmness, and becoming
the kind of leader your dog truly needs. We do
that with our three pillar method of trust, obey,
and perform. Together, we'll show you how these
three pillars shape every step of training. Thanks
for being here. Let's get started. Hey there.
Good evening. Episode 18 coming at you. It is
Heel Work. And we're talking about static versus
dynamic and why both matter tonight. So, welcome.
Hello, hello. Hello. So, we are going to open
tonight's podcast by reminding everybody. Thank
you for joining us, of course. And for our clients
that are dialed in and listening. Um, just as
a reminder, we, the folks that are on the zoom
call, you can submit chat questions, uh, at any
time. I've got the little chat window open. So
as you throw those questions up, we'll answer
them as we go. Um, everyone else who's just dialed
in like on the phone and such, uh, we'll provide
an opportunity to ask questions at the end and,
or, well, before we finish and then we'll take
it from there. Um, Let's see what else. Oh, so
things have been crazy busy. A couple of announcements.
Our in -home integration slash board and train
programs are like super, super backed up. So
I think we're booking into like May right now.
But if you're listening to this and you know,
you're like, hey, I need to know more about this
or I need help with my dog. We've got a whole
bunch of other options that we can do, and I'd
love to hear from you. So tonight we are talking
about heel and why it's important. Yeah. Why
is it important? Because your dog needs to know
where to be. Right. Gives them a job. Right.
Gives it a job. That is a constant process. in
teaching owners what to do with their dog right
um your dog usually when we're dealing with behavioral
dogs we have a misunderstanding of what or the
dog has a misunderstanding of one what's expected
and two what their job is and so that's where
heal gives them an opportunity because in the
number one I would say the number one thing that
people reach out to me about is leash reactivity
or leash walking issues. Because a lot of people
can put up with dogs being crazy around the house
or maybe they don't even know how calm their
house could be without that craziness. But where
they see it and where it really becomes a pain
point is when they're out in public and they
want to like go somewhere and they want to take
their dog somewhere or when they're out on a
walk. Yeah. And then dog sees another dog and
dog doesn't like dog and dog suddenly gets very
upset and showing. Usually it boils over into
kind of aggressive tendencies that at least look
aggressive to. people that don't know any better
yeah and so we have talked a lot about how to
recognize some of those things in previous podcasts
as well as what it could be maybe it's not aggression
maybe it's um you know some some other type of
uh behavior but if you have an aggressive dog
or you have a dog that you are wondering hey
is this is this true aggression like what what
what am i in here for um We do free evaluations
and we can do those evaluations online too. It's
always better to be in person for sure. But if
you live super far away, happy to talk to you
and help you out where we can. All right. So
here we go. Core idea for tonight. Heel work
is the foundation of a focused walk, right? Focused
walking engagement. actually allows you to start
to build some precision into a relatively simple
concept walk with me yep but when we turn that
into a job for the dog to do you see a lot of
other things fall by the wayside because you're
occupying their um their plate right their their
brain and when the dog has something to do there's
no faster way to Get the dog to check out of
what you don't want them to do than to give them
what you do want them to do. And I think that's
super lost on people. But we say it all the time
is you will always be more successful telling
your dog what to do rather than what not to do.
And on the walk is no different. So giving the
dog a position to be in. Teaching them what that
position is and then expecting them to hold that
position through different distractions at different
distances. That's all part of proofing that we've
talked about over and over and over. But that's
the whole concept here. We give the dog a job
even in the walk. Initially, a static heel builds
clarity in the position. While a dynamic or moving
heel builds fluidity and responsiveness and teamwork
and pack drive. Yeah, because you're walking
with your dog. Right. And Brianna loves to talk
about pack drive. Yeah. It's one of my favorite
drives. So, and we initially, we start teaching.
people and and when we get a dog into our program
one of the first things that we teach them when
we go for a walk is not hey heel right here next
to me it's just hey let's go hey come with me
we're going together because if you don't teach
your dog about that pack drive um a lot of times
they don't know how to do it because they didn't
grow up in a pack of dogs And so what they initially
learn in the litter of dogs is oftentimes forgotten
or at least, you know, gets rusty. And we've
got to build that pack drive again because you
have to be in the same pack as your dog. Right.
And if they're not in a pack drive, they're in
a different drive. And the other drives are not
drives that you're looking for on a walk because
it's play drive and it's prey drive. Right. Neither
of those are ones that you kind of want on a
walk. Not going to get the results that you're
looking for in those. Right. And so good case
in point. Right. This goes back to that initial
concept that we. I keep saying that I keep saying.
And that is you're always going to be more successful
telling your dog what to do. So if you're allowing
them to pick what kind of drive they're in and
what kind of mood they're in and where they want
to go and how they want to react, well, you haven't
told them what to do. And so how is it fair that
you're then telling them, Ah, why are you doing
that? No. Right? Easy to tell your dog no. Not
so easy to be congruent about it. Right. And
we always encourage owners that if you're going
to tell your dog no, you've got to be congruent.
You have to not only follow that with action,
but you've got to tell them what you want them
to do because you can't just run around being
like, don't do that and don't do this and don't
do that. Because your dog is going to look at
you like, well, you're not any fun. Yeah. And
immediately they're going to want to check out.
Why? Why would if you have a friend who whenever
they come over to your house, they just tell
you everything that you do wrong. Are you going
to invite him over again? Yeah, probably not.
Probably not. Right. But but if if your friends
like, hey. you really shouldn't do that. Here's
the reason why. And, and it'd be way cooler if,
if you could do this and like, this would really
better your life. You might be like, wow, that's
a great friend. Yeah. Totally different experience.
Yep. All right. Back on track. Right. Back on
track. Um, I told you it's been a really busy
week. Yeah. A lot of life has happened. Um, okay.
let me look let me look so when both a static
heel and a dynamic heel are trained correctly
the dog starts to learn how to follow the handler
and have confidence in what the handler is asking
them to do which is really the the end state
of all obedience We want to build confidence
in the dog. And we use obedience not for control.
We use obedience to establish confidence. Yeah.
When your dog understands what you're asking
and they understand how to meet your expectations,
their confidence goes up. And when their confidence
goes up, their anxiety goes down, their aggression
goes down, their reactivity goes down. Yep, absolutely.
So confidence has to also be met though with
consistency. Their confidence builds as long
as you are consistent and congruent in the way
that you're asking them to do those things. So
at the point where you're haphazard about how
you do it or about when you do it, it's going
to add confusion. Yeah, because if your dog is
allowed to like... pull at the end of the leash
on one walk, but not the next one, then you're
not really given a clear message. Right. And
so we have to dial that in. So we're going to
talk about how we do that. And the first part
is we're going to teach the static heel. So this
is how we build that blueprint. So a static heel
establishes an exact position. for the dog to
maintain in relation to you. And when, just to
get this out of the way, a lot of times that
static heel will be in a sit and will be on one
of your sides. And owners inevitably ask right
off the bat, they're like, well, but isn't this
sit? And it is. It is sit. However, you can have
the dog sit anywhere. Yeah. The heel is a position
of the dog in relation to you. Similar to how
front would be the dog in a position in relation
to you, in front of you. Right. You wouldn't
tell the dog front. And then have them, you know,
six feet away from you over on the right. That
wouldn't make sense to you. And so you wouldn't
teach your dog that word. The word, like, let's
cover this too. The word is unimportant. You
can use, who is it? Tom Davis. Tom Davis uses
left and right for his heel positions. Yeah.
Right? I think that's a really cool idea. And
it works for his dog. So he'll have his left
is a word that he is tied to the meaning. He
wants his dog to sit on his left side. And right
is he wants his dog to sit on his right side.
Right. Yeah. Great idea. Traditionally. So let's
kind of segue this into traditionally the heel
is. Heel is the word that we use in that dog
training concept. And heel is traditionally done
on the left side. Now, just because it's traditional
does not mean that that's what you have to do.
Right. Left for a few reasons. Two of them that
I know and I'm sure I would love for someone
to educate me even further on why that's the
traditional. But I know two reasons. One, most
folks are right -handed, and that allows you
to heal your dog on your weak side, so that your
strong side is able to do other things. Open
doors, shake hands, use your phone, whatever
it is. That aside, in competition, a dog is healed
on the left side. in traditional types of competition.
Mine is because when you're walking on the side
of the road, you're supposed to be facing like
oncoming traffic when you're walking. And so
putting the dog on your left keeps the dog on
the side away from traffic. I didn't even hear
that one before. Oh, really? I like that one
though. Well, there you go. Right. You're welcome.
Just, just stay out of the way of the cars. Well,
right. But either way, like it would make a car
nervous if the dog were on the other side. Right.
Cause you never know. Right. You never know.
Yeah. And be like a kid walking on that side.
Right. Like you put them on the opposite side.
Yeah. I like that. Yeah. Um, so if you've got
some other ideas or other reasons that you've
heard, throw them, uh, throw them in the chat,
throw them on a comment on our, uh, on the podcast
site. Um, Let's go to the next one. So by teaching
your dog that position that's in relation to
you and is an exact precise position, we can
establish that that exact position, that's what
the dog should maintain before movement begins.
So now you've got a starting point, right? I
bring the dog back towards me. I give them heel.
They loop around and sit on my left side. Then
that leads into the next step, which is dynamic
heel. We'll get to that in just a minute. Okay,
fine. Let's talk about the rest of static heel.
So when I wrote this little blurb here, but it
more applies to the dynamic heel. So I'm going
to try to put a pin in this. come back to it
in a minute uh when we talk about teaching the
static heel let's let's kind of go through that
so first off the food or the language that you're
going to use when we first teach a heel is almost
always food luring yeah it's just the easiest
to to start that process because you want to
get your dog to not just hold a position but
also be in an exact position near you and to
do that this is where that language of food luring
really comes into play i'm gonna sneeze you want
to take over on this for a second um so when
we're talking about food luring it's one of the
easiest ways to start because most dogs are going
to actively follow you And when we talk about
food luring, we kind of lure the dog back. We
flip them around to come up to our left -hand
side. And then we will reward them right as they
come into that position. A lot of times in like
the competition heel and things like that, I
know they go with like the magnet feeding to
kind of like get them into that position and
keep them there. That is a really popular one
as well. But most pet dogs, depending on their
food drive you're not going to see a lot of the
time really draw into that like the magnet feeding
right you want to explain magnet feeding yeah
so it's keeping it's keeping the dog consistently
at and in your hand basically so you're you're
at a point where you can constantly kind of like
keep the dog on that food lure um to where they're
just like attached to it basically. Um, some
pet dogs will do it, um, every now and then like
I'll, and typically when they start doing the,
the magnet feeding, that's when you see the dog
kind of like start the little like prance, like
kind of like a horse, um, because their head
goes up really, really high. And so they naturally
kind of start doing that. Um, we had a pet dog
do it in a lesson the other day and we were like,
what in the world? Um, cause it was just like
a crazy, like pretty prance. Yeah. Um, but it
is something that is hard to accomplish for a
lot of pet dogs unless they have a really, really
high food drive or you're using like crazy high
value, like raw or something like that. Yeah.
Um, yeah, definitely. So magnet feeding really
helps out with that. And so I'm going to break
down the initial process real fast. The. So the
process, I'm going to food lure them. I'm going
to go left. I'm going to go right. I'm going
to make sure I've got forward and backward first
with food luring. That's just where I'm holding
the food in my hand. I want them to place kind
of their muzzle right into my hand. And then
I want them to be like magnetically like stuck
to it. And so that's where that magnet feeding
thing comes from. And so left to right, forward
and backward. Those are prerequisite skills in
order to build in position into your food luring.
Then. I bring the dog in a forward drive towards
me. And because I'm using that left side as tradition,
I'm going to step back with my left foot. So
that opens my hips towards the dog. I step back
with that left foot and I bring them forward
all the way past me. And as they drive past me,
I'm going to flip my hand around. Not so fast
that I break contact with the dog, but just enough
to change their direction. To give them to a
little U -turn. And right as I do that U -turn,
I'm going to step back forward with my left foot.
My right foot never moves. And by doing that,
it helps me load the dog. With a forward drive,
which is their easiest way to do it. Yeah. Right
into that position. And as I step forward and
my feet come together, I bring the dog right
to my left knee and then bring my hand up. And
as I bring it up, their head comes up and their
butt sinks down. And ta -da, they're in a heel.
Yep. Maybe. maybe right you made it sound a lot
i know i know it sounds it sounds super awkward
to get them into that position the first time
every owner that does it is like oh this is weird
and it is weird to start off with but i promise
you it it transitions really quickly and you
can you can move past it if if you if your dog
is like oh okay this is fine yeah And so we use
leash pressure as a second language and we'll
start to teach the dog to respond to that leash
pressure so we don't have to just food lure them.
But I'm going to do the same footwork. So with
the leash pressure, it's the same thing. I'm
going to bring them towards me with that forward
drive and the dog. I'm going to step back with
my left foot. I'm going to bring them with pressure
past me, just barely past me. And then. i'm going
to step forward and the dog kind of naturally
is going to do that 180 because they're going
to follow your body language after you pattern
this with food and now i just continue that pressure
to guide them around that 180 i step forward
with my left foot back to my right and then bring
pressure up into that sit yep right there on
my left side Yeah. And we're working with a static
heel before we get to dynamic because it's much
easier to teach your dog where that position
is before you're moving. Right. Everybody wants
to kind of variables. Right. Way too many. And
so you're going to start by teaching the position
and then it slowly builds right into one step,
two step, three step. Yeah. So another thing
that you can do in order to teach the heel. and
I'm not going to talk a lot about it, but it's
an option, is to teach your dog to stand on a
spot. So I use like a horse water, little water
bowl. You can get them at like Tractor Supply
and Petco. Petco's got it in Surf City. They've
got like a whole horse section. Or if you have
a really big dog, really big dog bowl. Flip it
upside down. And then teach your dog to stand
on it, right? We can free shape that. We can
lure that. We can reward that through a whole
bunch of other things. I'm not going to go all
the way into that. But basically, pattern and
teach your dog to stand on that spot. Then you
just walk up and take that position next to them.
And you teach that over and over until the dog
is used to that being. like normal yeah then
you can build in turns right there and and a
bunch of other things that's how you teach a
like a real strict heel and you teach the dog
to kind of like move sideways left and right
with you yeah it can turn into something pretty
cool um yeah robert cabral uses uh he taught
his dog to just stand on a brick right just like
a a brick on its side and so that's literally
his word with just his front yeah legs and so
he would just um with his uh old dog goofy yeah
and be like goofy brick where's your brick and
he'd be like right here and then he'd do the
little like turns and all that so right once
again the the word that you use is not important
right and i've used um i think i saw this one
with tom davis one time but he uses and i tried
it once with one dog a piece of cardboard i think
um or somebody does i've seen somebody use it
and i tried it um i've also used like um like
a rug or some like a little piece of carpeting
on a hardwood floor yeah like a little carpet
square yeah um i've also used It was something
else that I've used. I don't remember now though.
I don't know. They left me. No problem. So we're
going to reward our alignment really heavily
early on. So alignment is going to be whether
the dog is like too far forward, too far back.
We want to encourage the dog not to forge ahead
of us. And so we start that with the static heel.
And when the dog lines up with that left leg,
we keep them in that line and we reward right
there. So your placement for your reward is really
important. If you reward the dog like from your
right hand over to the left, you can do that.
I typically do that. And a lot of trainers will
kind of shy away from that. They don't like that.
I don't know why I do it. It's not even really
the best technique, but it works for me. But
I have to really reach far. You can't be sloppy
about your reach because otherwise you'll bring,
you'll lure the dog like forward and across you.
And so you really have to like overreach with
that right hand. I don't know why it works for
me. It does. But it works better in, and I'll
transfer that over. That's really mostly just
for that. static heel yeah as soon as i start
a dynamic heel i'll transfer that food over for
that magnet feeding of the left hand on the left
side right i just keep it on my left side even
when i'm doing static because i will just put
my hand flat and i'll even just like run it all
the way down my leg but i feed like right against
my leg yeah so the and that's more traditional
yeah and i that way the dog doesn't get too far
ahead or too far behind and like that's where
your you feed every time is like right against
your leg yeah definitely the um if you're using
leash pressure we want to make it light we want
to make this fun it's a game right we just want
to encourage the dog to like move into that position
so we're not correcting the dog left right forward
backward we're just using a little leash pressure
but mostly use those food targets guide the dog
without encouraging that foraging foraging excuse
me forging we're not foraging for food we're
forging without the dog forging ahead of you
then we encourage you guys to build or all owners,
to build a static heel position before the dynamic.
We already talked about that a little bit, but
just to reiterate, start still. It's going to
help you a lot. You've got to build some consistency
and some clarity in the position of that heel
before you start moving. I feel like there's
probably trainers out there. are way better than
me that are like oh yeah you can just do it like
this cool send me send like leave us a comment
i'm always down to learn better and more efficient
methods uh but from my perspective and from my
experience that static heel is going to be much
easier to teach right off the bat yeah all right
first question why does heel position fall apart
when handlers skip a static heel right you already
answered this one no no i well when i talked
about all the variables why does it fall apart
because you can't pinpoint the exact mark when
you're moving like when you're in when you're
in movement i would also say that the dog doesn't
know what to focus on yet right right and so
This is a generalization concept. When the dog
hears you say heel, let me try to rephrase this.
So when the dog hears you say heel, it's focused
on something. You might think that it is your
words, but most likely, especially the first
time, It's probably not. It could be something
that's going on in the background. It could be
something that they're looking at. It could be
a noise, a smell, something that you're not even
perceiving. So if I'm moving at the same time
as I'm trying to teach a position that is specific
to the proximity. like to you you are like trying
to get up the creek without a paddle yeah right
it's just it's just not going to work out there's
too many distractions there's too many variables
and you can't control for all of them yep so
you've got to pattern this static yeah still
and quiet without distraction that's why You
look at me and you're just like, you already
said that. You already answered that. But not
that specifically. Right, not that specifically.
You're right. Okay, dynamic heel. So now we turn
this position into a motion -based activity.
Yeah. And dynamic heel takes that precision of
the static position and then it carries it into
motion. And we can start using rhythm. and engagement
and excitement and fun because dogs love to move
and they love to follow and and and prance around
and do things right so movement also dissipates
stress in dogs so we want to use that movement
to our advantage when appropriate so this is
how we're going to do it we're going to start
with just like one to two steps the way that
I do it as I start. This is after I've patterned
and proofed and made sure that the dog understands
that heel position. Now they will go to heel
and I say heel and I don't move and they will
like get into that position. Now I go good heel.
Good. Heal. And on that second one, so on the
first one, I stand still. I give them a continuation
marker. And on the second one, I give them heal
as my hand comes down with a little food in it
and I step forward with my left foot. And as
I do that and I say heal, right, we're starting
to build movement. This is like the one command
that we can move and give. In some sort of fashion
that like actually build some predictability
in it. Yeah. But heal and kind of lure them forward
as I'm patterning that word. And then I stop
and I reward and heal left foot again, heal left
foot again, heal left foot, right foot, left
foot, right foot, heel. Right. And I'm just slowly
building extra steps. Yeah, and this is like
inside, back and forth, up and down like a hallway.
Yeah, hallways are great because the dog can't
go too far left, right? It just kind of focuses
the dog like blinders on a horse. Yeah, super
helpful. Inside, no distractions. We're just
working on the movement and patterning the command.
We continue that until we can get six or seven
steps. then we can start building in like movements
to heal on the move. So I'll have a dog in a
down and then I'll give them heal and I'll walk
two steps and then get them to pop up and walk
with me. So I start changing positions and working
with that heel. This is still before I'm going
outside. This is still before I'm increasing
distraction. All I'm doing is changing the stimulus.
Okay, let's go over some other things that will
help you. So as you build, right now we're talking
about just the first five or six steps. Now as
we get longer and longer and we can walk all
the way across the room in a heel, now what we
can start doing is we can actually reward on
the way. with our continuation marker yeah and
so we use yes as a continuation marker so what
that would look like is i'm going to mark yes
when the dog maintains that position not just
through the first step but through a couple of
steps maybe two or three steps and then i'm yes
giving him a treat on the move still in that
heel position two or three more steps yes giving
him another treat okay I talked about the continuation
marker. I want to change paces. I want to go
a little faster. I want to go a little slower.
I want to start making slight turns. Not left
turns, right turns. But I want to start making
curves. Curve right. Curve left. I want to stop.
And I want to reinforce that position in all
of those. Using the continuation marker. Marker.
Now, by the time I get to the other side of the
room, that's when I want to use a terminal marker.
We use free, free and toss that treat to reset
the dog back into heel. They get there. Yes.
That's a continuation marker. And then we go
back into our heel two or three steps. Yes. All
right. Now let's talk. If you're not confused
yet. Right. Right. Do you want to be a dog trainer?
Or sorry, no, the meme is so you want to be a
dog trainer. Right. So now let's talk about another
concept here. Right. There's a lot of stuff that
goes into it. But if you have the opportunity,
here's two things that cut to the chase. One,
whether or not you train your dog to be an exact
heel. What I want you to remember is that your
dog having a job is directly related to how good
your dog is going to engage to you on your walk.
That's what I want you to focus on if you're
totally lost. And if you're only partially lost,
just rewind this, listen to the recording, rewind
it, and listen to it again. I think it'll make
sense. And if it doesn't, reach out. Give me
a phone call. Send me a text. We'll break it
down for you more. Okay. Now, we want to reward
intermittently. If you're at home and you're
listening, just take a drink or take a deep breath.
This one's going to blow your mind, but it's
so, so useful. It's so important. Okay. Rewarding
intermittently. There's a couple ways that we
can do it. Everyone understands, oh yeah, I want
to reward my dog intermittently and I want to
build more and more time in between so that my
dog will listen to me more and I'll have to give
him less treats. Everybody wants that. Everyone's
like, when do I wean off the treats? Okay, here's
my take on it. You don't. You don't wean off
the treats. What we do is we incorporate variable
ratios. And a variable ratio. Right now we're
in math class. Okay. There are four. There are
four. Four quadrants. No. We're not going down
that road. So there's four ways that we can intermittently
reward our dogs. Yeah. We can do a fixed interval.
We can do a variable interval. We can do a fixed
ratio. And we can do a variable ratio. Bear with
me on the science here. We're going to geek out
for just a second. I got time. It's only 39 minutes.
So with a fixed interval, what we're talking
about is a reward every three steps. That's a
fixed interval. Right. For a certain amount of
time or certain like progress. A variable interval
would be I reward them on one step here and then
three steps and then five steps and then three
steps and then one step. Yep. Okay. Fixed ratio
would be every two repetitions. Of this whatever
it is sit down heal in this case After two successful
repetitions, I reward them After two more successful
repetitions, I reward them. Well here The science
is very very clear that the number one way The
number one technique is variable ratio Variable
ratio is the science behind why casinos are so
addicting to humans. When you pull the slot machine
lever, the variable ratio of the win to loss
is so, so, so important and so dialed in that
it literally becomes a drug to you. Because sometimes,
basically, it's just like, We just don't know.
I don't know. But I'm going to get rewarded at
just enough to make me hungry to pull the lever
again. That's crazy because I went to a casino
one time and I pulled one lever and I didn't
win anything. And I was like, yeah, that's it
for me. Right. But I was like, I don't know why
people like good job. Good job. Never go back.
Yeah. Right. I was like, it took my dollar. The
thing is that the dogs are the same way. So if
I reward them on a variable ratio, it will build
an incredible amount of drive in that dog to
perform again. And this is the advanced concept
that I've... rarely get into with owners but
when you take when we train a dog to do something
easy right we train a dog to sit super simple
dog sits not hard for the dog to do mammals in
general the science says that mammals in general
need about a 15 to 20 percent failure rate for
them to stay engaged With a drive to succeed
or else this is, this is all mammals across the
board. So what that means is if you reward your
dog and we're not talking about in the early
stages of training, but we're talking about advanced,
right? Where this is what I do with Nala. When,
if I reward her every single time that she does
the right sit. she will start to tune that out
and be like, this isn't even that important.
But if I make the sit harder and harder for her
to nail down, right, by increasing the speed
at which I make her sit going from activity to
activity. So that sometimes about 15 % of the
time she fails because I've raised the threshold
or I've raised the level of difficulty. Her drive
increases and her obedience or her desire for
that obedience goes up. It's crazy. All right.
That's our science lesson for the day. All right.
One, use variable ratios for your training. It's
addictive. Number two. You eventually, when you
get to the advanced stages, you want to raise
the threshold for compliance or for success high
enough that your dog fails somewhere in that
15 % range. Not often, but maybe like one out
of six. And if you can do that, you will increase
their desire and their drive for those other
five repetitions out of those six. All right.
Back to our regular scheduled program. So we
talked about the intervals and the ratios. How
do we balance precision and enthusiasm? So I
alluded to that with the ratios, right? We can
increase. I got so excited I didn't even read
the whole question. I'm sure someone's like,
what in the heck is he saying? The question is,
how do you balance precision? with enthusiasm
during dynamic heel work all right to answer
that question we balance the precision of the
success of it and the enthusiasm of the dog being
motivated to do it by one allowing the dog to
succeed so we don't want to increase the difficulty
so fast that the dog fails right off the bat
That decreases confidence. We want them to succeed.
And we want them to succeed at that 100 % level
in the first phase of training. Later, more advanced,
that's when we get into that 15 % failure ratio.
Aside from that, don't be so exact that you require
this exact precision that the dog can't even
meet it at the beginning. We typically encourage...
owners to use a range on the dog from like the
base of the neck to the base of the tail and
if the dog anywhere in that line is on your left
side like your left leg that's good enough and
we say that for two reasons one because most
pet owners don't care if their dog does a competition
heel And number two, this allows their dog to
have a little bit of like breathing room. Yeah.
So that they can be successful. Because we want
to tilt the scales in favor of our dog succeeding.
Yep. All right. What drills help the dog maintain
heel position through turns and transitions?
Figure eights. Doing left turns, right turns,
like practicing your turns. Yep. Inside turns.
Yeah. Inside and outside. Yep. So inside turns
help the dog, I would say, more than the outside
turns. Yeah. In a strict heel. Yeah. And an inside
turn is where the dog is on the inside. You're
turning and the dog. Towards the dog. Correct.
Towards the dog, into the dog. So the dog's staying
on the inside. That is great at limiting forging.
And keeping that dog in that position. Yeah.
Because when you do that, the dog actually has
to slow down in order to stay in that position.
So that's really helpful. Now, if you do an outside
turn where the dog is on the outside of you,
they have to accelerate as you just do that 180.
Yeah. And so it can, they're both useful, but
that inside turn is really, really helpful for
that dynamic heel and incorporating those turns
and transitions. How can handlers avoid relying
too much on food and luring during their heel
work? Just using your non -treatable markers
more, especially once they develop the position
and everything like that. Usually once the dog
has it and I'm on a legitimate walk, I kind of
phase food out pretty quickly because I don't
have time to stop and reward when I'm on a legitimate
walk. Right. So when you're working in the house,
that's a great time to use those treats and those
rewards. But when we go outside, food is a stimulant.
Yeah. Right. So we want to kind of tune that
out a little bit and start using. And that's
why it's so important to teach your dog about
leash pressure and what it means. So that way,
when we're on that heel on that walk, we can
use the leash pressure in order to do that instead
of food. Yep. OK. Last point. Why? Why does this
all matter? So we're going to kind of summarize
this just in the essence of time. But the why
this matters is because this is the job that
your dog needs. Some dogs. Yeah. Some dogs. If
your dog, let me recase this. So if your dog
is not reactive on a walk, your dog listens to
you anytime you say come. And anytime that you're,
you know, like sit or off, you don't have any
behavior issues and you don't care where the
dog walks as long as they don't pull on the leash,
then you might not need a heel. You might not
even need to teach the heel. Like what's the
point? Yeah. Right? If you're happy with the
dog's behavior and you're happy with all of these
things, then maybe that's not for you. It doesn't
matter. However, it's super, super helpful for
the dogs that have reactivity. Super, super helpful
for the dogs that need a job or need something
to do. So they're not just thinking about, I'm
going to blow up at that dog. I'm going to blow
up at that dog. Look at that dog over there.
I see it. We got to give the dog something to
do instead. A heel is great because typically
what I see owners do is go. All right, come here,
sit. And remember that movement dissipates stress.
So if you can teach the dog a job to do that
is on the move, you're going to have the least
amount of stress. You're dissipating the most
amount of stress. You're giving the dog something
to do and something to concentrate on. And the
last piece is that you're probably building distance
because you're moving. You're probably moving
away from that thing. So you're probably starting
to incorporate some distance away from the reactive
thing. The thing that they're reacting to. That
is the gold standard to fixing reactivity in
dogs. Those three things. So heel works really,
really well for that. If you just put your dog
into a sit or a down, that can be useful. But
unfortunately, they're stuck in a static position
at that point. The other dog that they're already
not happy about being in proximity to still gets
to run around and walk around and maybe even
close distance towards them. And that's just
a recipe for disaster. Yeah, absolutely. The
dog's like, no, no, I don't want anything to
do with that. All right. Let me look at my notes
here. So mastering both a static heel and a dynamic
heel allow you to do both things. A static heel
can really come into play when you go out in
public. When you're at a brewery or you're at
a store or you're at some sort of pet friendly
place. And you don't just want your dog to come
to you, look at you and then check out. You want
your dog to come over here and like sit by you.
A heel or a static heel is a great, great. choice
for that yep to get your dog in close and then
a dynamic heel is a great opportunity to give
your dog a job to do as you're moving maybe you're
going to the bathroom maybe you're going to the
up to the bar to order a drink and you want your
dog to be right there with you heels where it's
at yeah all right how do you explain to owners
that heel I know we answer, honestly, this is
what I love about this, is that we basically
answer these questions as we're going. But to
recap, why is heel so important more so than
just leash walking? When an owner is like, but
my dog walks on a loose leash, why might we still
want to teach them heel? reference to you it's
teaching the dog to be next to you on your side
it's not all about the walking and i would also
say that a a focused heel on in a specific position
is something the dog has to constantly kind of
like focus in on yeah it takes a lot more brain
power a lot more effort on the dog side than
just don't pull on the leash yeah So that can
really come in handy for all the reasons that
we talked about. What signs show that the dog's
ready for more advanced heel patterns? I'd say
at the point where they're demonstrating consistency
and precision. Yeah. So at the point where your
dog moves into position on your verbal only command.
Yep. That's when I do that. Yeah. Which means
that I'm not. Just stepping back with my left
foot, letting them load into that left side and
stepping forward. I'm not coaching them and cuing
them. I'm now just going heel command and they're
doing it. Last one. How do static and dynamic
heel training? How does static and dynamic heel
training prevent long term? Sloppiness. Because
if you're not telling your dog what to do on
a walk or where to be on a walk, they're eventually
going to just decide and it's always going to
be the furthest point. That's it. On the end
of the leash. And when a dog decides where to
walk, how to walk, what speed to walk. Yeah.
You are now on their walk. This. If you tuned
out for all of the science in this lesson, no
problem. But wake up right now because whether
your dog is reactive or not, utilizing small
snippets of, there's a better word for it, heel
work on a walk is an awesome, awesome opportunity
for you to be the leader on that walk. And you
can go, Hey, we're in it. I do this with Dexter
all the time. Cool. We're in a heel for about
a minute. And now you're just with me. Now you're
on a loose leash walk, but you can kind of move
forward and backward and side to side. Just don't
pull on the leash. And now we're on a heel. And
now we're on a break. Go ahead and go sniff.
Now we're on a heel. Now we're, just be with
me. Now we're back on a loose leash walk. By
rotating through those, it gives you an opportunity
for you to constantly be guiding your dog and
patterning. smart appropriate leadership on the
walk yeah so that's my that's my soapbox for
the day right because if you guys are just like
walking out your front door and your dog's not
paying any attention to you and you're not paying
any attention to your dog then right if you treat
the walk as a chore as a well we have to do this
for your exercise yeah i promise you right yeah
just don't go Because I promise you, you can
exercise your dog in other ways. You don't have
to go for a walk. And the amount of exercise
your dog, not just physical exercise, but the
amount of mental stimulation that your dog is
getting on a walk that most owners go on where
they don't come back sweating profusely. you're
probably not really burning that many calories
for that dog. And you're probably not really
stimulating them as much as if you played, if
you set up a little sniffari in the house or
you played hide and seek or you played tug or
you played fetch or you played a hundred other
games. Yep. So that's what we got for you tonight.
All right. At this point we are going to, before
I go into listener projects, I'm going to turn
on the. Sound feed here. And if you are listening
in either in Zoom or on the phone call, now is
your time to shine. Time to ask questions. I
don't have any questions in the chat. No, don't
have any questions in the chat. So I'm going
to play the Jeopardy music for a second. Jump
in if you've got a question. Ready, set, go.
No questions tonight. That's because I put everyone
to sleep with the science. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm
not sorry, though. I think those are really,
really important that if you understand the why
behind it. Yeah. You can be so much more precise
in your training and your relationship with your
dog. Absolutely. All right. So I will. hit listener
projects here number one static alignment drill
what we're going to do is we're going to practice
loading the dog into that heel position we're
going to do it 10 times so we're going to use
our food or if your dog already knows light leash
pressure you can use that we're going to step
back with the left foot we're going to bring
the dog into a forward drive 180 the dog on your
left side step forward with your left foot Both
feet back together. Your right foot never moves.
And as the dog comes back onto that left side,
mark the alignment with your left foot. And as
their shoulder crosses that line with a yes,
that's our continuation marker. And when the
dog lines, right when the dog lines up correctly
with that leg. Keep your sessions short and maintain
precision, but also maintain enthusiasm. This
is a game to your dog. Training is supposed to
be fun. Make it fun. Make it engaging. And if
your dog's checked out from it, then you're probably
boring. Just calling it what it is. Up the excitement
level. Get more exciting. Get more fun. And your
dog will want to like do it with you. All right.
Listener project number two, the big, we're going
to do the dynamic heel, right? So once we've
nailed down that static heel, we're going to
take, we're going to work up to five steps, right?
One step at a time. We're going to mark with
our continuation marker as we get going, because
we don't want to just mark with our terminal
marker. If we mark with a terminal marker, your
dog's going to check out because it's like, cool,
I'm done. Remember that. Use your continuation
marker and mark as you go with the goal of getting
about five steps. Mark yes as your dog stays
aligned while moving. Stop after that five steps
and then give them your terminal marker for us
free and toss that treat to... to make the dog
move and break that heel, then you can reset
your dog. All right. So that is all I've got.
Last chance for questions. As we kind of start
to close this down, just interrupt me and we'll
answer them. Thanks for joining us tonight. I
appreciate everybody tuning in. Let me turn that
down before I blow everybody's eardrums out.
So we are always trying to make this better,
right? And so this is my message to everybody.
Please send us a message. Share this with your
friends and family. Let us know how we can do
better, right? If you think that we're deserving
of it, give us a little five -star rating on
Apple Podcasts or however it is that you're listening
to this, if for no other reason. Then it improves
the ratings. It makes us a little more visible
and someone else can maybe be, they can find
some benefit in it. All right. It's supposed
to be a free resource out there for people to
listen in and learn something about their dogs.
I can't think of anything else. So we'll close
it out for tonight. Thanks for everybody for
tuning in and we'll see you next week. All right.
Good night.