# Heeling- left turns



## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

As a newbie, I have my dog heeling well, at least I can take her where I need to go without even a flat collar. By now, she will stay really close, so what is the technique for teaching them a left turn? (dog on left). I almost always bump her with my leg, should I just give her a 'watch me' before a left till she catches on? Will she learn on her own from the bump? Of course on a right, she stays right beside me, but my first move on a left bumps her over. Gotta be something simple.


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## John Wolf (Dec 12, 2009)

Are you talking a formal heel or just a casual loose leash walking heel?

For a formal heel, heel is a position and not an action. I would make sure she knows exactly where you want her stationary before you ever take a step.

Casual, the "watch me" should work.

I would use seperate commands for the two. Formal Heel is always Formal Heel. Casual Heel is always Casual Heel.


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## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

Casual heel. I have just been asking her to watch me, then turning. She will heel well with loose leash or no leash at all, I'm not training for anything formal.


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## rick smith (Dec 31, 2010)

if it's just casual walking try making your left turns a little slower and give her a easier chance to yield to your pressure. only speed em up after she does well with the slow turns
- realize that when you turn left she has to slow down b4 making her turn...obviously just the opposite of a right turn

nobody says you gotta keep the same fast pace walk all the time and if you don't constantly slow up and speed up when you first start out, they can't know exactly where they should be

even if you haven't deliberately taught her a position as in a formal heel, she has still been conditioned to a some "position" "near" your left hip...you just might not have been clear how big that space was

you might even try starting a slow turn as if you are going right but instead go left. that will either confuse the heck out of her or give her a heads up a turn is coming

you can also turn a quick 180 and she if she if knows you want her to join back up on your left side

you can also lure her with your left hand to hold the correct position even if it's not formal heel training...easy enuff to fade the lure when she's solid

hard to pin it down but lots of ways to show her
my guess is it's prob a combo of her not being dialed in knowing her position coupled with too fast of a left turn

but either way, even casual walking still requires her to know where she can be and you need to be clear and consistent as you show her


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## rick smith (Dec 31, 2010)

btw, how do you do your (180) about turns ?
do you just reverse turn fast and she continues around and catches up to your left side ?

and of course left turns don't have to be 90 degrees to start out either


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## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

180, she will catch up on right turns. When I taught her to heel, I put a hand down so she wouldn't get to far forward, I want her head even with my leg. I probably could go back to using the hand and use it to lead her on the left turns. Since she is used to using it for position, I could use my hand to help. She is pretty solid, I change speeds a lot so she'll have to rate and I can walk across the yard, tell her to heel, and she'll come from fifty feet away and fall in on the left side. I'm guilty I guess of just wanting to walk at normal speed turn left and expect her to catch it. Occasionally she does, I can give her a 'watch' command and turn left while she's looking and everything's ok. Slowing down will no doubt help.


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

Put a leash on her collar and place it behind your knees/legs. Just do 1/4 left turns in place until she picks her cue that you're about to turn. For formal heeling you can get attention and use a head turn. For casual heeling she can cue off your hip movement. If you get her front feet elevated (on a feed bowl or something similar) and do pivots it seems to go a little faster.


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## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

In other words, to teach her to pivot, I need to get her working off her back end? I can do that! As a cutting horse guy, we spend years getting a horse to squat and turn on their ass end. You can probably do the same thing by lifting her front, so she squats in the back before pivoting. Thanks, I should have figured that out on my own.


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

I don't know anything about horse training, but that sounds about right


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## jim stevens (Jan 30, 2012)

Regarding horses, if you don't like corrections or punishment, you would have a very poorly trained horse. Dogs are a geniuses by comparison. The only reward you can use on a horse is to release the pressure you forced on them, as a rule.


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Can you show a video? I think it's a handling problem not a training problem.


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

you might also try an OB stick for the rear end...


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