# By Heel and finish commands



## Lin (Jul 3, 2007)

I'm looking for some tips and various ways of teaching the By Heel and Finish commands. For By Heel I mean for your dog to return to heel position. And Finish for them to go from in front of you around behind you into the heel position. 

At training classes, we were mostly told to lure the the dog into the position with food while saying the command. I think this is as in depth as he went, but then I've missed classes both during novice and now with the advanced club style classes. Its very easy to get Emma to heel off lead or make these movements with food, because she's so food motivated... But I don't think she is paying any attention to the movement/position, just following the food. So I'm unsure how to get from luring with food, to knowing the command. But then I taught her sit, down, stand, etc by luring with food so maybe I'm just making it more complicated in my head than it truly is... 

Any suggestions? A big part of the problem I know is I haven't been working with her enough the last few months. Everything was so crazy, and when we did train I had a tendency to just refresh easy things she already knows. So totally my fault we haven't advanced in a while! I hope to get back to daily sessions and weekly classes in the next week.


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

For the finish command we were taught to say 'around' if he was going to travel around your back to sit on your left side, or 'get back' to turn in front of you and finish on the left. I step back with my left foot and say get back so he follows that way, and step back with the right to lure him around to the right side then behind my back.


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## wildo (Jul 27, 2006)

For by heel i've been using perch command and shaping the position that way. I don't have advice on the finish since I don't want my dog crossing behind me in agility. Go search youtube for 'teaching heel as a trick.'

Here's the video:





By the way- this video is being commented on here: http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...aching-heeling-like-its-trick-puppys-too.html


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## Lin (Jul 3, 2007)

Stosh said:


> For the finish command we were taught to say 'around' if he was going to travel around your back to sit on your left side, or 'get back' to turn in front of you and finish on the left. I step back with my left foot and say get back so he follows that way, and step back with the right to lure him around to the right side then behind my back.


You didn't explain HOW you taught it though? How did you lure? How did you break away from a lure to the dog understanding the command without it? 

Thanks Wildo, I'll look at those!


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## London's Mom (Aug 19, 2009)

It takes a bit of skill to teach them "around" because you have to siwtch the treat from one hand to the other behind your back! But I used a small treat and guided London on a short lease to finally get him to figure it out. Just keep trying, I am sure your GSD will learn it quickly. 
Once they learn "around" you will no longer have to move, just give him/her the command and watch him/her DO IT!


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## JanaeUlva (Feb 5, 2011)

Luring is a good way to teach a position but I think it's important not to get stuck on the lure for too long. So try passing the food behind your back so they have to concentrate on you and the food comes from over their head. Once they are taking some steps looking up at you, start to reward every second step instead of every step. Then move to reward every third step. I tell them they are a gooood dog when they are taking those unrewarded steps so they know they are doing right. Then move to random reward. 

Also I feel it is important to have drive and focus before you do too many steps of heeling, at least if you are going for competition heeling. Practicing correct behavior is important. So if my dogs focus is such: heel heel heel peek heel peek heel heel peek (you get the idea) then I am not practicing good behavior.

So I do short amounts of straight away heeling but concentrate mostly on focus, drive and position before I do any extended lengths of heeling or turns. A toy for a toy motivated dog brings more drive into the training. I make sure to use my voice to let the dog know it is doing right and to encourage.

I also like to work on quarter turns and saying the heel command for each change of position and reward for them moving into the position. In my opinion it helps build the drive to get in position. 

I spend a lot of time on the small parts of the big picture that makes up heeling and feel the foundation is focus. Kind of a simplified description but I hope it helps.


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## JanaeUlva (Feb 5, 2011)

Sorry, just noticed you meant going to the heel position not heeling. Geez. Anyhow, I break them both a part. 

Teach a finish. Teach the heel position. The quarter turning can help teach them to come into position.


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## Lin (Jul 3, 2007)

Ok so I'm glad that others have used food lures and its worked...  But no one is telling me HOW to use the food lure, or how you went from the food lure to not using it?

I can use a food lure to get Emma into position, its easy with her. I can hold food in my hand and have her heel off leash, she sniffs the food and when we stop I give it to her. But I don't think she's learning anything at this point, other than "if I follow the food I eventually get to eat it." So I don't know how to get from follow the food, to heel is a position and not just walking at my side. 

I'm not doing any competition obedience. Emma will hopefully be my next service dog. So along with that, there are differences in our heeling. I don't focus on her following when I step off with my left foot, and staying when I step off with my right foot. If I want her to stay, I tell her to stay. If I'm standing, I need to be able to put my left foot forward to rest that leg and keep my weight on my right leg. So I can't have her walking off just because I stepped my left leg forward to rest it. Also, we don't do automatic sits. I keep her standing when we stop, because as a service dog she will need to remain standing when we stop so that I can use the handle of the mobility harness for balance. 



> Teach a finish. Teach the heel position.


Yes, but HOW? I need it spelled out to me. I need to understand the why and the how, thats why I'm struggling now. Just "lure with food into the position" isn't enough for me. 

Haven't watched the videos yet, I use my phone for an internet connection at home but I have horrible reception here so its not fast enough for loading youtube videos.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

Okay, next get the food out of your hand. You can make like you have food, so the dog follows the air cookie. If you get stuck on that lure it can get to the point that the dog thinks it is part of the exercise. I see some dogs in classes that can not do the behavior withoutnthe learn becuase in their mind it is part of the exercise!

I like to teach yielding to leash pressure. Michael Ellis has good explanation of teaching it. Once my dog knows what the leash pressure means, I lead them through the behavior and into the position. This is not a corrextion thing. It is a showing thing. There is subtle compulsion to it, of course. My dogs learn really well with this more phyical technique. It is old school, in a way but I came to appreciate this approach. I do luring also, but make sure not to carry that too far. I like hands on work, leading and placing the dog in the learning phase.


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

I have done what Samba describes


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## Lin (Jul 3, 2007)

Can you recommend some web pages or videos on Michael Ellis teaching it?

Removing the food, I'm still sort of stuck on how to get past during the lure with the hand lol. I'm not trying to be difficult, but I just feel like there is a piece missing and so its not clicking in my head which I need. I was thinking about it earlier, how I used luring to teach simpler behaviors. I lured with the food, and then I lured without the food, but I never really stopped luring without food... 

Its just that the lure motion essentially became my hand signal. The long lure to the ground for a down eventually shortened up to dropping my wrist and pointing to the ground. Thinking back to that, I can better see myself slowly shortening up the lure for By Heel, but not really the Finish? Blah. Maybe my head is just too fuzzy lately and I need to stop overthinking it.


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## JanaeUlva (Feb 5, 2011)

I just want to apologize again for misreading your question and then I had to run out thus the short apology and simply teach the commands. Extremely helpful hey?! 

Fading the lure is really the same with the heel or most anything else trained via lure. When luring, once the dog understands meaning you see consistently and correctness in the behavior then you can put it to cue so example "front". It's important with food luring, at this point, to say the cue, pause a second then lure to front. If you cue and lure simultaneously the dog responds only to the lure. So cue, pause, lure, reward. Watch for some movement by the dog to initiate the behavior after the cue but BEFORE you lure. Then you can start to "fade" the lure by waiting to lure longer. Give your dog time to do the movement without the lure and reward at completion and make a big deal over the dogs initiative. Be ready to step in and help the dog complete the movement after the cue, if it's apparent that he is not ready for totally no lure. Remember to use your voice and body language to bring the dog into you. 

Eventually I moved on to requiring a front before a ball was thrown and that increased the drive. So play and cue.

I like the other posters suggestion to look into Michael Ellis leash pressure work that can be found in his focused heeling DVD. He also demonstrates how to fade the lure in heeling. Usually the lure is faded as quickly as possible.

Points to remember - cue, pause, lure, reward. Then give the cue a chance. Hopefully I was more to the point this time. Again, I apologize. Sometimes I scare myself


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

Lin, I've been working with Dante on this trying to get a better finish as well. At least a more responsive one, at that. He just wasn't "getting it" and I couldn't seem to fade the lure either. Finally, I got out the clicker (again) and it worked very well with him. I started with the usual lure and was passing the treat behind my back from right hand to left, then rewarding with a proper by-heel. I began moving the treat faster and faster with an almost backwards wave to go behind me, and instantly reward when he hit the other side at a by heel. Before long, I started fading the treat and only using it every second or third time, but he thought it was still in my hand because the reward was so fast when he got to the other side. It has been working really well. The key for me to fade it was to get my hands moving faster so his nose wasn't glued to my hand. Before long, I could just "swish" my hand back and he'd go behind me. He came to the by-heel for his reward.

Does that help?


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## DJEtzel (Feb 11, 2010)

I lured Frag to teach "finish" (on the right, around me). 

I started standing by a wall to try to keep him straight right next to me. I started with food in my right AND left hand, lured him from my right halfway around my back, brought him all the way with my left and Clicked/treated once he was coming into position. Gradually he knew what I wanted more and I didn't have to use my left hand as much, stopped putting food in it and just bringing him up with it, then stopped using my left hand and started keeping food there by my side and taking food out of my right hand and continuing to lure without food around me, still clicking/treating once he got to the wall/my side. I gradually moved my arm less and less far behind me and started cueing "Finish" while I was finishing up the arm movement. Now I give a flip of the wrist to my right and say Finish, and he finishes around to my left. 

If you're still having trouble tomorrow I can get a video...


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## Packen (Sep 14, 2008)

wildo said:


> For by heel i've been using perch command and shaping the position that way. I don't have advice on the finish since I don't want my dog crossing behind me in agility. Go search youtube for 'teaching heel as a trick.'
> 
> Here's the video:
> ‪Tani's Heeling Video‬‏ - YouTube
> ...


Excellent work!


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## wildo (Jul 27, 2006)

Packen said:


> Excellent work!


That's not me. But I agree- breaking this down and shaping each part seems an excellent way to go.


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