# Heeling Games!



## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

Anybody have any favorites? Ones that have worked well for you in building your dog's enjoyment or precision in heeling?

I've just started practicing with Pongu specifically with an eye toward increasing our speed in trial environments while retaining precision, so we're starting to incorporate a lot more structured heeling games into our practice sessions. Previously I'd just do whatever seemed fun and relaxing, because the focus was more on coaxing scaredypants dog into functioning at _all_ in unfamiliar and distraction-filled environments. Now we've accomplished that to a semi-satisfactory degree, so we're beginning our slow shift over to the pursuit of perfection.

Also, I need something new to teach him to break up the potentially boring repetition of stuff he already knows but needs to polish. Cue heeling games!

Yesterday I introduced Pongu to Denise Fenzi's "Fly" game, in which the dog is sent out to circle a stationary object (I'm using a cone). In this clip he's still developing fluency in the behavior so it's not particularly smooth or fast; Pongu had never previously been asked to go around an object and this is just our second session.





 
(That slanted Down makes me laugh. Pongu has an issue with slanted Downs anyway, but in this instance it's really my fault because I have my shoulders turned toward him to keep him in the camera's view. Since I'm twisted, so is he. Poor nerdpuppy's just following my crooked alignment.)

I'm teaching the "Fly" go-around as a right turn initially because Pongu's right turn is slightly slower and tends to go wider than his left turns at trials, so I'm hoping that I can use this exercise not only as a fun motivator/pattern break but to build up his muscle memory for a tighter, faster right turn. Hopefully once he gets familiar enough with the behavior that we can practice outside, I'll be able to get it going at speed, and with any luck that will prove useful down the road.

What else have people found useful in building good heeling?


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## Chris Wild (Dec 14, 2001)

I like to do chase me games with heeling. I do this a lot with young dogs to build a strong association that heeling is fun and that heel position is a great place to be. I'll have a pocket full of treats, take the dog out (free, no leash), and play a game of pseudo tag where I trot away from the dog, and when the dog comes after me and gets into heel position next to me (they already have an idea of what heel is at this point) I praise lavishly, we walk for a couple paces, I release, treat/pat, then run off in another direction and repeat. Sometimes after the release/treat/petting I'll shove the dog away from me before I take off again, which just gets the dog to chase harder (opposition reflex).

I'll do this with older, trained dogs on occasion too, just to spice it up and have fun and rejuvenate heeling.

I also like to occasionally do what a German trainer at a seminar once referred to as "wild west heeling".. basically going all over the place with lots of pace changes, turns, spirals, spins, side steps, moving my legs in odd positions (a'la ministry of silly walks). Pretty much the opposite of the stuffy, boring, straight line heeling in trials/shows.


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## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

I _love_ Tag and Chase games! They really do make it a lot easier to convince a dog that Heel is fun, don't they?

Two variations that I've found particularly useful are Freeze Tag (I touch the dog, the dog freezes in position while I run away and stays frozen until I give a release cue to chase me again -- this is great for proofing Stand-Stays out of motion) and Reverse Freeze Tag (I freeze and the dog has to find my open palm and bonk it with a nose to get me moving and resume the game; I like this one because it interrupts blind motion to request a "thinking" behavior and, depending on where I hold my palm, can also be used to reinforce Heel and Front position. Since the game only resumes when the dog bonks my hand, it's a strong motivator to find my palm and get into position _really fast_).

I haven't done much work with opposition reflex, but it's something that Fenzi has been discussing in her current Heeling Games session, and it seems like it has a lot of potential. I really need to take Dog Mob out and give some of those games a spin. Hmm, maybe we'll do that tonight...


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## Narny (Sep 8, 2010)

I am so following this thread.


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## andreaB (Nov 6, 2011)

Narny said:


> I am so following this thread.


 me too!!! Love it


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## GatorDog (Aug 17, 2011)

I've been really working on heeling with my 6 month old since day one. We did a ton of luring to get the head position. I introduced perch work to get the rear end movement and she has always really loved that. Now we are introducing "under", to go between my legs and tight circles to work on the rear end movement some more. 











And some puppy foundation


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## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

I posted this a while ago in a different thread, but here's Pongu playing Freeze Tag if anybody wants to see what that looks like.





 
That clip is over a year old, so our games are a little bit tricksier now -- I don't hold my hand out in front of Pongu's nose the whole time anymore, for one thing! -- but it's still a fair representation of what Freeze Tag looked like for us in the early stages, and in that sense it's probably more useful if you're just starting to teach this one to your dog.

You can see that there's a hand signal as a secondary cue to get the Stay after I tell him to Freeze. It's quick but it's there, and it can be useful when you're first introducing this concept. Later you can fade it out if you want (but this is a game, so you might not bother, since there's no getting dinged for repeated cues in a game!).

If you want to make it look more like fast-paced heeling then you'd run in a straight line and hold your hand out to guide the dog in a straight line along with you, obv. I made this particular clip just as a demo for a tricks class that I was teaching at our dog park, with no intention of it being anything more than a fun recreational game for most of the people who'd be learning it, so I wasn't really aiming for precision here. But hopefully it's sufficient to show how it _could_ be used to shape that, if that's what you wanted. 

I might try to make a clip of Reverse Freeze Tag later this week if I have time and can find somebody to hold the camera for me.


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## LifeofRiley (Oct 20, 2011)

Fun thread! I am definitely going to try some of these things with Riley!

@Merciel, I love Pongu!


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## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

GatorDog said:


> Now we are introducing "under", to go between my legs and tight circles to work on the rear end movement some more.


This is lovely work, especially for a puppy who's just six months old!

We started in freestyle, so Pongu did a _ton_ of backwards stuff (and still does), but he's nowhere near as graceful as your girl. 

@ LifeofRiley -- thanks! Would love to know how it works for you guys, and if you come up with any new spins while you're experimenting!


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## David Taggart (Nov 25, 2012)

*IMHO, Heeling is an outdoor art*, you need space, streets, football fields, woods, paths uphill and downhill, rocky mountains and wherever your feet may enjoy themselves.
_On the leash_. If you are jogging in the mornings - run by the long building wall almost squeezing your dog between your thight and that wall.
_Unleashed_. Take or his ball into your right hand, or a piece of cheese into your mouth. Run and hiss "Heel!" on the way. Make different turns, abrupt stops and change of pace, but don't run for longer than 10 minutes. Mouthfeed him at the end, or throw the ball. Do it for longer when your dog is already familiar with the game without any treats, just keep on talking and looking at him while you run.
_Heeling backwards_. Train him to walk backwards. Pull the lead in your left hand gently back placing the tention towards his tail. Say "Back!" and tap his chest gently with your right foot in crossing your legs. He will make one step or two. Command and tap again, he will learn it with repetition. Next thing you can do - a few steps forwards, a few steps backwards. You can use a wall to help you controlling him on the left if he tends to turn around instead of walking backwards.
_Returning to the appointed spot_. You can teach him "The Circle and The Centre" game. I like it myself, it's fun. The principle is, that you run in circles and your dog sits in the centre, which you marked the spot with something, say, your vanity bag. You ask him alternately to run together with you and sending him to the centre of your circles time to time. You can add his ball to the game. Throw his ball at him when you're pronouncing command to run together and take it away when sending to the marked spot.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

i got my pupw hen he was 9 weeks old. when we were out he was either leashed or off leash. when he was leashed he was on my right side with
a short leash or his 6' leash shortened. i did everything slowly and
consistently. now my dog heels on either side with or without a leash
with distractions. keep training, slowly but surely.



Merciel said:


> >>>>> Anybody have any favorites? Ones that have worked well for you in building your dog's enjoyment or precision in heeling?<<<<<
> 
> I've just started practicing with Pongu specifically with an eye toward increasing our speed in trial environments while retaining precision, so we're starting to incorporate a lot more structured heeling games into our practice sessions. Previously I'd just do whatever seemed fun and relaxing, because the focus was more on coaxing scaredypants dog into functioning at _all_ in unfamiliar and distraction-filled environments. Now we've accomplished that to a semi-satisfactory degree, so we're beginning our slow shift over to the pursuit of perfection.
> 
> ...


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## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

That's, uh, not much of a game though, is it? 

The goal with heeling games is not to teach your dog to heel, or at least not directly. I'm assuming that if you're in this thread looking at heeling games, you _know_ how to teach a basic left-side heel and your dog knows how to do that too.

The goal is to make heeling really _really_ fun, such that your dog LOVES to heel. The purpose of heeling games is to encourage the dog to find the activity intrinsically rewarding (important during competition, when you have access to neither external rewards nor corrections!) and to present a sparkling, happy, precise picture in the ring.

Heeling can be either the most boring or the most fun thing a dog does in the ring (well, _one_ of them anyway, depending on what sort of ring you're in!). If you teach it right, with lots of games, you get the latter result. That's what I'm after, and straight slow lines on a shortened leash won't get me there.


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## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

So I've been playing around with opposition reflex games for about a week now, and while I'm still very much developing my own skill and fluency in the technique, our early results are promising for Pongu and... not so much with Crookytail.

Mainly what I've been doing is giving the dog a very light push squarely in the middle of his chest with the flat of my palm, simultaneously making a noise that sounds vaguely like "BOOP!" (it's not a word, it really is just a nonsense sound), and running away goofily. Sometimes the dog is in motion when I do this, other times I'll ask for a Sit or Stand first. When the dog catches up with me, there is a burst of celebratory praise and then we go right back into Heeling.

Pongu _loves_ the game, bounces up happily in response, and gives chase with an energy that carries over to the next several minutes of heelwork after we stop. I don't think it will take much to develop this into a usable reward for him.

Crookytail seems much more confused and ambivalent about it. He generally responds by stopping in his tracks and looking to me for additional cues about what he's supposed to do next. Based on his response to the game, I think he's interpreting it as a "no, you're wrong, do something else" signal. If I give him more than one push in a session, he tends to shut down.

Crooky has a much weaker reinforcement history of toy-less play with me -- since I quit doing competition work with him, I haven't spent much time building up the value of direct play with Crooky because, well, I just don't _need_ it for anything -- and so that is probably contributing to his confusion. In general, he shuts down whenever he isn't sure what to do next (which is one of the reasons I quit working with him, because he is a slow-learning dog, and a slow-learning dog who shuts down when he gets confused is a dog that I find frustrating to train).

A possible additional factor is that Crookytail is not a competitive dog personality-wise, either. Whenever there's a conflict over a desirable toy or food bowl, he is always quick to concede. Pongu can chase Crooky not only away from a meal, but right out of the room, just by glancing at him over a shoulder. One of the reasons I quit trialing him was because he would visibly wilt when he stepped into the ring -- it was like he could sense the pressure, on some level, and he wanted no part of it. He's a give-up-to-get-along kind of dog. There's just not a lot of push-back in his nature.

So, for Crookytail, opposition reflex is not working as a good game right now. I could probably clarify his confusion and build up the game's value over time, but I'm not sure that it's worth the effort for him. He's not a competition dog and he never will be.

It's been really interesting to do the game with each of these dogs, though. Definitely a lesson in how reinforcers are not universal, and what one dog finds rewarding can operate as a punishment to another.


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## gsdheeler (Apr 12, 2010)

Go to Bridget Carlsen's web site, she is the "queen" of games for heeling, wonderful working dogs.


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## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

Thanks, I'll look into that! I'm actually not too familiar with Bridget's techniques, so it'll be great to learn some new things. 

We're on vacation the next couple of weeks and it's been good (and challenging!) to work Dog Mob in some totally new areas. Pongu's been semi-functional doing heeling games on the road, which is new. Progress!


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