How to Teach Your Labrador to Heel

Video Transcript

Hi! I’m Melanie McLeroy with Taurus Training for Expert Village, and today we’re going to talk about training dogs. So let’s talk about teaching Labrador retrievers to heel. When Labs are puppies, they tend to be pulling machines, so please work with your dog, whether it’s a Labrador or not, very young. When they’re walking beside you, anyway, give them a lot of praise and positive reinforcement, and try to keep the leash loose from the very beginning. Now Telula is a bit of an older Lab, and she’s very distracted by everything that’s going on out here. However I’m going to use a no-pull harness on Telula. Check out the video on equipment, if you haven’t already, and choose what’s best for you and your dog. The no-pull harness is one that teaches her not to pull, it’s not a regular harness that triggers an oppositional reflex and teaches her to pull, but you see how she’s so forward, it’s going to be hard for her not to pull. I’m going to use a lot of name game with Telula here to keep her attention on me and to try to keep the leash loose. Now the heel is a position—I want her right shoulder even with my left leg… heel… and I’ll give a little tug if she starts to get ahead. Now she’s really wanting to pull, so I’m going to start changing speeds and directions pretty quickly here, Lula and use the name game, good, good. So I prefer to walk in front of her than to use any pressure on the leash. You don’t want to physically show your dog what to do. You want to encourage them, heel, good, to pay attention to when you’re turning and changing speeds, sit, good. When you’re working on heel with your Labrador or other dog, make sure that you stop every once in a while, if they’re really intense on the environment, and get their focus back on you. Here, good, sit, good, ump, now that was no reward marker because she got up, good, heel, good. Lula, good so here I’m making it a little more fun to pay attention to me, heel, good, ump, heel that no reward marker was for her pulling on the harness, good, heel, good, notice how the loose the leash is, good. She’s really checking in with me now. So I’m going to end this session on a success, good girl Telula.

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