Different Types of Heeling
There are three different types of heeling.
Competition Heeling: The dog's shoulder beside your leg, not in front or behind. The dog is looking up at you. This is also known as the focus heel.
Modern Heeling: The dog's shoulder is beside your leg, not in front or behind. The dog is looking where he is going.
Traditional Heeling: The dog's nose is beside your leg, with his shoulder behind behind you. The dog is taught to follow and watch the left leg. Dog stops when the left leg stops, and the dog goes when the left leg goes forward and touches the ground.
Obviously you can't have your dog focus heel on long walks. Walks can go up to an hour or two in length and that's a very long time to ask a dog to stare at you. This can cause pain in the neck from craning the neck and focus requires a lot of concentration (to look at your face without averting his gaze), discipline (to not look at anything even mildly distracting), and mental energy. This is why a lot of people train the dog to either modern or traditional heel. My dog was taught both modern and traditional heel at different points, and I did see a bit of difference. When my dog was taught to follow the left leg (traditional heeling), he wouldn't jump the gun as much. If I shuffled around a bit, he wouldn't take that as a cue to walk. I liked that.
Military dog trainers actually don't even train modern or traditional heeling. They teach the competition heel paired with a "walk easy" cue. The walk easy cue is to let the dog know he can walk where he likes, as long as he's on a loose leash and not pulling. This is cool too.
I find it's actually difficult to train both competition heeling and modern/traditional heeling. This is because the dog has gotten so accustomed to focusing on the owner that as soon as they're given the heel command, even if you don't have treats with you, they still focus. I prefer to just train modern heeling. Dog can just look where he's going.
Train whatever type of heeling you like, but remember each has it's place. It's unfair to have a dog focus heel for a one hour hike just as you'll probably get disqualified if your dog does a traditional heel in competitive obedience. Train whatever type of heel that you will use.
Competition Heeling: The dog's shoulder beside your leg, not in front or behind. The dog is looking up at you. This is also known as the focus heel.
Modern Heeling: The dog's shoulder is beside your leg, not in front or behind. The dog is looking where he is going.
Traditional Heeling: The dog's nose is beside your leg, with his shoulder behind behind you. The dog is taught to follow and watch the left leg. Dog stops when the left leg stops, and the dog goes when the left leg goes forward and touches the ground.
Obviously you can't have your dog focus heel on long walks. Walks can go up to an hour or two in length and that's a very long time to ask a dog to stare at you. This can cause pain in the neck from craning the neck and focus requires a lot of concentration (to look at your face without averting his gaze), discipline (to not look at anything even mildly distracting), and mental energy. This is why a lot of people train the dog to either modern or traditional heel. My dog was taught both modern and traditional heel at different points, and I did see a bit of difference. When my dog was taught to follow the left leg (traditional heeling), he wouldn't jump the gun as much. If I shuffled around a bit, he wouldn't take that as a cue to walk. I liked that.
Military dog trainers actually don't even train modern or traditional heeling. They teach the competition heel paired with a "walk easy" cue. The walk easy cue is to let the dog know he can walk where he likes, as long as he's on a loose leash and not pulling. This is cool too.
I find it's actually difficult to train both competition heeling and modern/traditional heeling. This is because the dog has gotten so accustomed to focusing on the owner that as soon as they're given the heel command, even if you don't have treats with you, they still focus. I prefer to just train modern heeling. Dog can just look where he's going.
Train whatever type of heeling you like, but remember each has it's place. It's unfair to have a dog focus heel for a one hour hike just as you'll probably get disqualified if your dog does a traditional heel in competitive obedience. Train whatever type of heel that you will use.
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