Teaching Your Dog to Heel

Teaching your dog to heel is one of the more difficult commands to master on both the dogs part and the owners part equally. This command is only effective for short periods. The reason for this is simple dogs have a very short attention span.

When teaching a dog to heel it is important that you have immense patience with your dog. This will be difficult as the dogs attention especially will be distracted by everything else going on around him.

The best way to teach your dog to heel is to use a leash, take your dog for a walk. Make sure that he stays close to your side, give the heel command and take about two or three steps ahead. If he does as he was asked then reward him with praise and a treat. One thing to keep in mind though a dog that is older is easier to train than a new puppy, so be patient.

Just like the other training keep sessions short, you will get better results with several short lessons than two or three long lessons. Each time keep getting farther and farther ahead until you have reached a point that you feel comfortable that your dog has mastered heel.

The importance of this command is to prevent your dog from bolting into traffic or any other dangerous situation. In addition, if you are approached by someone coming towards you, you do not want your dog running towards them in a threaten manner. This is in fact a difficult command to teach, however it is one that will reward you in the future just be patient.