# "Heel" walking 15 weeks old puppy



## Momo_Mia (Feb 10, 2017)

Hi everyone!
First of all, really shortly - THANK YOU OH SOOO MUCH! Thanks to all who take their time to share your Vizsla-wisdom here! All of us, first time Vizsla puppy owners would be lost and would cry a whole lot more without all of you! ;D ;D ;D
I have this great male pupp, 15 weeks old, he's actually really good puppy - made me cry only few times. LOL Bites and nips in tolerable amount, normal for this age, learned really fast basic comands, except of - doing something similar to heel walking. 
I knooow, too much too soon, and I am not expecting that he heels at this age, don't get me wrong, but I would like to ask you for an advice on how to start training him to walk as close to me a possible. He doesn't chew the leash -which is aprox 1 m long, and he doesn't mind his collar, but the leash is always tense, and he is always in his own business, and I would like to start to train him to be more close to me. I tried treats - he smells it, comes to me, walks by my side while I have it in hand, but as soon as he gets it, he speeds up again, or goes left or right from me.

Any advice how you started with this kind of training? Thanks in advance guys


----------



## hecallsmebama (Mar 31, 2016)

Amos is 14 months and it's just now starting to click for him....and he's still a long ways from perfect! I bought a front clip harness and it has worked ok. Not the miracle that that some have said it would be. I have also heard that it is harder to teach pointers to walk to heel because their instinct is to be out front so they can point stuff out to you. 

So with the front clip harness, the dog can't take you sledding. If they bolt, it causes them to jerk around and face you, which I like because you immediately have their attention again. So I would just walk and if he started to pull, I pulled back. When he turned around (because of the harness) I would say heel like a command. Then we would walk about five yards and do it again. You don't go anywhere doing this, but it's the only way for them to learn. 

I could not use treats either. Amos was just not interested in them on walks. He was too busy exploring. Praise was also not an option. He'd be doing great and the second I said good boy he'd get excited and start pulling! He now runs with me on my left side. It's not a perfect heel. He's still a smidge ahead of me. I don't think he can help it. I do think it's the pointer instinct. But the leash is loose for most of it. We still have a few stops and reminders to heel over the course of a three mile run and it's been months since he tripped me. 

So all that to say, this might be a long process. It was for us. Amos is super smart. Could sit, stay and lay down within the first week, but walking/running to heel has been a bear. 

Lastly, many advise you wait to run them till they are a year. I tried to start a little earlier at nine months because I'm not fast or intense and I figured he could handle the short distance. However, once he got closer to a year, the whole process became so much less of a battle. I think there is a maturity component there, not just the physical development part we are usually focused on. I say that because it might apply to the walking as well. There just may not be a way to hurry it up. He may just have to hit a maturity level before it will fully click. 

Others on here may have had a different experience, but this was not something that happened overnight for us. It was a looooong process.


----------



## Momo_Mia (Feb 10, 2017)

Thanks a Lot for your story, and the collar tip... I'll look IT up. All in all, I have a really hard time raising is nose from the grada when we are outside, even whit the "good" treat such as cooked chicken chunks.
He's only 15 Weeks old, but I saw that he (they) Pick up really fast, so wanted to start doing something, even a small thing to make him walk better on the leash


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

When mine were puppies we practiced in the house. A whole lot less distraction, and they could figure out what's being asked of them. Next was in fenced back yard, just to add a little distraction to it. Then the front yard where more goes on. Lastly was away from home. At each new place they have to relearn that the no pulling still applies. Plus your dealing with a puppies short attention span, and so many new things, cool things that they want to experience. 
I keep the training time very short. If you get them to walk 15 feet without pulling, give them a release command. Let them play for a few minutes, and then start the no pulling leash exercise again. You can slowly build on the distance as they start to achieve success.


----------



## b4ruby (Sep 3, 2016)

We also practiced heel in the house down a long hallway at about 4 months of age. I kept dried liver in my closed hand by my knee. No distractions. Kept our session to less then 4 minutes. Then we heeled going in at out of the rooms. I made sure he had lots of treats and praise. He loves praise. I always ended the session when he heeled correctly so he was successful and happy. 
We then went outside to heel, and because we have no neighbors this too was easy. We live in the woods so the majority of his time exercising is off lead.

Lincoln is nine months old now and we are still working on his heeling when we are in town, in stores, at parks,etc. He gets easily distracted. One way to counter his forging ahead is to continually make sharp turns. I turn left in front of him, walk him in circles and figure eights. I make him sit and stay also. I expect him to obey me because he knows exactly what he is suppose to do. 

He is still intact so he has a strong urge to smell and mark. I was told by an experienced handler to not let him pee whenever he wants while he is on a leash training. This advice has helped a lot because he takes it much more seriously. He wears a chain slip collar when we are out training.


----------



## Mogwai (Jun 6, 2017)

We have similar issues with our 10 wk old puppy. We currently live in a very urban setting so I'm sure the biggest issue is the distractions once we get outside. His crate/ potty training is coming along great. He will typically go #1 and/ or # 2 quickly after getting out our front door, but then just sits and isn't to excited about walking. He can be led on further with some treats and actually does pretty well walking slightly in front of me with minimal pulling once we get going and have some momentum. At this point I'm more matching his walking speed then the other way around but try to reward him when hes not pulling on the leash. 

Anyone else have start-up problems or tricks that would be helpful?


----------

