I'm right handed so my dog Miss Mae
heels to my left. But I won't to train her to heel
to both sides. Started today but it didn't go as easy
as I had planned. Any thoughts on this will be great fully
appreciated
If you do Rally or Agility you will learn to teach the dog to be dual sided. I don't use the EC for basic obedience at all. I normally will take the dogs and do drills with them on just heeling several times a week. I don't believe in shocking a dog that will not heel to the line. If you can't do it then I would recommend you hire a young kid to teach the dog to heel. I know several people in the retriever community who love to run hunt tests but I do use the EC for long distance blinds. Of course my view is different from every one on the forum since I am a disabled veteran. I know there are others on the forum who are disabled veterans? I always take my puppies to obedience class. All of my dogs went before they went to a pro hunt trainer. I have put CGC's on all of my dogs. Rally is a great place to start with a small pup. You can do agility but no jumping because it can cause damage to the dogs bones at a young age. Janice Gunn has some good video's I would recommend you purchase. I do have two dogs from pure field lines. Let's just say I took my old dogs and retrained them.
She is a 7 month old bf. she is ff FTP and we have started t patterns. She heels great to the left side almost perfectly( said almost). She has plenty of drive. Steady to shot sits to whistle. I started trying heeling to the right side this morning and it was like she was freaking out trying to get to my left side. I didn't use heal verbal command I would pat my right leg and she would go to the left side used a leash and she would fight it as soon as I would take pressure off she'd go to the left
Stick with it and be consistent. Use your rope and show her the same way you taught her originally, be patient and it will come together. As always, lots of praise when she gets it right. I'm in the same situation, my 5 month old has always heeled on the left. I decided recently to teach him both sides and only took me a few short sessions for the last few days and he's picked up on it quick.
Put the left side of your body against a wall, so heeling left is not an option. Praise when she gets in the right place. Heel along a fence with her on your right the fence on your left. 7 months is not too old to teach 2 sided.
Once the dog is comfy on both sides use wagon wheel lining to perfect.
Do you guys use the command "heel" for both sides? One of the guys at my retriever club (his dog is a master national qualifier) told me to use "heel" for one side and "side" for the other. On the other hand, i was just watching Dennis Voigt's training retrievers alone dvd and noticed that he uses "heel" for both sides. To get the dog to switch sides, he says "other side" and the dog transitions. Any thoughts?
If she's been heeling to the left for months, then doing the other side will be tough for a while. Be patient and keep teaching. Make sure you have a clear hand signal for her to follow. She'll figure it out. It's just that heel means on your left right now. Might want to use hand motion only for a while.
I would start with healing her on the right on lead, sit, heal, sit, heal. Then try to heal off lead, etc....my thought.......
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