Heeling for food

In order to teach the dog to walk at heel, we must be able to attract it and draw it along with us as we move. We accomplish the attraction by using food.

The handler begins with his dog sitting at heel. Holding the food enclosed in his right hand, he reaches the hand across his body and touches it to the animal’s nose so that the dog can smell the food but not take it. Then with a bright, encouraging “Heel!” command he steps smartly off into a tight turn to his right.

As he goes, he holds his hand and the food it contains down low and just ahead of his left hip so that, as the dog pursues it, the animal will move perfectly along at heel. The handler continues around in a small circle, ruffling the dog’s head and neck with his left hand and praising it extravagantly with, “Good! Heel! Good dog!”

When he reaches his starting point, the handler stops abruptly, commands “Sit!” and lifts the hand with food in it sharply up, so that the dog quickly sits straight at heel without forging or swinging in toward the handler. If necessary, the handler can give a little tap with his left hand on the dog’s left flank to gather the animal in tight as it sits. The handler then feeds the dog, pats it and sets off quickly into another right‑handed circle, perhaps feeding the dog a tidbit or two as they move along.

For the first few training sessions, the handler practices only small, right‑handed circles while heeling. Later he begins walking a straight line with a right about‑turn at each end (like the path that a sentry walks). Eventually, he will expand the heeling patterns into rectangles and figure eights, taking care to move quickly and talk excitedly to the dog to keep it moving along tightly at heel.