Hey ,
I was just about to finish a training session with my 18 week old puppy today when I suddenly thought maybe I'll try to teach him to heel off lead. He already knows sit, stay, down, leave and round. I haven't taught him to heel yet as he is so good on the lead , he never pulls but just either walks slightly in front of me, just behind me or right next to me. But I realised that just because he doesn't pull doesn't mean I shouldn't teach him to heel. and because he had already been on his daily walk I just decided to do it in the garden while he was off lead. I got a treat out and held it where he could see it on my left hand side. He came straight to my side and I started walking and he walked right next to me , so I said the word heel as we were walking around and then after several steps I stopped and gave him a treat. I did it a few more times and then stopped as I didn't want to do to much on his first go. But I was just wondering is this a good way to teach him to heel , is it good to do it off lead and if I do it when he is off lead will he still heel when I then do it on the lead?
Thanks

I think he will associate the word with the action whether he is on lead or off. It is a good thing to do, just in case he is distracted by another dog or something and you need him to come back to you in a hurry.

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Yep, I teach my students to heel off lead and on lead. In fact, if dogs pull their handlers, it's a good way of getting handlers to concentrate on their heelwork, not having that umbilical cord attached! It always, without fail, improves heelwork on lead so practice both.

I use it when we're out and we need control of the dogs but don't want to clip them back on their leads, such as avoiding cow-pats, puddles, streams etc. etc.

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Yes, definitely. A dog that wants to be with you off-lead, is a dog that will want to be with you on-lead. All training is much better started off-lead.

Absolutely a good idea, there are so many real world situations that this can help you with. Obviously walking to heel off lead automatically helps with walking to heel on the lead, but there can be so much more to it than that.

There is a short stretch on one of my regular walks where we have to cross a drive to a private house, have never seen a car drive down it but the possibility is there, so having the dog close to me means that I can get him out of the way if one does. Passing other dogs, coming up to blind corners when you don't know what could be around them, all sorts of situations when it is useful to have the dog close.

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Yes it's a good thing to teach. We walk in several places where there are people fishing, so I call him in to walk to heel until we've passed them.

If only he'd walk to heel when he's on the lead

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Many people teach heelwork offlead first. I do, and I do it for a few minutes at a time, making it fun, with lots of rewards.
Looselead walking is a different thing and I find takes longer.

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Mine picked up heel off lead far quicker than they do on lead (maybe the whole something to pull against? or on way to park so exciting ?) but its very handy if you need to have them under control when passing something etc

Hey ,
Thanks for all your replies , he really does seem to be picking it up extremely quickly I've done two training sessions of it so far and he is already excellent!