Head-Up Heeling

Your next task is to get the dog moving while still focusing on your left hand. This is not a difficult task and yet it is a very important one. How often do you see dogs maintain perfect attention while sitting at heel, then look away the instant the handler steps forward? It is natural for a dog to drop its head when it gets up off of a sit, so you must train for the unnatural: moving forward with the head up.

It really doesn't matter at this stage if your dog is sitting or standing. Get your dog's attention with your "ready" command and feed the dog once or twice in order to maintain the dog's attention while standing still. Then give a "heel" command and step off with your left foot. All of the Pems I have trained have naturally moved forward in unison with me after only a couple sessions of stationary attention work. The occasional shy or reticent dog will need some verbal encouragement or a lowering of the left hand (luring) to get the desired forward movement. The trick here is to take only a step or two, then feed the dog. Be sure to feed the dog while it is in heel position, before it is released. Most Pems with half a brain will once again start jumping for the food when you move. Just lift up your hand, then lower the food to the dog when the dog stops jumping. If your Corgi never gets fed when it jumps for food, it will eventually stop jumping. There is no need to use any physical means to keep the dog from jumping at your hand. The behavior will be extinguished naturally if the jumping action brings no rewards.

Heel Focus
Photo 1.
Focus on the left hand.

I focus all my initial heeling training on stationary attention (Refer to Photo 1) and then on attention while moving a few steps from the stationary position. I gradually increase the number of steps before feeding the dog until I can walk ten or fifteen steps with my dog watching my left hand.

It is important that you understand several points here:

  • 1. Always stop moving when you feed the dog. The dog should be released from the exercise of heeling once he is rewarded. If you keep meandering after feeding, the dog will meander with you. There is no way a green dog can eat and concentrate on heeling simultaneously. To repeat the exercise you must set the dog up in heel position and start again, once you have the dog's attention.
  • 2. If your dog looks away from your left hand while moving forward, you have attempted too much, too soon. Back up and reinforce the dog for stationary attention, ("ready", feed), then for a few attentive steps, then for a few more steps of head-up heeling. You never want your dog to know that it is possible to heel in any other manner.
  • 3. If your dog does lose his focus on you, simply stop and abort the exercise. I usually say "Ick!" as a clue to my dog that he blew it. Set the dog up and start over, but make sure the exercise results in success for the dog this time.
  • 4. Be sure to feed your dog only when the dog is in the correct position. Just stop moving and lower your left hand to the dog's mouth. Don't pull the dog into a forged or wide position by reaching in those directions with your left hand (Refer to Photo 2).


Forged
Photo 2. Feeding the dog in a forged position.

All we have accomplished so far is to teach the dog to move off of a stationary position (sit or stand) with his attention focused on you. Believe me, if you lay this foundation well, you are 75% of the way home! With the exception of the automatic sit, the variations of heeling (turns, fasts, slows, figure eights) are very simple for Corgis to learn. Think of the fast, the slow, the right and left turns, the about-turn and the halt as individual exercises, all needing to be trained separately.

On to Turns And Changes of Pace