Yes thats what I was thinking. I do use it on Khan in the ring too if he gets distracted. I can see that I am going to have to compartmentalise everything into 3 (show,obedience,free time). I am in no rush to do competition obedience with her she is still very much a baby but I like to have a good idea what to do so I can get things right in my head first After all if I don't know what to do I can't teach her or my mum

This is fascinating stuff for me, thanks.

to add, sorry, other starter HW tips,

get a HW toy & REALLY get the dog into tugging it.

Teach the trot & movement & attitude separate to the static technical stuff

Teach the dog to watch your left hand.

I start on the movement and the watch on tiny pups here was Mavvy @ 6months,training some HW

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...P1010001-1.flv


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...P1010004-1.flv

Very messy & puppish,but all the attitude,movement & the WATCH there!!!! You can see when he calms down about half way around.

You can see there his tuggy (clip one) & some work on getting him focassing on my hand out of position & then bringing him in (clip 2) to HW pos

I couldn't get the second link to work but if you call that first one messy well I thought it was amazing.

I don't know if this kind of obedience work is going to be too much for her for quite a while, I may have to re adjust my plans.

I think perhaps enrol her in a normal class for general obedience, get her trained for the show ring (just about there now). Allow her some experience and then go for the obedience, that seems like a sensible solution.

You have been a great help, thanks and I have enjoyed watching the vids, it has really opened my eyes to the difference between normal obedience and competition work.

I'm really pleased that you are not walking them together, as the amount of people I see walking an adult and a puppy together drives me mad.

Sorry I can help you with the ring craft bit as I don't show my dogs, but getting your pup to do street heel shouldn't be that difficult, but just be warned that you have to be one step ahead of her. In other words the moment you either feel or start to see her pulling, get her to sit straight away.

The other thing I do when I first get a dog that needs to learn how to walk to heel is to make sure that I maintain contact with them by just touching their neck. So when I'm out I end up have three forms of command, verbal, lead, and touch.

The verbal bit would either be Krystal heel or Krystal sit if she start to really pull, the lead bit is clicking the chain on their collar and the touch bit is so you can steer her in close to you as opposed to using the lead to pull her close to you.

I must admit that I do a lot of my training within the house or garden before I try it outside where there are loads of other distractions, that way they already know what I want from them.

I'm always talking to her, either praise or a command whatever, I'm surprised I haven't walked into a lamp post yet cos I concentrate on her so much.
I was just about to say I don't do the touch bit because she is so small and it hurts to bend down, but thinking about it I do sometimes squat down, put my hand on her chest and push her back. I don't think I could keep my hand on her neck all the time or I would definetely walk into a lamp post!!

Your not the only one as I've walked into trees, lamp posts and even a couple having a chat.

If you can't reach her neck with your hand then just use what Michelle used to use and that was a feather duster. It was soft enough not to hurt them in anyway, but stiff enough to maintain control and to stop them wandering away from you. I must admit you do end up get some really strange looks though.

Strange looks, I'm not surprised, they'd lock me up and throw away the keys (again).
A woman up the road said her husband waves a stick in front of their dogs when he's training them to heel, I think if I tried that Krystal would eat the blooming thing!

Well you have got two jobs to do.

First one is to heel.
Second one is "Leaving the duster alone"

Aaahh but I am a woman we can multi task!

And on that note I bid you good night!

Thanks Colin and Mishflynn.

Also I would use a different word for just a lead 'heel'
For me on the lead I just want Ben not to pull so I use 'loose' and 'heel' and 'side' for propper heeling (not v good yet cos we have been doing other fun stuff
really depends what you want when she is walking - but if it is just to walk fairly nice without pulling then this is what I am trying
When the lead goes tight I stop - say nothing untill he makes the lead go slack by taking a step back then start walking
the closer he is to my side the faster I walk - as he gets out infront I slow down and as soon as there is pressure on the lead I stop
That means if he wants to get to the thing infront of him he has to step back and make the lead slack before I move
after a while he takes the step back as soon as he feels the lead tighten and you dont even have to stop

(only be careful when you start walking forward cos Ben was trying to figure out how to make me move and turned back and barked at me at the same time - for a while he thought that barking at me was what got me to move - cue a v rude dog!!)