The POWER of the HEEL command in all areas of dog training!

All right, a few days ago, I put up a video of the universal problem that everybody has in the world and struggles with. When you're out in public, your dog's shooting off of you and jumping on people in the public. Hey. All right. Hello. Hey, girl. And I was explaining that all areas of dog training have this problem, right? Service dogs. I see it all the time. Police dogs, you know, just the public in general. So even dogs are supposed to be trained. And I see it all the time that just fly off the heel and jump on people. Okay. So it just happens that yesterday, day after I happen to put that video on YouTube, a client calls me and says that her dog constantly in public pulls off her in the heel and goes to everybody in anything, right? So the impulse control is not there, which is normal and most common issue probably, you know, with everybody with their dogs. So I'm going to take you today into something a little more advanced than I did in the last few days ago. Okay. So I figured since I had put the video up that I might as well just show you the whole class, right? Of what we did there to stop the dog from doing it and get it under control, right? By the end of the session, very shortly within a few minutes, we pretty much had it in check and the dog was staying at the heel. Now when we would come in and pet it and, you know, kind of taunt it to see if she would make a mistake and break the heel and go to us. Okay. All right. Good girl. Hi. You're so beautiful. Hi. Good girl. Right. So I'm going to show you that as I get there, you're going to see the dog just jumps all over me, blows out of the heel, and then we go and fix it. And I'm going to show you the class of how we did this, which I usually do not do. Okay. So this is going to be unique where I'm going to allow you into the class and watch how I went about fixing this. Now, before we go do that, the last video I put up about this, there are steps to this to have this really well, okay? So number one, your dog's heel has to be phenomenal, okay? And when I say phenomenal, I mean, you should be able to walk all over town with a loose leash. That dog is perfect with their collars lined up with you always, right? No matter what comes around in life, the dog is always attached to the leg, would never think about trying to go and engage with another dog, another human, wouldn't even think about it. Take them that way this way, and you're going to face them down this way and you'll do it. And you would need no leash help to control your dog ever. Okay. That is a rare thing, even with dogs who went through dog training. Okay. So I was showing my puppies and my dogs of how that heel is supposed to look. And this is without a leash on. Oh, wow. Also you see there, we get automatic sits when we stop the leg from moving on our heel without being told sit, not mandatory, but better, right? Easier and helps things more if that's the case, right? Because one thing we know that if the dog or puppy is sitting automatically when the leg stops, we have high attention in the heel game. And the dog we know now understands that the leg is everything in walking in life, that they must know where that leg goes all the time in every moment. So when they go and they, we stop our leg, right? All of a sudden they just start sitting automatic and you see there, I never say sit, it's an implied behavior. No matter how old the puppy is or dog, the moment we stopped walking, they sit automatically right next to the leg telling us we have a fluent heel game. There's an understanding, right? Of how this game is played, that we match our collars up with leg all the time, right? So they're going to have to be watching the leg all the time so that when it stops, they notice it automatic. So we have high attention to leg. So leg is overriding everything else in life. Then we get the automatic sits attached to that as well, like we're saying here, okay? Which just makes the whole game complete. High attention, which takes away from everything around us. The heel is also so critical, right? It's the power control position of dog training, okay? At the highest levels. So the heel, as we're talking in this video, if I have this really good, I mean really good, which is rare to see, okay? This jumping stuff and forging is going to be a piece of cake. We're not going to have a problem. Hey. All right. Hello. Hey, girl. I'm telling you. Now, also the power of the heel command being great also leads to everything else, right? Protection training, protection training, the heel, that heel position is critical in having a high level protection dog, right? We'd say high level. We're talking ultimate control of a dog who's taught aggression, right? To be totally controlled. No outbursts without being asked, never forging at anything, no mistakes, total control over that dog and its mind. All right. And here, Sue turns him on into aggression. I'm making all sorts of moves. I left my little things dangling and drives him crazy. And then Sue's going to tell him to out, shut off the aggression. No more talking to me, no more lunging. And here, I should be able to come in and pet him just like I'm going to do right now. Then I walk back out. He shouldn't react to me at all. Then here, Sue turns him back on. Now, you see there, he went right into engaging the leash on. He was going to take off. He held himself from taking off to try to attack me just like he should, self-control. Here I'm trying to bait him again, a lot of movements, a lot of jumping around to make him really, really try to come off his game. But he's holding it terrific. And then here, Sue's going to shut him off again. And then I'm going to come in and pet him again, exactly the way protection should be. Light switch on, light switch off. You turn. All right. And then here, we're going to send Rocco to bite because we want to make sure that when we had shut him, that we don't damage his bite at all, that he doesn't go anymore because we were shutting him off. Okay. So the heel is the foundation piece in a great protection game. And also, when we do aggression training, right, stopping dogs from outbursting aggressively at other dogs, people, whatever it is, the heel is the focal point and critical, right, to stop that behavior and get the dog's mind out of aggressive states, okay, critical. So when I go do aggression cases, which is my life all day, we always start with the heel because the heel, it's not about the dog walking properly when we're doing aggression cases. It alters the dog's mind, puts focus, calms them down from being internally like this because to focus on a leg and a good heel game takes away everything else in life and the environmental stimulus. Okay. And this is the case for all the categories. So heel is the most powerful, critical command in all of dog training, right? I mean, without question, hands down. So when your dog has a great heel, you can do so many things in life with that dog in all areas because you have control of your dog and you have them mentally with you. Okay. But this is not the case 99% of the time in the public, even if they went through dog training. Okay. I see it all day long. Okay. So from here, I'm going to take you to this class and it's the first time we're doing it. You're going to see it raw, right? Everything being done in one session. Okay. And how we go about this. Now start off, I just want to stay here. This German Shepherd has also, the owner has been using treats for two and a half years, right? With this dog using food and she loves treats, loves food. Okay. And has not been able to get her at all to stop doing what she's doing and get out of control out in public. Okay. So I just want everybody to know as we go into this, that's why we're not doing treats. We're not doing reward. Generally I will not do that anyway because I want this quick. I want it done and I want it over and I want happy dog and I just want everything to be quick and done in one session. Okay. So, and she's already been through that. It's not working for her. So right. So just want to give you that as we go into this, because this is going to be using the remote collar and getting this done very quickly. All right. So you're going to see here right off the bat, the owner starts coming down to me and as I start walking towards them, as soon as they got close enough, the dog lost, couldn't help herself anymore and just took off out of the heel and came right to me, crashing into me and then jumping up all over me. Hey girl. So, okay. And she does this to everybody, dogs in public people. I mean, she loves everybody and everything. She's a very social, sweet dog. Okay. So as now we start this, you're going to hear me talking to the owner and just know that the game is going into this because I do have my mic on in there and you'll hear me talking to the owner. Every time she breaks off that leg, there's going to be a correction with the collar. Okay. She has to learn leaving that leg without a permission word is unacceptable. Okay. The game is black and white. So if we say heel and she's in a heel, she can never leave the leg for anybody, anything, not grass, nothing. Okay. Unless she hears the word break. Okay. Or okay. Whichever. Right. So you're going to see that here throughout the video too. So in order to do this properly, you, your dog would need a very good release game. Okay. So all our dogs have it and this puppy had it cause I trained her as a young puppy. So you're going to see here, we're going to do the exercise. We get her under control. And then when she's behaving and doing well, we release her. Okay. To me to be social and say hello to me and we can do our thing and better and have a good time. Okay. And then what we're going to do is release her to me. Okay. All right. Okay. Good girl. So you're going to see us balancing out this exercise. Between her holding, disciplining herself, controlling her emotions and her throttle. She does well when I come and I pet and I get her all, we will randomly release her so she understands the game. When you are told heel, unless you are told the release word, you must stay in the heel and stay on that leg. No matter what, don't emotionally overload because you must stay attached to that leg. Okay. When you are told to get out of there, your release word breaker, okay. Usually the words we use, you can leave the leg with no problem and you can go socialize all as well. You must balance those two things out perfectly for a dog, not to be confused. Okay. So if they don't have a good release game or a good heel game, which is what I see mostly in life. Again, from even trained dogs. If we give discipline for trying to leave the leg, they're stuck. They don't know if they should go or not now. If they don't have a good release game, right, it's counter, right, the release is not there so they're not sure if they can go. If the heel is not good, they get disciplined. So we have this confusion because the two things are not balanced out properly. So we really need that to start with for things to go very smoothly. Okay. And this dog has it perfectly, the release game. Okay. So we're okay with her. You're going to see no problem when we release her. She comes right to me. All right. So I'm going to show the video now and show the class as we went and just show how we went about doing it. Hey. All right. Hello. Hey girl. I'm telling it. She doesn't get it all usually. So now when you're healing, because right away when that emotion comes, you know, she's going to like she just did, right? So we're going to play it where as you do that again, as you start coming, I'm going to start meeting you. Annie forging, right? She's going to have to tighten up. And then when you stop, I'm going to start coming to you. If she jumps it, we say nothing. The prong, the line will be a little bit. So she only has room to take one step forward. Okay. So it's going to post her, not pull her back. Okay. And then you're going to go and she gets posted, tick, tick, tick, but I'm going to hold off and not allow her satisfaction because she jumped it. So I'm going to have to, the person that's helping you is the one who's got to play this properly because if they let her go and they keep coming in and go, Oh, it's okay. Right. And she won. She got it. Right. Yeah. And that's what everybody's going to do. They don't even care. They're going to go, Oh, hi, baby. She's going to go and now it's like too late. No, right. And they're already like, Oh, it's okay. It's okay. Right now. She already got it. Even if she got tapped. All right. So what you're going to do is you'll make a U-ey. Okay. So good. Right there. You stop. Good. Now. Good girl. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. A little higher level. Good girl. Good. Very good. Good. Now, when I go back out, she moves to follow me. Perfect. Okay. Yeah. Oh, I know she's brilliant. Beautiful. Good girl. Hi. You're so beautiful. Hi. Good girl. Right. All right. obviously trying as much what she would see in the public. Hi baby, hi baby. Oh you're so beautiful, can I pet her? We want that emotion, that stimulation that dogs go through in public. This is what people do to dogs, right? So, oh my god, you're so, and the emotion and the moving towards and the, right? So they get the dogs going in front in this stimulated state of mind. So, I'm mimicking everything that I could try, getting low, right? And you see the moment I go low, she breaks. So now, I'm going to take the leash off, and we're going to do it without the leash. He's like, pay attention girl. So you'll start to walk her, we'll do a restart. Hello, good girl. Hey, good girl. Good girl. Good girl. Very good. Right. Right, tick, tick, tick, tick. And what you do is, you would back up a step. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Right. And make her find the leg. Right. Then you're going to come right back in. Right, just a few steps, right there. Right there. Right there. Good girl. All right. Good girl. Good girl. Good girl. All right. Good girl. Yay. All right. We can see Dave? We can see the dog? Okay, and then what we're going to do is, release her to me. Okay? All right. Good girl. There you go. Good girl. Good girl. All right. Okay, good. And then we'll try one more time. So he's going to take her out, and what you'll do is, as you come in, you're going to talk to her and get her more excited as you're healing her. And then when you stop, I'm going to add a little more, and I'm going to, okay? And we'll say right, with a crack, right there. Right there. Good girl. Good girl. Yeah, very good. All right. Good girl. Yes. Good girl. Good. Okay, and then release. Yes. Good girl. Good girl. Yeah, she got big. She got really big. Good girl. And then what you're going to do is, you're going to tell her to come to you, back to the heel, and I'm going to come. Because I'm looking for her weaknesses, right? What most dogs are drawn to. Right? So I see now, she's holding. I can't get her out of there anymore by petting her and all the, right? So I try something else now. I go low, which most dogs fall for, right? Because what do people do in life, even owners? They usually go, hi, come here baby, come baby, right? So that position becomes, boom, acute behavior like, ooh, that's a good position, right? An invitation position. So once we had her going with the pet and stimulation of verbal and petting, now of course, I'm going to pull that one off to see if she's going to fall for it. And she fell for it right away. Okay? So we correct her, she goes back, we replay, and I go right back at the behavior that she failed at. And every time she drops to the floor and down, we correct her for her to come back up into the sit where she started, right? Because her going to the floor and laying on the floor like that is her way of trying to trick the system, right? So if she gets low, she gets away from the leg and now she thinks she's going to be able to creep or pounce away from the leg. So we counter her, right? Playing chess with her. We know that when you drop into the down, you're trying to play sneaky with the game and we won't allow it. So we give her taps and she pops back up into the sit and we stabilize her, right? Telling her when we stop and you sit, you stay and sit unless I ask you for the down. Okay? Especially in this scenario because we know what she's trying to do and what we're trying to fix. Okay? So she was basically trying to out clever the game. Okay? So we have to take that away from her. And then what Dave will do is right all the way in and then he'll pet her right there. She's like, who is this guy? Yeah. And then if you start playing and right. And then what you do there, then you come all the way in to give to her because she held the lick because what would happen there is if we, if we pull that too much and she's going to look, I'm trying to lick you, but I think you're just a little out of range. I'm going to have to take that step. Right. She held it. So if I see there that she's really trying, she doesn't realize she's being baited. So then for holding, I come and I give my face going right. Because if you held it off the exact position, I will give you the lick here, but don't creep out an inch or two to do it. So I reward the behavior because she did it. Right. Good girl. Yeah. Try it one more time. Are you being a good girl? Are you being a good girl? You doing lessons today? What do you see over there? What's over there? You're a good girl. I know. Mama. Mama loves you too. And then if you back up quick. Right. And I'm going to release her. Okay. Okay. Good girl. You going to play with the cat? Right. So she did fantastic. First time ever doing it and fantastic. Okay. So I just want to give you a raw look at me going to a class and doing a real class with an owner and seeing exactly how we went about fixing it in one class. We get it under control. Right. And from here on now, the owner just has to stick to the game and it'll be done over and you're right. And one day they should be able to go out now from here on and have no problem with it. So there you go. Masterclass. So until next time, Richard Hines, Mind Me Dog Whisperer.