Your pup has come a long way and now they are ready to go onto the next most challenging step yet, learning how to take all their commands outside! Learn how to transition your pup’s heel, plus how to use a long line to advance your pup’s commands in the real world!
The Puppy Academy student, Zorro!
If you have been following along with our Puppy Training 101 series and made it here, congrats! It’s a long journey of learning new exciting commands, practicing at home, until finally, your pup is ready to take their training outside! “Heel” will probably be one of the commands that you use most when walking outside with your puppy, alongside having a strong recall command, “Come”. To get your puppy used to walking beside you outside, we’ll cover how to teach your puppy to maneuver around objects, while staying in the “Heel” position, that they may encounter on a walk.
When it comes to strengthening your puppy’s recall, we’re going to introduce using a long line which is essentially a long leash anywhere from fifteen to twenty feet long, to work on building up more and more distance. This will challenge your puppy to “Come” back to you when called even when there are distractions or a long distance between the two of you, and listen as you move around them doing some 360 routines!
Ready to take on the next challenge with your puppy? Here we go!
Start with a Warm-Up of “Let’s Go!”
A puppy that’s motivated is far more eager to work, listen, and of course, learn! Like our previous lessons, we recommend that you give your puppy a quick warm-up refresher and for “Heel” training we like to pair it with “Let’s Go!” to get them in the mindset to start following you!
Begin by walking a few steps with your puppy on their leash and harness. When your puppy pulls, apply light leash pressure and switch directions. Remember that your leash guidance should be to the side of your puppy, instead of straight back to guide them in the new direction. At this point, say “Let’s Go!” and even pat your leg or whistle to motivate them. When your puppy changes direction towards you, immediately release the leash pressure so there's slack right away and say “Good!” to mark the correct behavior and reward them with food! Now, take a few steps forward and repeat this process for up to two to three minutes. During this warmup, give your puppy a reward for random moments of eye contact your pup gives you by either saying “Good!” or giving them some food.
After you’ve boosted up your puppy’s drive to start following you, you can transition into your training session for “Heel”, but with extra challenges. Bring your puppy to the yard, or the sidewalk in front of your house to begin working on walking in “Heel” outside!
Outside Heel with Obstacles!
The Puppy Academy student, Finn!
We did mention extra challenges before, didn’t we! Your puppy is still in the process of getting ready for a long walk alongside you in the neighborhood so what better way to prepare them by adding a few obstacles to simulate a real walk! Your puppy will encounter signs, garbage cans, curbs, and more while walking with you. Not only that, the addition of obstacles helps your puppy narrow in on you so they can focus on where you’re going next. For this training, you can practice indoors or outdoors and utilize your furniture to have your puppy maneuver around while practicing “Heel”!
Start by taking a few steps with a food lure in your hand and say “Heel!”. While still moving, bend down and mark the correct behavior by saying “Good!” and reward with food. Continue to take a few more steps, then turn to the left and say “Heel” the moment you start to change direction. Again, mark the behavior by saying “Good!” and reward them with food. Take a few more steps, then turn in the other direction. Now here is where your furniture can come in! Take advantage of furniture as obstacles outside (and this works indoors as well!) by weaving around them and saying, “Heel!” when changing direction. If your puppy seems like they are starting to lose interest or even getting frustrated with the addition of obstacles, you can mix in “Sit” to give your puppy a brief break and keep your puppy next to you but also keep the activity interesting!
Pro tip: When you start to introduce obstacles, your puppy may start to pull and need added leash direction to follow alongside you. And even if your puppy is pulling, they still need that release from pressure. To give your puppy leash direction in this case, add tension to the leash and take one small step forward, then say “Good!” and release the tension if only for a second. It helps to also have a high-value treat a.k.a. Something extra smelly and tasty, on hand to help regain your puppy’s focus.
Introducing Long Line Puppy Training Routines!
As we quickly mentioned earlier, using a long line will help your puppy advance on commands such as “Come”, “Down” and “Stay”. Gradually, you can increase the distance between you and your puppy by working down the length of the leash! Even if your puppy can perform these obedience commands at home, or in the yard, your puppy might still become distracted by their environment once you take your training to a new location. The long line not only acts as a tool to increase your puppy’s focus from a distance, but it also acts as a safeguard for their natural puppy impulses to get up and move around!
Recall from Food!
The first routine using a long line will be recalling your puppy while they are eating food. In this scenario, the food is keeping your puppy engaged so the goal is to grab your puppy’s attention and draw them back to you. Begin by putting a few pieces of your puppy’s kibble or treats on the ground. When your pup eats it, call them by their name and say “Come” as you move backward. When your puppy starts to move toward you, say “Good!” to mark the correct behavior. The moment your puppy returns to you, say “Sit”, “Good!” and reward them with a treat. Because you are drawing your puppy to you from food, you may need to add leash pressure to guide them to you, and increase the level of excitement in your “Come!” and body movements! If you did have to use leash pressure, remember to loosen the pressure the moment your puppy starts to come to you and mark that moment with “Good!”.
360 Routine with Down and Stay!
The Puppy Academy student, Luna!
In our previous blog, we introduced 360 training routine which simply means completing a full circle around your puppy while they are holding a “Sit”, “Down”, or “Place” command (whichever is their strongest!) and have them “Stay” in order to simulate a real-world situation out in public! If you are still working on building your puppy’s impulse control around distractions, check out our blog “Puppy Training 101: Advance Your Puppy’s training with Distance, Distractions, and Duration a.k.a. The 3Ds!”
For this second long line routine, have your puppy in a “Down” and “Stay” either on the ground or their “Place”. Take a few robotic steps back from your puppy. In the beginning, just start with a few steps away and then pause. At the pause, say in a calm tone of voice so as to not draw your puppy to you, “Good” and start to step back to your puppy to reward them for staying. Don’t forget to reinforce “Stay” with the hand signal (flat palm facing out toward your puppy) as needed. Again, start backing up, only taking a few steps at a time, and pause to making sure your puppy stays settled. Now, begin to step to the side, only taking one to two steps at a time. During this puppy training routine, vary how often you say “Stay” and “Come”, and say “Good” to reward them. At first, you may need to reward your puppy a lot with food but slowly, start to wean off so they are less reliant on food and more on your praise. Continue moving to the side with just three to four steps and increase the distance using your long line until you can work up to walking fully around your puppy in a circle.
Once you move your puppy’s training outside, expect that your puppy might have moments of frustration or revert back to not listening or getting distracted in the beginning. This is totally normal! In a new environment, and with the addition of distance on a long line, you need to build up and work on boosting your puppy’s impulse control. Don’t be surprised, or throw in the towel if it takes a few weeks to get your puppy following through with walking beside you without pulling the opposite way or getting hung up by obstacles, or not fully responding to their recall training or feeling comfortable with staying put while you’re moving around them. We always recommend that you start working in quieter locations and then move to busier areas with more distractions are your puppy improves. Continue to work with your puppy outside, use a long line to help you gradually increase distance but remain in control, and remain consistent on your puppy’s training session well through their adolescence to really see the best results!