How to get a better heel/fuss/Au pied - Page 1

My dog has very good focus at the heel. I am happy with his position on the side, no forging  but he is crooked and cocks his booty out and crowds me with his head, kind of wrapped around me. I have tried walking with higher steps and bumping him with my knee or leg, many left turns and such but he seems to be getting worse not better. Same with the sit.

Dog is 14 months, should I not worry about so much precision yet or should I fix it ASAP? I have been trying to only reward correct positions but they are getting less and less. I am wanting to start correcting him for screwing it up since he did have it right in the past. How should I go about it to get best results? I feel like going back to the leash full time and really getting on him. Looking for suggestions before I blow up on him on day. I'm sick of tripping over my dog!

Work on OB against a wall so he has no choice and reward, reward, reward...or get a long dowel or thin PVC pipe, keep it in your left hand tucked under your arm and "nudge" him in with it before he sits. 

If he is not touching you when crowding you, and sits in the correct position I would be happy.  Walk in circles to the left, not sharp turns but smooth circles then straight, then back to circles and make sure your pace is fast enough.

I would 'accidentally' bump him, until he got the idea that it wasn't a good thing to be in front of me, but then, maybe my thinking is still too influenced by having read Kohler back when I got my first GSD.

I've seen quite a bit of this sort of heeling lately, as dogs are often trained to focus on a ball or toy the handler is carrying. It sure does the trick as far as keeping them happy and focused, but also tends to make them sit crooked and get in front of the handler, because THEY WANT THAT BALL!

Waiting to see what others have to say...

which hand are you using to administer the reward? That often plays a big part. Try putting the ball (if that is what you use) under your left armpit, and release the ball from that position.

Yes, I do the armpit thing too.  Good hint!

Ah, excellent idea! The people I've seen do this were holding the 'reward' in their right hand, so of course the dog wanted to get in front, and closer to the hand.

Of course, there is the Mohnwiese method:
http://www.mohnwiese.de/

Oh sorry, click on training, then english, then free heeling.  Watch the videos where the method is demonstrated with a young dog.

Reward is a ball behind my back or mostly a tug under my left armpit. Can't hold a damn ball with my left hand and steer a 80+lbs stupid puppy. If I use the ball I try to make it come out of nowhere. I realized the issue the ball created and have since been using the tug since it's easy to tuck under the arm. He does occasionaly jump up and try to snag it when he thinks he deserves it though.

What about sitting cocked out. Do you guys reach down and pull his ass in to straiten him up or ignore it and not reward until he gets it right? I was told not to "fix" him but to just not give him a tug, do another rep and so on until he sat right. Unfortunatly we aren't getting any of them right lately and I can never reward him for the sit. On rare occasion that he does, I practicly piss myself with delight and make a big fuss over him like he is 10 weeks old but I can go for another sit and he will be cocked out again. It's getting to the point I don't even want to do it in OB anymore. Is it feasable to just not do a sit for a few weeks and move on to something else? I'm just sick of not beig able to reward my dog. His downs are fine, stays are good and here is perfect. I'm at the point of getting him to try the finish with me standing still. We do the around and behind method not the flip, too much room for getting it wrong with that. How do you guys teach yours?