Training a Gundog to Walk to Heel

First a confession; I don’t train as many dogs as I would like. Basically, the buggers live so long that if you trained one a year you’d end up with a dozen even if you were careless enough to lose one or two along the way. A side effect of keeping a dozen dogs is that the toilet arrangements would take over your life. So the chance to train a spaniel to walk to heel was eagerly grasped, especially since the shovel duty wouldn’t be mine. 

So I was quite pleased when Brian asked about getting together to try to sort out a few problems he was having with his spaniel, and as it coincided with me not being on call or working on a late-running project. I have probably written about Bonny the Springer in another article on this site, but if you haven’t stumbled across the article, when we were younger we had a spaniel that spent six months on valium and still put on impressions of Tigger on Red Bull.

So I was quietly confident that with a few quiet walks we would soon be able to iron out any wrinkles in this year old puppie’s training. We agreed to meet up at a local spot fairly popular with dog walkers, giving us an opportunity to factor in some distractions as well as a gentle stroll.

The puppy was let out of the car, and duly did his business. We then put him on his lead, and proceded on our gentle stroll. He had a tendency to pull forward on the lead, but a few firm tugs, and a good telling off, along with plenty of praise when he didn’t pull and he was starting to behave nicely, looking up at me to see if I approved of his behaviour. The next minute I felt as though I had a marlin on the end of the lead. He took off, jumping vertically when he got to the end of his lead, because he had seen a dog in the distance.

It is no exaggeration to say that I was glad to have Brian to fend off questions from passers-by as I wrestled the pup to the ground, with several firm no!s to leave him in no doubt I disapproved of his behaviour. I have blisters on my fingers, and my back is sore.

During the walk we covered heelwork, the sit, use of the whistle and a little bit of quartering. After the walk I used one of my dogs to act as a distraction, and walked the pup back and forth past her until he would behave politely (ie not wrench my arm out of it’s socket).

By the end of an hour, the dog was not nearly as bad as he had been, but he will still need ten minutes a day or so focussing on the heel work, the sit and the recall. All on the lead until Brian is totally sure he has this training embedded. Then we are going to meet up again.

So what came out of it for me?

• First, a needed reminder that it is easier to gently train a puppy from a young age to behave with other dogs. This is best done in puppy classes. These are often held in villages or towns, and most people won’t have to travel more than ten or twenty miles to find some. 
• Walking to heel is best done by positive reinforcement from a young age; plenty of praise, and gradually build up the distractions.
• Manufacture situations that you or the pup are finding difficult - so we used our dog to distract the pup, letting us teach him that he should ignore other dogs if we are walking past, or greet them calmly if we stop.
• The use of restraint to establish dominance is effective; grasping the pup by the scruff of the neck and holding it to the ground tells it you are not happy much more effectively than almost any other means.
• There is the potential for embarrassment when training; chastising a dog will not always be popular with onlookers. With hindsight this first training session may have been better done out of public gaze.
• Don’t overdo the training sessions; 10 minutes intense training is ample to start whilst you build up your dogs attention span.

I have reviewed Graham Gibson’s ‘Training for Life’ DVD elsewhere on the site; at the time I said I was disappointed with the scope of the training as I had anticipated it being focussed on training gundogs and it was basic obedience. However, this episode has brought home to me the fact that even gundogs need basic obedience. It also showed me that if you know what you are doing you can avoid problems that other people don’t see until they occur. I think our experience is such that the pups we have are socialised and trained to walk to heel without us considering it.

However, if you are having problems with heelwork, and you cannot get a more experienced handler to give you a hand, I would suggest Graham’s video as an effective alternative. Don’t expect to come out with a fully trained gundog from it, but if you follow it faithfully I am sure that you will end up with a dog that does listen to you and walks to heel. Tell him Ken sent you!

I will let you know how we get on with the pup when we meet up again. I am sure that Brian will have him trained to walk to heel in no time… In the meantime, enjoy your training!