Q&A for How to Teach Your Dog to Heel

Keep your training sessions short so your dog doesn't get frustrated or discouraged.

A neat way is to reward the dog when he sits spontaneously. Start training in a safe place off leash. Hold a treat but ignore the dog. He gets the treat only when he sits. Let him fuss and jump around, but don't direct him. Wait for him to sit to think things through, at which point praise and reward him. Now, take a couple of steps forward and stop again. Wait for him to finish fooling around and sit. Reward him. Then set off again. The dog will quickly learn to sit when you stop. Use this to have the dog walk beside you, because every time he surges ahead, you simply stop and have him sit.

Try the stop-start method. A dog pulls because they feel it gets them where they want to go more quickly. When the dog pulls, stop. Only start moving forward again when the leash goes slack. It helps to make a disapproving noise such as "Uh-oh" just before the leash goes taut. This signals to the dog you are about to stop, and gives them the option to slow up instead of having you stop. If the dog then slackens the pace, praise them.

This is easy to do. Stand in front of a door with one hand behind your back. Knock on the door with the concealed hand, in such a way that makes the dog bark. As soon as he barks, say "Speak" and reward him. Keep repeating this. Then try saying "Speak" but without knocking. If the dog offers a bark, praise him wildly and give a treat.

Walking to heel is a means of walking with the dog on a slack leash beside you. This is a relaxed way of walking as the leash is slack. You also know where the dog is and therefore have him under better control.

Start by putting down a platform or a mat and reward the dog for standing on it. Then, stand next to the dog in the heel position, and reward it again. From there, make it more incrementally more challenging by moving around, then walking with the dog, rewarding it again each time it heels.

Give your puppy toys to chew on instead, and make sure to take him for plenty of walks so he doesn't have pent-up energy.

There are many different ways. Try this method: if your dog pulls give pressure on the leash. Pull back, but not too hard. When she behaves the way you want her to, give her praise and a treat.

Encourage your dog with treats. If he's a pup, he will eventually get used to walking.

Not really. Using a harness encourages a dog to pull. The purpose of a good harness is to distribute weight evenly for the benefit of pulling. Using a harness just means that when your dog pulls, it's not choking itself.

This happens a lot. When your dog disobeys you, just tell him/her "no" and then continue on with the training. Don't worry. This happens to everybody.

Before you begin to teach your cavapoo anything, you need to drain that never-ending energy. Play with him, take him to a swimming pool or dog park, stand at the top of your stairs and throw a ball down for him to bring back to you. Once your dog is pooped, you can begin training. You'll want to teach your dog to heel on the leash first. Begin indoors, and hold your leash to your side in a relaxed way so that your dog is by your side, then move forward. Pretend you don't own a dog, and just walk on. If you project confident energy, your dog will follow. Eventually, you won't even need the leash.

You should walk him a little each day at the age he is. For instance, walk him for 1-5 minutes the first day and add a minute every few days. Eventually he will be able to walk a few miles every day.

You have to be patient and use repetition: command, treat, command, treat, etc. Be a gentle, loving trainer. It may take a day, a week, or several weeks for some dogs to learn. Be patient and repeat the training session daily for 5-15 minutes.

When your dog puts his paws on the table, lure him down with a treat, and say "Off," then reward him/her for getting off. Do this a couple of times, to the point where when you say "Off" you won't have to lure him/her to get off, but still reward him/her.

Find out what it is afraid of. And if it's something like other dogs or people, then try to arrange for them to come over, like other people with dogs. And when they are around, give it lots of treats so it'll associate the thing/object as a good thing because it might be trauma from the past.

Try taking it the opposite way to where he's pulling. And say 'heel' when he is by your side. If he stays next to you, then tell him 'Good boy/girl'. If not, then repeat this method and be patient. Just like us, dogs take their own time.