Heel

Ive been thinking about how sam heels,

he heels to the stroller, wich is unintended but not a bad thing since its easier to walk him and the stroller at the same time that way.

I can forsee a problem tho, what happens when I no longer use the stroller, will he heel to me? or should i pre emptively teach him a command to heel to me for when heeling to teh stroller is no longer appropriate?

or am i worrying for nothing and I can retrain heel later when I dont use the stroller? can a dog be retaught soemthing like that without alot of confusion?

Hopefully by the time you don't have the stroller, Sam will no longer need to "heel" but can walk nicely on a loose leash, either beside, in front or behind you, depending on what he feels like.
Do you leash him to the stroller or ...?

Try introducing a command called "Let's Go" or "Walk Nice", and allowing him more freedom--let him run ahead and sniff things, and then when you pass he can lag for a little bit. If you have a retractable leash this is marvelous; it's really so much easier to walk a dog that's on a loose leash than on a "heel" command. "Heel" takes full mental concentration on your part and the dog's, and really doesn't offer a lot of physical exercise, unless you have a small dog and you're jogging with the stroller. I can't explain to you the difference in my dog when he's allowed to run on a loose leash as opposed to the times when he has to "heel" (he doesn't know this command, it's just times when I have to keep him close to me). I can walk 3 blocks with him on a loose leash, running in front, running to catch up, stopping, sniffing, whatever, and he's more tired after that than if I'd walked 3 miles with him on "heel". Today we walked in a field--he was off leash and though most of the time he was directly behind me (he doesn't like to break-trail), he got to chase a bunny, scared up some ptarmigan, sniffed about a trillion gopher holes, and rolled in the grass for probably 5 full minutes. On Saturday we walked to the grocery store and back; this is on-street, on-leash walking. He's on a loose leash, but I keep him close most of the time. Each walk took an hour. After the walk to the grocery store, he ran around the house for 15 minutes, terrorized the cats, played with every toy he owns AND barked at the neighbours. Today, he barely had the energy to eat his dinner and has been sleeping at my feet for nearly 3 hours.
I know that you don't have the option of taking your stroller into a farmer's field, but even just walking down the street with the dog on a loose leash is so much better for him (and less mental requirements on you), that you really should try it. Try it without the stroller maybe so that he doesn't get tangled in it. It's really easy--all he needs is two commands; one when he is pulling in front of you ("don't pull" or whatever you want) and one when you are pulling him behind you ("let's go" or something like that). The best way I was told to teach this (and it has worked like a charm on every dog I've tried it on) is to let them run ahead and when they pull, you simply turn around and go the other way. Use your behind you command when you turn around. The dog learns that when he pulls he doesn't get what he wants, and that the command means that he has to go where you're going. Before he hits the end of the leash, give the no pull command and if he doesn't pull, lots of praise. It doesn't take long for dogs to figure this out. I taught a Yorkie BOTH of these commands in a matter of 15 minutes--we turned around so many times in the first 5 minutes that I literally was dizzy, but after that he really got the hang of it. My dog knows "Let's Go" even when he's off leash, and he will (usually) run to catch up with me when I tell him "Let's Go" no matter how far back he is.
I hope that helps.
Good luck,
Melissa

the reason im having him heel to the stroller right now is because of his safety, I dont want him to get caught up in the stroller, or worst case scenario have a paw or soemthing ran over by the stroller.

my husband does his walks for exercise where they go to the park and run like mad, however the dog will not heel to my husband at all.

I could try allowing him more leash with the stroller but my fear is that he would get hurt.


Eleni

Have you tries heeling him to you without the stroller, just to see what he does?

I don't see it as a problem. Heeling is heeling. As long as he understands the concept (walking nicely) then gettting him to heel to a person may take some retraining, but it will be easier than heeling from scratch.

Does he not respect your husband? Or fear him?

My dog, for example, will not come to my dad. He just refuses to. It may be because he plays with him roughly and scares him, or because Ky doesn't see him everyday.

And although I finally seem to have Ky's tendency to jump on people mostly trained out, he still jumps all over my mom when he see her. She hates it and yells at him every single time but she is still the only one he will jump on now.

Dogs definitly react differently to different people.

he doesnt respect my husband, not entirely sure why, maybe he picks up that my husband isnt much of a dog lover?

my husband doesnt hate the dog, but the only reason we ahve the dog is the kdis and I are dog lovers. ca a dog sence that even tho my husband has never yelled or punished the dog??


for me he usually walks with the leash nice and loose he only really tugs when there is another dog he knows and thats understandable.

Eleni