There are a number of articles that digress various methods and techniques for training proper heel position for competition purposes. In training several dozen dogs how to properly attention heel, I will give my own methods for how I've found is the best way to train this behavior.

First, is to recognize what you want out of your dog. Whether it is a pet dog learning to walk on a loose leash or a competition dog that needs to have perfect position, you have to have a clear picture in your head of what you want. Dog training has to be fairly black and white in terms of the desired end result. If you cannot verbalize what you want out of the dog, then how do you expect to translate it to the dog in a training session? The faster you get a mental image of what you want out of your dog, the clearer you will be able to convey this to the dog.

To me, I want World Championship level heeling. I want the dog's neck arched upwards towards my left shoulder. I want his shoulder perfectly aligned with my leg. I want the heeling to have a lot of upward motion or what I'd call prancing. I want the dog to channel their energy upwards, rather than cowering down or sulking in heel position. To me, perfect heeling means a happy, confident dog that puts 110% percent into maining perfect heel position, even if it is out of his normal range of motion. By this, I mean the dog should be able to keep his position whether you are taking short steps or long strides. To me, the dog is heeling with you, not vice versa.

Again, having had a number of dogs to train attention heeling to, I've found that being clear in your
expectations is most critical during the foundation of the teaching the behavior. A lot of people believe
in just getting the behavior, and then fine-tuning it later. For myself, I'd rather be a little extra
careful in everything I do and teach every step as correctly as possible.

Because this is just a foundation for the heeling exercise, we will not be concerned with the auto sit. But, the first step of attention heeling cannot even begin until you have your dogs attention on you. With the short attention span that young puppies have, I try to keep every session short and fun with LOTS of food. While you can train the foundation of heeling with a toy, I prefer to use food because it gives me more control over the position of the dog. With proper hand position, I can lure food any which way and control every aspect of the dogs body. A slight flip of the wrist one way can straighten out the dogs rear. A flip of the wrist another way may bring the head into a better angle. This is much harder to control if you are simply sticking a ball or tug under your arm. So for this reason, I teach with toys in the later stages of attention heeling.

There are two separate things I look for when I teach heel position. The first is the upwards position of the head. The second thing I am teaching when I teach heel position is the position of the body. Now, what does this mean? First, it means I don't spend a whole lot of time teaching "watch" commands and luring eye contact out of my dogs. I personally do not care if my dog ever looks into my eyes, I simply want the position and the head to be arched up attentively. Now whether or not the dog is attentive is not my concern. This may sound strange, but to me I figure if the relationship is strong and the motivation is strong, I will have  my dog's attention so teaching "watch" is an entirely redundant thing. But there are many successful trainer's who have good luck with teaching this behavior.

Now, since I have my ideal picture of what I want my dog to look like and I know what I'm aiming for is
complete perfection, the first thing I do is whip out my food and pull out a hungry puppy. I take food in
the left hand and simply mark any behavior in which the dog gives attention. You can call this clicker training but I do not use a clicker to mark behavior. I simply tell the dog "yes" so that this can become a marker word or bridge in later parts of the dogs career. The first 10-15 rewards I give are looking for attention. Puppies are smart creatures and quickly learn that to get you to dispense food, they need to look at you. So once I have a puppy just hammering me for treats, I raise my criteria a bit.

Now I don't want just a look. Now I want the puppy's shoulder to come closer into position with my left leg. Reward what you like. Ignore what you don't like. Typically my puppy is off leash at this point, in a secure and somewhat boring area. If you can't get your puppy's attention you need to either make the puppy hungrier, choose a more neutral area, or become more interesting yourself. Most likely it'll be a combination of the three.

Most puppies that are motivated by the fact that you all of the sudden become a food dispenser and they will quickly fall into position. Awesome! The first part is complete. You've taught your dog a simple marker word ("yes") and given it an idea of how the reward system works in this game.

Now its time to make your puppy look like he's actually heeling. This time, I start the puppy just at my side and teach him to stretch his neck up. My hand is pretty much parallel with my body and only a short distance from it sot hat basically I'm teaching the dog to lure their head upwards and target the armpit or shoulder area. Again, this is just a trainer preference as some trainers are strict believers in the dog looking at the handlers face and not at the toy. You'll have to decide which feels and looks the closest to your own ideal image of heel position.

Once I feel the dog is clear on how to stretch his neck up and to really arch their body upwards on their tippy toes, then I begin to add movement. Just a few steps at a time. If you loose focus, you've gone too many steps. Try and reward with the treat and a release word as quickly as possible. Keep in mind that young dogs will have very short attention spans.

I spend many months working on perfect attention heeling for competition purposes because I really strive for perfection in this area of training. In later articles I will explain how to move on to switching to a toy reward and getting a consistent picture out of your dog. Remember, in competition the dog is on the field for 15-20 minutes and while it is not necessary to attention heel at all times, it definitely makes a pretty picture.