Faffy the FauxFox wrote:when a dog dosen't like to walk close to you. how do you get them to heel? are some harder to teach to walk nice and heel? there is no easy way to let Lucy to run around on her own. I am too slow with poor endurance to job with her. and a 120 human being pulled by a rat terrier-italian greyhound (possibly) mix sounds abusive.
I kind of feel bad. i know how fun it is to run. if i bring her closer to me she pulls more. like a fish on a hook.
The best way is to start in a low distraction environment, like your living room. As you succeed in a calm environment you can move onto more distracting environments. Here are some tutorials...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elKsANmYVTIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWb9_ZvsLbohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9cpD6VFhTUYou can also use targeting to teach your dog to heel. This can be done via hand targeting or a target stick, the latter might be a better choice to keep you from having to bend over as much...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96vEgrsmIy8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWSJVwZybwoAlso if she is pulling on leash generally I recommend working on loose leash walking...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFy6kjcK22M&list=PL7287C737FB745168 Here's a playlist of vids to help with that.
Remember walks aren't just to exercise her body, they're to exercise her mind as well, so don't expect her to heel all the time on every walk. She needs time to sniff things, check and leave pee-mail, etc. You can use a front clip harness and maybe even a bungee type leash to help take some of the pressure of her pulling off you, but they are not substitutes for training and used alone will not teach your dog to stop pulling.