heel nipping

Hi Sundra,

Thank you for your post regarding your 18 month old Black mouth Cur. It sounds as though are having quite some trouble showing him that you and your family are boss. Heel biting occurs quite commonly when dog owners do not adequately assert their authority over their animals. It is for this reason that I would recommend that the key to overcoming the fundamental root of this problem is to reinforce yourself and your family as alpha over your dog. Please read the appropriate section in SitStayFetch entitled Secrets to becoming the alpha dog to revise what you need to do to show your dog who is boss.

You should reprimand your dog for unacceptable behavior, no matter what that behavior is. If you do not reprimand your dog’s poor behavior then it will feel that it has the right to behave that way and it will take much longer to correct the behavior. What I recommend you do, is the next time your dog acts poorly and exhibits dominant tendencies (growling) if it is inside, throw a heavy blanket over your dog and be sure to reprimand it. DO NOT yell, as this has no effect on the dominant dog. Growl instead, use a guttural growl like " AAHHH!" instead of "No!", as this makes a sharper sound then "No" (If done correctly it may hurt your throat a little).

Please enforce the following techniques to reinforce your status as alpha dog

If you come across your dog while he is sleeping or lying on the floor then you can reinforce your position as alpha dog by making her move so that you can pass by.
Generally I do not recommend people give their dogs bones as this encourages the aggression, because in the wild the alpha dog would be the only one to have the privilege of chewing the bones. The reason your dog growls at you when you approach it with a bone is because it believes that it has the right to the bone and is trying to discipline you for challenging your dog for its dominant role.
Make sure that you always go through doorways first. A good method to reinforce your position as alpha dog is to walk your dog around the house on the leash, making your dog wait while you walk through doorways first. At mealtimes make sure that your dog or dogs eat after all of the humans have.
Do not feed your dog tidbits or let it pester you at the table. Save the morsels and tidbits for training sessions instead.
Do not greet your dog straightaway when you arrive home. Make it wait until you are ready and then call it to you.
When your dog wants to go outside for a walk, make it sit and wait until you are ready to go.
When you give a command make sure that you are in a position to enforce the action that you require from your dog, especially in the initial stages of Alpha Dog training. Also, use the Alarm-No-Command technique as described in the Alpha Dog bonus book to reprimand your dog if it does not obey your command.
It is vitally important that your dog has good all-round obedience skills. Regular training sessions are key to improving your dog's obedience responses and keeping it used to answering your commands. Concentrate on the sit and stay, down and stay, heel and wait commands.
Do not inadvertently reinforce poor behavior from your dog. You must be consistent in your attitude to your dog. For example, if your dog is allowed to jump on you when you are playing with it but is not allowed to jump up at any other time then how is it meant to know the difference?

With enforcing the above techniques, you may well notice a distinct difference in your dog’s behavior relatively quickly. These alpha techniques when enforced by the entire family will help your dog realise that you are boss and that he has no right to heel bite - whether it is as play or otherwise. You need to reprimand him appropriately whenever he acts up in this way using the appropriate reprimands above. It would also be ideal to undertake regular obedience training sessions with your dog a couple of times a day from now on as per sitstayfetch. In particular you could try reinforcing the heel command when taking your dog on leash walks.

Stage 1

The first stage of teaching your dog to heel is to prevent him from pulling on the leash at all.
1. You will need to have the collar and leash on your dog.
2. Stand next to and to the right of your dog so that you are both facing in the same direction and the dog is sitting on your left.
3. Start walking forward slowly in a straight line, leading with your left leg. As soon as your dog takes off and starts pulling on the leash, stand still and pull the leash back towards you. Do not drag the dog back towards you. All you need to do is halt its progress.
4. Wait until the dog stops, praise it and then continue walking. No command needs to be given at this stage as you are just trying to teach your dog good manners so that it can more easily understand the Heel command when the time comes to teach it fully.

If you apply this method for ten minutes at a time and for three or four times per day then within four or five days you should be ready to move on to the next phase. It is quite likely that you will get good results within a few minutes, at least enough that your dog will stop pulling you all over the place. It may take longer for some older dogs that have been given a free rein, so to speak, throughout their lives to change their leash-pulling behavior.

When the SitStay Technique isn't Enough

You have to modify the way that you are training your dog slightly. When your dog starts to pull, you need to:

1. Stop and give your dog’s lead a few tugs, and growl the guttural growl, ("AAHH!" rather then "NO") then bring the dog back beside you.

2. Start walking away again and hold a treat by your side (so that your dog knows it is there).

3. Your dog should be following along side you, if it tries to jump for the treat ignore it (do not let your dog bite at your hand though).

4. When your dog tires of that, and simply walks along beside you say "HEEL!" then reward your dog for walking beside you.

5. Repeat this over and over and you should start to see the results. If you praise your dog as it comes towards you then your dog is being rewarded only for backing up (the very last action it performed). You need to reward your dog for walking freely beside you as you move off from the stand still.

With a bit of time and reinforcing those alpha techniques you should help show your dog that heel biting is completely inappropriate - and be sure to reprimand him whenever he acts up.

Best of luck and please let us know how you get on.

Kind Regards,


Mark Edwards
Kingdom of Pets Team