breaking heel

Question
I am the proud owner of a six-month old golden lab. I have trained him to heel both on and off leash. But he consistently breaks heel when he sees another person or dog. How can I correct this?

Answer
Hi Mike,

There is no such thing as a golden lab. So do you have a golden retriever? a yellow lab? or a golden retriever-yellow lab mix?  I just ask for clarification sake although in any case, you do have a retreiver - a very friendly breed of dog!

First of all, let me congratulate you on the training you are doing with your dog. It sounds like you started early and he is well on his way to being a great companion.  The problem you are having is very normal.  When we teach a dog a behavior, we teach the behavior first in a non-distracting environment and then gradually increase the difficulty by adding in distractions. For your dog, other dogs and people are HUGE distractions. Rather than correct him, why not teach him to remain at heel under these circumstances by having something MUCH more rewarding than the other dog or person. If I want my teenaged retriever to pay more attention to me, I have to be MORE interesting to that dog than what is in the environment. Retrievers are usually hugely food motivated. If you are using food to train your dog, but he's still breaking heel when he sees others, you need to get better food. For example, if  you are using kibble or ordinary dog treats to train, in the circumstances of high distraction, you'd be smart to break out the steak, chicken, hot dogs.  I have taught my retrievers to be toy focused (we play a lot of retrieving games and they love it) so my dogs wouldn't think of leaving me if I am holding a ball or frisbee because "I" am the most exciting thing in their environment. Make sense?

When you start to train for distractions, go slowly and set your dog up to succeed. You'll get past this with consistency and by using a higher reward for your dog than those other dogs/people.

Good luck,

Jaz