Mike Schoonbrood

When you start your green dog on heeling, do you train with or without a lead? Do you start with a prong to speed up the positioning or do you start 100% motivational?

Do you proof it with compulsion once the dog knows what to do? Or do you find that starting off-lead motivationally reduces or eliminates the need for proofing with compulsion?

What do you see as the Pro's or Con's of each method?

I have known some trainers to do everything off-lead from day 1, and other trainers that believe in limiting the dogs opportunity to make mistakes by doing everything on-lead.

I personally find that when doing things off-lead it requires the dog to think more about what it is that he does to cause the reward to come, so once he figures it out it "sticks" better. Kinda like a dog that figures out how to steal food from a trash can by using his nose to lift the lid. Once he figures it out the behavior "sticks," whereas if I shove his nose under the trash can lid he will resist the compulsion and not learn as fast.

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