I have a 3 year old golden retriever, which I am training for working trials. Although she is very good at all the field work, her heel work is not up to scratch. She will walk to heel beautifully in generalon lead, but for compation work she is to wide and when off lead she lags behind unless I have a treat in my hand which I can not do in compation. I have tried every trick I know and am now in need of some more. Christine

Hallo

I also am in training for WTs and i can highly recommend using the clicker for getting the behaviour you want. It really will be worth it. Whereabouts are you? as it really helps to have someone teach you how to use it.

Lindsay
X

Sounds as though your dog is very undertrained and does not really understand what she is supposed to be doing.  A common problem with people who rely on food in the hand; the dog is just following food not understanding what it is doing.

Not sure whether you mean Working Trials, Field Trials or Working Tests but that is irrelevant.

Food following, is just that, following food with no thought behind it.

Get rid of the food in the hand, put it away and reward the dog with food once it is in the correct place the dog will then understand that in order to GET the food it must GET the behaviour first.

Holding food in the hand is just the equivalent of bribery, "here is the food, please follow me and you will get it"; you should be working on "right the food is here in my pocket, what are you going to do to get it out of there", the difference between food getting the behaviour and behaviour getting the food!

Obviously you will need to then remove food from your body to a pot and then work in increasing duration and distraction as no food is allowed to be carried on the field when you are competing in a trial.

Good luck.