1.) This may seem like a silly question but everyone walks their dogs aside their left leg; does it make a difference if I have already taught my English Bulldog (a little over a year old) to walk on my right?
2.) My dog Nala gets side tracked a lot while walking; yet she keeps the leash loose. So I feel like she is ready to learn the "heel" command. Once she has learned that command on leash, could we take the command off leash and start learning to walk off leash?
No question is ever silly when it comes to helping our furry friends
In training what I learned is it always comes down to the parent of what is good for them and there dog. Therefore right side is fine if you like it. only way it would matter if you decide to go into any type of competition.
Walking with your dog the way you explain is called loose leash walking which is awesome you are allowing the dog to be a dog - sniffing and orienting to whatever is the number one motivator in dogs environment. There are attention techniques if you are looking for that to get dogs attention back when needed. Other then that sounds like your walking great. You can shorten leash when you need dog to walk without stopping when you need to get somewhere quickly. Heel is a very strict behavior which not many dogs or owners actually do on an entire walk. It takes much concentration on dogs part. I think you are looking for off leash walking and a heel can be used to walk by a distraction when it's proofed. You can start in home low distractions getting your dog to follow you with "let's go"and "this way". Lets go is when your at a full stop and start walking and let's go is when you make turns. This gets dog to always focus on you. Then you can practice in yard or safe place until you are sure your dog is not going to bolt to chase anything. Many dogs cannot be fully trusted off leash -!distraction work is a lot of work especially during a puppies critical socializing period.
Practice off leash work in low distractions using technique above then raise criteria slowly always working at dogs level. Also proof a great recall and emergency stop would be cool commands also.
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