Walking to heel?

[settingsunshine]

6 months ago I adopted a dog, she's about 5 years old.
She's unknown parentage, about 10kg, seems to have terrier in her, she loves to chase small furries on walks but her recall is good.
I don't often walk her on the lead as I have lots of safe country walks near my home, but when I do she pulls on the lead (not surprising!).
Do you think it's possible to train her to walk nicely? She is very interested in the world, always sniffing and looking around (I think she might be slightly anxious) similar to spaniel energy, but without the devotion!
I'd love to be able to go on more walks with her on the lead as that would open up the places we could go, but I hate being dragged about.

I don't know TBH. My wife bought a different lead - it's a simple loop that goes over the neck but you put a twist in it (under the dogs chin) to make a figure of 8 and put the smaller loop over the dogs nose: she (the dog!) doesn't pull as much - it's better than the standard collar and lead that we also have. We have a Springer spaniel, just over 6 years old. I don't like having her on the lead as she's not naturally good on it - she just forgets In attached and just wants to surge ahead as she's so excited. I've taken a different approach - I don't put her on the lead - hardly ever. I walk her along pavements and cross roads - it's a responsibility and I constantly call her back with a sharp Peg!(her name) if she gets more than about 5m ahead of me - it's a lot of nagging and I have to be very attentive and aware of cars backing out of driveways, etc - none of this walking along looking at your phone business. In a way I think it must help to build our relationship - lots of communication - Office learned not to get frustrated with her and I have to accept - she's busy excited about her walk - the most exciting part of her day (even moreso than being fed!) do I cut her some slack and accept she is like a bottle of pop. She's a very willing dog and clearly she doesn't mind having to turn around and come back to me 20 times every 100m but after 3 years of this I trust her to "stop" and"wait" as we walk along the pavements and wait to cross the road - she'll only trot across with me when I say "ok" and start walking across. My wife hasn't got the confidence to do this with her and Peg is better behaved with me. I am responsible for her (the dog!) when I walk her off the lead - basically across the estate to reach some open fields where she likes to run about like a mad thing. My wife has a bad back - that's why she doesn't like the dog pulling on the lead. I wouldn't want to have a dog if I had to walk it on a lead - I love to see my dog running about off the lead enjoying her day and it helps to tire her out and she seems so content at home. So those were the two choices we made - my wife:a different lead and me:I persevere with nagging her and keeping her off the lead - she's never on the lead when we reach the fields anyway and I don't worry about interactions with other dogs because she is so subservient and comes to me every single time I tell her to. On my walks I do a lot of games to train her to respond to me. I take a tennis ball and a frisbee. I can throw either of them and tell her to wait and not go of chasing them the moment I throw them - it's just an exercise on control - I don't insist on controlling her like this every single time I throw something - just now and again to remind her that I give the orders! Sometimes I will say "sit" or "stay" and walk off 50m ahead and then turn round and call her to me for a bit of praise. Other times I will say "away" and make her move away from me and then tell her to "sit" and then I'll throw the ball to get to catch our throw it out the frisbee somewhere else and tell her to fetch them... She thinks it's all fun and games but I think all I'm reinforcing is that I give instructions and she has to do what I want - it's building up that relationship - definitely not me just boxing her around for the sake of it - it had to be fun and I think she likes to do what I want in order to please me and get a bit of fuss. She'll jump over park benches and jump up or over the arms of the canal lock gates - they are just games to help build our relationship and I think it had helped to feed in to the way I can walk her along busy roads (on the pavement) and wait to cross roads and not have her on the lead.HTH

Uugh - jeez - why haven't we got an edit button to fix spelling mistakes!

It’s highly irresponsible to be walking a dog on the pavement near roads without a lead - one mistake / slip up / scary noise they’ve never heard before and you’ve potentially got a dead dog . It’s perfectly possible to train a dog to walk nicely on the lead , it’s practice and repetition .

My terrier will not walk to heel. Doesn't matter what we do, what training etc. He will walk perfectly nicely on a semi slack lead but as soon as we go right for heel he pulls. I think he wants to be in charge.

I really hope you do get your dog to walk to heel it makes walks much more relaxing. At the beginning I felt my shoulder go a couple of times which made it all a bit of a chore.When I researched the dog we wanted I realised he's going to be big and strong and slightly bonkers so it was essential to train him right from the first day.l watched two videos one American in which he yanked the dog back really fiercely and claimed he could train them in a matter of hours.The other an English guy whose main method was to change direction and then start again.This I followed and in three weeks he's walking nicely and to heel .I still let him loose on a long lead when walking alley ways but he hoovers up everything so I prefer him back to heel.On open spaces he's on a very long lead and thanks to Mumsnet I'm following methods and he's a work in progress, but I bring back to heel when needed and it makes walks a pleasure.

It's entirely possible but I would ask yourself whether you want her walking at heel or just nicely on a loose lead.

A work in progress with my very challenging six month old. I am working on loose lead training rather than heel. When she pulls I stop and wait for her to turn to me, I hold a treat and make her come all the way back to me for the treat. I am also rewarding her when she looks up at me (which is rare) and when she does it I say 'watch me'. Eventually I am hoping she will respond to the watch me cue. When we come to a road I make her sit for a treat then say cross.

I am going to start using the front lead clip as well as the back lead clip on her harness as that apparently helps.

She is particularly bad with picking up bits of poo and there is so much here so I end up dragging her away as Leave it definitely doesn't work yet (unless we are training leave it indoors, she knows exactly what's going on then ha ha).

So what I'm trying to say is that I am using several ideas all at once on a walk and that seems to be helping. It seems to reduce her stimulation threshold also. Ooh I forgot to say I am also trying to keep her still and calm when people walk by. She used to lunge.

Forgot to say we get through a LOT of treats (pate) but it really is the only thing that motivates her and I reduce the amount of kibble accordingly and am monitoring her weight. She is huge for her age but according to the vet is not overweight just muscle!

I think walking to heel is a very old fashioned idea and actually as long as they're walking loose lead then that's great.
I would never recommend or use a figure of 8 lead as advised above. A harness with a front and top clip point and a double ended lead can help.
I would also not ever let my dog run free along pavements. As pp said, too many hazards.
Gentle training techniques, treats and patience.
My dog is 35kg so can be hard to control. She was adopted by us aged 4 and had zero experience of the outside world. She is a work in progress!

Walking to heel isn't really what I'm after, loose lead would be amazing though!