Chapter 5
🤲 Create a little distance from the food hand
In this step, we want to make the dog slightly more independent from the food hand.
The idea is very simple:
While your dog is food driving nicely at your hand, briefly lift the hand away from the nose and immediately bring it back down.
➡️ Hand up
➡️ Straight back down
➡️ Up again
➡️ Straight back down
At first, the hand should not stay away for even a full second.
The goal is not to completely phase out the hand, but simply to teach the dog that he can maintain the position even when the hand is briefly gone.
🎥 Watch the dog’s body position
This step is not mandatory in my training system.
For some dogs, lifting the hand works very well. For others, it can actually make the heelwork picture worse.
That is why it is best to film yourself or have someone film you.
Watch whether your dog changes:
✅ the back position
✅ the head position
✅ the overall posture
✅ the movement of the paws
Some dogs suddenly develop a hollow back, lower their body or push the head forward as soon as the hand moves away.
If that happens:
➡️ Simply leave this step out.
My own dogs, for example, changed their body position so much during this exercise that I stopped using it completely — and they still learned to heel perfectly well later on.
💡 Not every method fits every dog
Always remember:
Not every training step is right for every dog.
This exercise is a nice-to-have, not a must.
If your dog keeps the same beautiful position, you can gradually leave the hand up a little longer from time to time.
But you do not need to completely phase it out yet.
🐕🦺 For now, it is enough that the dog learns to briefly undock from the hand while continuing to maintain the correct position.