A lot of dog.
Wiley is a blue heeler with a huge engine: “he’s a very high drive dog,” his trainer says, and for a ball, “I think he’d jump off a cliff to get it.” At home he jumped on his owner hard enough to knock him over, and like many heelers he nipped at things that ran.
Calm where life happens.
Kelton built Wiley’s obedience out in public: a down and a clean release, doorway manners, and a heel on a narrow river path where freedom wasn’t safe. In a downtown parking garage Wiley held a down by the elevator without a care: “he couldn’t care less, he might as well be laying in his bed right now.”
With another dog in view, he came straight back on the recall: “Proud of you, bud. You called right off that.”
The squirrel test.
Squirrels were Wiley’s biggest test. Kelton chose not to strip away his drive (“I think it’s borderline unethical with a blue heeler”) and used the squirrels to sharpen his recall instead. On the next squirrel, at the same distance: “this time, his reaction was much better.”
The ball became his lesson in impulse control: a down, held while the ball flies. Kelton’s aim was home, so that one word could call him out of an excited moment there too.
A runner, then a choice.
Like many heelers, Wiley wanted to chase people running past. When he went after a jogger, Kelton was clear in the moment (“never do that”) and then made up with him straight away with a sniff, the ball and praise. On the very next runner, Wiley looked, then looked back at his trainer.
By his last outings he was swimming and recalling off leash at a lake, and when his off-leash heel drifted, he fixed it himself: “Started to get distracted. He caught it.”
Cool as a cucumber.
Weeks later, Kelton was back at the family’s home, and Wiley’s owner had stories to tell. At a park full of barking dogs, running kids and cars, with the baby screaming on the tailgate, “I put Wiley into a down, and not a worry in the world.” He stayed “cool as a cucumber” while both parents handled the baby.
The family had built their own daily routine, too: a down at the sidewalk, a recall, another down by the dumpsters, then a release from out of sight. Kelton’s verdict: “the training’s been maintained fine, and it was well installed.”
Their tip for keeping it sharp: build the cues into a daily errand, like taking out the trash.
