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A friend at the dog park asked me, because he heels his dog on the right–the reason being, he says, that in a two-way sidewalk the dog is not in people traffic.
He then asked if, by that reasoning, Brits do it on the left, and that’s how the whole left-side heel thing–which I think is standard–got started.
Which I think is silly, but got us thinking on the whole topic in general.
It’s a convention based on standardized Obedience competition, which is itself loosely based on working German Shepherd competitions in the 1920’s (which were/are far harder). There might have been a justification originally, but it’s really only a convention. A lot of basic doggy obedience is taught by Obedience with a capital O competitors, so that’s what is taught.
Obedience as a sport is now far less popular than the newer Agility (essentially obstacle races you direct your dog around). In Agility you must be able to move in any direction from your dog and vice versa, hence if your instructor does Agility, you may be taught early on to have your dog learn heel on both sides equally.
So is mounting a horse from the left side also just convention, or is there a reason why it’s not done on the right side?
Quite a few people including myself use the right primarily but most dogs can easily be taught to switch sides. I never did like or understand why the left is the primary way it is taught.
Interesting. I never knew there was a standard, but I walk my dog on the left because that feels most natural and secure to me. ( I’m right-handed.)
That one HAD an apocryphal reason - so your sword didn’t cut your horse’s head off. There’s a whole SD column about it.
I always figured it was because the right side is the gun side.
Could well be, from the origin.
My dog trainer is also an agility teacher, which may be why she had us teach the dogs to heel on either side. But her thinking: At some point you may want to pass another dog. It might be better to have your dog on the opposite side of you than the opposing dog.
Anyway it’s pretty easy to teach a dog to switch sides. I walk with my dog on the side away from traffic, so we switch.
But I don’t think I could get on a horse from other than the left side. I know they teach them now to be mounted from either side, but…I just couldn’t do it.
there are two reasons, one traditional and one practical.
Traditional: a right handed person wears their sword on the left, by mounting on the left the sword doesn’t swing wildly and smack the horse as your leg swings over (turns out horses do not like being randomly smacked). Many of our riding traditions are military in origin.
Practical: most people are right handed and have more control & perception on their right side. Keeping the horse to your right most people are controlling it with their more adept and stronger hand.
That said there is no reason you can’t teach a horse to be mounted from the right. People who might have cause to mount from the right, do accustom their horses to be mounted either side (even if they habitually mount left). This would be people like trail riders and cross-country jumpers and foxhunters – because if you get dumped or just have to dismount you never know if there will be a log in the right place to mount on the left and its a long walk home.
Me too. I can’t even walk a bicycle on the off side.
We were taught in our obedience class to heel the dog on the left (the trainer did show dogs) and it’s worked out well because we don’t have sidewalks. It keeps the dog on the side away from traffic.
With horses, it’s also nice that there is a convention, regardless of which convention is chosen. A rider can be pretty confident that any horse he meets will let him mount from the left. Less worry about spooking him or something if you had to guess. A horse is big enough that it can do serious damage if it doesn’t behave.
A lot of roping horses can be mounted and dismounted from either side.
Bucking horses are mounted from above and dismounted however they can make you do it. Ditto for bulls. 
My dog is trained to walk on the right, because I find it more comfortable. Training manuals I read when training him generally said something like, “dogs are generally trained to walk to the left of their owners, but it isn’t universal and comes down to owner preference.”
My dogs will walk on either side.
Along the line of the Horse thing…
Always* get on/off a motorcycle from the left. And you *do not *pull your right leg over the tank to do it! Its funny how TV and Hollywood always fuck that up. And no one ever uses the helmet strap, rendering them useless.
*Rare exceptions apply, like on steep, rocky hills and stuff.
Apocrypha Alert
I’d heard the dog heels on the left because the master is cradling his shotgun in the right hand, pointed at the ground, breech open, to facilitate reloading/firing. If dog’s on the right, dog gets in the way (to say the least).
Training Buddy to heel on the right would be a big deal–
If he is on the right for some reason, seated or standing/moving, my command “heel” gets him up and over to my left side.
Is that standard training?
Dogs take to the heel command quickly and it can be associated with several actions. If I pat my left side and say heel my dog heels on the left, if I pat my right side he heels on the right. If we are just out walking and I say heel it he just comes in closer and might be on either side. They seem to get what our intentions are if we work with them enough. We have leash laws in the city so the dog will naturally heel on whatever side I am holding the leash.
Edit: which also implies, do some trainers have “heel” and “walk at heel” as different commands?