How do I boundary train my 1 yr old lab? If not on a leash, he takes off.?

Question

We've had him in training. He sits & stays when he has your undivided attention. Our 2 problems are that he jumps up on people when they first arrive at our house and he takes off if he's off leash. He DOES return after a while. Any suggestions for training?

We've had beginners obedience classes...perhaps a 'rerun'? He is neutered. It's likely right that he needs work on the recall.

Answer 1

It can take a very long time to get a really totally solid recall. To me it isn't a reliable recall unless he will come no matter what other distractions are present. I have been teaching obedience classes for 25 years and mine are still all kept onlead unless we are working and I have absolutely reliable recalls. Keep him on lead!

You need to practice recalls and sit/stays with distractions. You can do this at home, but a class is a great place to work on it.

Answer 2

I think maybe to persue the next level of obedience classes for your dog (if available) might be a good idea. It will help to reinforce what's been learned already.

I have also found in training our 5 month old BC that working daily has made a difference. If I miss a day, she's not so quick to respond as if I don't.

For the visitors, that's a hard one, but it can be overcome with persistence and a few friends willing to help you out. You basically have to work on getting your dog into a sit and stay when company arrives. It's hard because they are always so excited for visitors! Make sure people don't pay any attention to your dog when entering your home unless the dog is in a sit. Eventually your dog will get the idea, but it will take patience, time and practice.

Good Luck!

Answer 3

As for the jumping up...have your guests turn their backs to the dog and pay him no attention. (Ask your dog to sit and stay during this....usually a dog cannot focus on jumping up if doing a task). Eventually the dog will stop jumping up when it gets no attention...our lab knows she has to sit when anyone greets her.

Boundary training can be done with invisible fencing or you can train the dog to stay within a certain area...first the dog must know the command "come" - sounds like his recall could use some work before going off leash.

Perhaps a Beginners Obedience class would be awesome for you and your lab. The more tricks your lab will know (and the more tasks it has to do) the less likely he will be to roam. Also is he neutered? An unneutered lab is more likely to wander than a neutered one.

Answer 4

I need answers to this as well, although my puppy is younger.

Answer 5

Have to say if you paid money for a training class and all he does is "sit" and "stay" while you have to stare him down, you should get your money back. As the trainer, if I had worked with a dog and owner through the group of classes, I would be horrified and humilated if that was all I had been able to get the dog and owner to accomplish.

THE BASICS

Treats and toys don't work! Those only work if the dog wants the treat or toy more than he wants to do something else. That is the fundamental problem with the current fad of "bribe doggy to listen."

You have to MAKE him come even when he doesn't want to - and give him a very good reason not to disobey you.

Would you ALWAYS obey the speed limits if there was no risk of a ticket?? If you wouldn't get arrested, would you grow pt in the backyard if it made a lot of money for you?

I don't care what some self-promoting person on TV says. You NEVER ignore a dog who ignores and disobeys you. All they learn is they can ignore you.

That on-coming car is NOT going to "ignore" your dog and neither is the animal control officer.

You don't need to do the advanced methods of gaining control over a headstrong, pig-headed, I'm the boss" dog unless you are working with one - hardly the average pet except for a few breeds.

You can establish that you are the boss - the dominant one, the Alpha - by far less dramatic means than flipping the dog on its back.

Now if the dog gets loose and bolts, yell their name in a high pitched panicky voice,, run the other way and fall down. They will almost always come to see whats wrong and you can grab the beastie,


All the current fads - "postive only with treats and toys or Milan all promise the same thing - fast results with no real work. Do you see a police officer give his ptrol dog a cookie every time he obeys? Do you see the partner of a Guide Dog give the dog a cookie because it took him across the street? Watch the AKC Eukanuba Obedience Championship Competition on TV next January and see if you see a single handler give their dog a cookie? The answer to all of these is a resounding NO becaue those dogs perform to get praise in the form of pets hugs and your voice and to avoid being corrected, scolded in a deep stern voice while the handler frowns at them, and made to do properly.

Training a dog properly is WORK. W-O-R-K. It takes time, dedication, persistence and repetition. I have always said that I could teach any dog to the basics in 2 weeks - it was the owners in my classes that took the 10-12 weeks to teach them how to do it.

Here is an excerpts from the material I give clients:

COME

Teaching Come:

Step 1 Walking next to you nicely

(Short part for dog that jerks the leash and drags and takes off)

You don't say what other breed she is but if we are talking a big heavy dog, be prepared and braced. Hook the leash on the dog's slip collar (see below on how to fit it and why the flat buckle collar is not going to work.). Get the dog on your left side. Take the leash and run it behind you over your hips to your right side. Hold the end of the leash in your right hand. With your left hand, take up the leash so there is some slack between your hand and the dog's collar - maybe a loop of 6-8 inches on each side.
Walk off. When the dog lunges forward to drag you, halt FAST and step backwards with your left foot throwing your body weight against her and taking the dog's lunge with your body. (You are basically snubbing him off.) You can even take a complete step backwards if you are fast enough. Let him hit that slack and snap himself back. (It works - I weigh 98 lbs and can stop a Great Dane like this,)

As you do that yell "NO" in a deep stern voice, and then in the same voice order him back to your side with "Heel". Make him get back there and move off again

Step 2 Starting Come

Put the leash and collar using a slip collar (see below for how to fit it and put it on) on the dog. Have the leash in front of you and not behind you over the hips. Walk off with her at your side in heel position. Go along for a distance - say 20-40 feet - and then you loosen the lead and run backwards saying "come, come" making the dog turn and come to you. Try to keep going about 15-20 feet in reverse. Make her come all the way to you by gathering in the leash. Lots of praise - pets hugs tummy rubs and voice - NOT treats. (She'll love this! She ges to chase you.)

Now as you go backwards, lots of excitement in your voice as you encourage her to come, whoop and be silly. (You will keep up the happy excitment every single time she is moving under her own steam - even using the long line as set out below. At the longer distances with the long line, I'll drop to my knees as they move towards me ad old out ny arms and let them pile into my lap and we roll about if they like. You won't always have to act that silly - just long enough for her to think 'come' is a great thing and always to be done and never optional.)


Step 3 Coming at a distance

Move on to the long line.
Go to the hardware store. Get 3 lengths of ¼ inch to 3/8 inch soft nylon line – 20 foot, 50 foot and 100 foot. Get 3 snaps. Tie the snaps on one end and make a loop handle on the other.

Start with the 20 foot line. Use a CHAIN slip collar that is fitted so there is 3 - 4 fingers of space between the dog’s neck and the collar. Put the collar on so the ring that slides comes across the back of her neck and directly at you. With a flat buckle collar, you are in a pulling match that you are going to lose with about any dog over 15-20 lbs. Either you can't move the dog effectively or they jerk the leash out of your hands.

Note: use the CHAIN slip collar because they learn to lisen for the rattle of the collar and adjust their behavior before you have to correct them. Nylon slip collars just simply do not work 1/4 as well.

SInce she has already pulled the leash away, put your hand through the loop and make a couple extra wraps around your hand when working with her or taking her out and the leash or line is not run behind you.

Hook the line on her collar. Hopefully she knows sit and wait. If not, teach it to her. If she does know sit and wait, put her in a sit, step back 2 or 3 steps and call her. If she doesn’t come, haul her in with the line.

When she comes over a distance of 5-6 feet, move back to 10-12 feet and call her.

Repeat this process until she is working on the 100 foot line.

You can also take her out on the long line and when she is happily distracted, call her and make her come.

ALWAYS ALWAYS use the dog's name " Muffy - come" The name gets their attention that you mean them and you are not just talking to someone and the word that is the command is being used in conversation. Name first - then command.

NEVER TAKE HER OUTSIDE WITHOUT A LEASH (6 ft) OR ONE OF THE LONG LINES. NEVER TURN HER LOOSE OFF LEAD AND CALL HER UNTIL SHE COMES 100% OF THE TIME ON THE 100 FOOT LINE WITH ALL KINDS OF DISTRACTIONS, IE: OTHER DOGS, KIDS PLAYING, TOYS BEING THROWN IN HER PATH AS SHE COMES, ETC.

When you say “come” and she doesn’t, haul her backside into you using the line repeating “come”, “come”. Use a STERN DEEP voice that brooks no argument about the matter if the dog already knows the command 'come' and is choosing to disobey.

Whatever you do , don't let your voice slide upwards into high tones unless you are giving praise. When you give a command, used an authoritative voice and sound like you mean it - and not "would you please 'come'-if you happen to feel like it of course."


When she gets to you – willingly or unwillingly, praise and pet and make a big fuss and tell her that she is such a good girl.

Never ever ever call a dog to you to punish or correct them once they get to you. The dog needs to understand that ignoring you and not coming makes you growl at them (the stern voice insisting they obey) just like the boss dog would do; but getting to you (no matter whether voluntarily or involuntary) is a good thing and gets rewarded.

Using treats is silly because one day you will start to forget the treats or not have them or something, and the next time you call her, she'll remember not getting the treat and figure "why bother?" And what happens the day the doggy decides it is more fun to chase the rabbit than come for the treat?

Clickers are just flat stupid - they are for people who are too dumb to figure out how to quickly say "GOOD DOG" in a happy, excited voice.

You always have your hands and your voice. Use them

By the way, many women in particular, but men do it too, have a real problem with voice control, When they get upset or frustrated, their voice go UP. The dog ignores them. In the pack, the boss dog or alpa uses deep tones (rumble in the chest, growl etc) to express displeasure and get compliance from the dogs lower in the pecking order. A dog making a high ptiched sound (yapping, yelping etc) is not only not going to get compliance as they are percieved as ineffectual and the not-Alpha, not-the-boss but that it is giving an invitation to play.





BOUNDARIES

Use that nice long line to teach "this far and no further." Have the dog outside on the line. When it wanders to the limits of the bounday, be ready with just a bt of slack in the line. When it get sthere, pull the line back so you bring the dog to a halt and backwards and in your deep voice roar NO.

Now with a Lab, you may literally have to pull him off his feet a couple times - they are sort of oblivious and do the "huh? You talkng? You talking to me??" Better his butt hits the ground a few times than a car gets him.

If after a 3-4 weeks, he doesn't seem to be getting the concept, you may have to go to a pinch collar to get his attention -but get it you will, Once he learns what is expected, you back off on the pinch.


When the dog gets to a boundary and halts on its own- and they will after geting stopped a few times - PRAISE THEM - happy, pleased voice here and lots of energy.


This has method has worked a treat for decades - 43 years using it myself . Growing up, my Bostons would not put one paw on the curb in the middle of an old-fashioned street with narrow lots and the house was on the corner.


_____________

JUMPING

Stop jumping by any of these methods:

(1) A loud “No” and push her off and hold her down and scold her with “Bad, Bad Bad”. Then tell her “Okay,” let her up and give her a pat (if she doesn’t leap again.)

(2) A loud “No” and time it so that as she comes off the ground, you bring your foot forward and step on her back foot.

(3) A loud “No” and as she comes up off the ground, raise your knee so that she hits it with her chest and bounces off.

(4) If you know visittors are coming, ge the leash and collar on. Be ready for her. When she leaps at them, haul on that leash and send her backwards from thema s you do the NO! - move fast and hold her done on the ground flat on her belly and scold in the stern authoritative tone. Relax your face and voice, Tell her okay -now calm. Let her up but make her stay next to you, all four feet on the ground. So long as she keeps the feet down, she can get petted by the visitor. Any upward mommentum and backwards she goes and down she goes....


Now you both need a GOOD obedience class - and that is NOT Petsmart or Petco.

Do NOT pick someone from the phonebook or the neighbor's comment of "oh -so and so trains" without a LOT more information. Lots of self-procalimed trainers out here who read this or that book and aren't effective. If someone claims to be an obedience trainer BUT they don't compete their own dogs in AKC obedience trails, run, do not walk, away.

GO here to find contacts in you area that can help you locate and obedience trainer who works with all breeds and who does AKC obedience compettions:

http://www.akc.org/clubs/search/index.cf...

http://www.akc.org/clubs/search/index.cf... (set on all breeds)


http://www.akc.org/clubs/search/index.cf...

http://www.akc.org/clubs/search/index.cfm?action=perf&display=on (set on hunting test - these are the sporting dog people who compete labd and goldens and other breeds in field trials - great resource for a lab owner)

Even it they are an hour or more away, they will know other people all over the state.