My dog keeps running out of the house!?

Question

Sometimes when I walk my dog, he sees a cat and lunges toward it. I could pull him back, and I tell him "NO!" but he just doesn't listen! He's broken the most powerful leashes (even chain!) and I just don't know what to resort to. When he chases the cat around the neighborhood, he decides that I'm playing tag with him, and runs away from me. Also, when I open the front door, 80% of the time he won't run out, unless he has an advantage to the opportunity, like an open door for 30 seconds, if he's too close to the door, etc. Please don't say I'm a lazy person at training, or I didn't train him well enough, because he is a perfectly well mannered dog at home. He listens to sit 100% and lie down 100% and stay 90% of the time, but he just doesn't listen when he thinks we're playing tag! He knows many tricks, but he just lunges and pulls on walks, and runs all around the neighborhood if he breaks the leash, or if I let go because he's dragging me across the ground.

And I usually don't play tag with him regularly at home, just other games. He's an angel though, unless he sees a cat or squirrel or something...

LOL you are totally right!! I do have a black labrador! That's so ironic!

Answer 1

When he gets lose and you catch him give him treats I know you think that it would teach him to run but it wont it will teach him not to run trust me I did it with my dog Ruffy and now she comes back every time she hears her name.

Answer 2

A dog who only listens when he wants to because there are no distractions is not trained! A trained dog listens every time.

With a proper collar on him there's not a lab around who could break a webbed nylon leash. You need to take this dog to an obedience class with a qualified instructor who can teach you how to train your dog - hopefully before he gets hit by a car.

Answer 3

Im Sorryy =[ my dog did do that..Until..Well you know..The car..=[ I cryed for days. Ok, So you HAVE to scare the cat off. The dog isnt gonna listen. The cat is the problem. If its an outside cat, you gotta tell the owners to maybe try to keep it within there block, or if its inside-outside call the owner if you know were they live. Everytime you open the door, and you THINK hes gonna run out, get a bone. 10$ bone. carry it with you and throw it acrrosed ur house LOL. Works for us. Say- " Get it boy! " And i bet he wont think twice for that door.

x]

Good Luck

Answer 4

Door charging (or “bolting”) is an easy fix and you need to get a grip on it before she gets smushed by a car.

Your current punishment method doesn't work because she knows that when you do (finally) catch her, she is going back into the crate for an hour. In her mind she knows that she had better make tracks fast so she doesn't get stuck in the crate for an hour. Your correction is coming too late. You're not really trying to get her to stop running around; you are trying to keep her from running out the door.

First of all, you need to have in mind a command that tells the dog that it is ok to go outside. I just use "OK" and a hand gesture to let my dogs know that it is allowed for them to exit the door. Unless they have the "OK", they don't get to go outside.

The materials that you need: a properly fitted slip (chain) choker and a 6' nylon leash. Anything else that anyone else tries to sell you is a gimmick (clickers, remote collars, special whistles, etc.) and is just taking the place of a $5 collar and a $15 leash that will last you for the rest of YOUR life, not just the life of the dog. These leeches are preying upon people's ignorance of basic canine behavior modification. They are making stupid amounts of money because most people are too lazy to crack open a book from the library to learn how to work with their dogs.

Put a properly fitted slip (chain) choker on the dog so that the “live end” (the part that gets longer and shorter) is coming toward you thru the “dead end” (the part the doesn’t move) when the collar is on the back of the dog’s neck and he is seated on your left hand side. This will allow the collar to release immediately when you let tension out of the collar. If the collar doesn't release immediately and completely when you release tension from the leash, then you have the collar on backward and are risking injury to the dog. A properly fitted choker is big enough to go over her ears with slight resistance but not big enough for her to just lower her head and it slips off.

DO NOT remove the collar after training. She will learn VERY quickly that if she isn't wearing a collar, you can't correct her. In my experience, a properly fitted collar doesn't pose a risk of injury, although there are a thousand horror stories (none of which can be proven) to the contrary. In over 20 years of training and handling and having worked more than 150 dogs thru AKC obedience competition certifications I have NEVER seen a dog injured by a properly fitted collar.

Attach a 6' nylon leash to the moving end of the slip choker and open the door. As soon as she makes it to the end of the leash you should pull back on it sharply (not enough to hurt, but enough to get her attention) and shout "no" then bring her back inside by pulling her to you on the leash. Close the door. Make certain that the collar has released. After a couple of times you should be able to tell that it has released just by looking at the collar.

Get her to sit on your left side. Praise her for being close to you. Open the door again and if she makes a dash for it, do exactly the same thing as you did before. It should break that bad habit in a matter of a few minutes. In all of my years of training, I have never had to do this more than 5 times in a row.

ALWAYS return the dog inside by pulling on the leash, not carrying them. This reinforces that you are the one giving the commands and that they are to do as you say. You ARE the one with the larger brain, after all.

ALWAYS make her sit on your left side. This allows you to use your right hand (the one 90% of people use to do most things) and gives them a single, known, reinforced point of reference for them to return to with you.

ALWAYS praise her for doing what you want her to do. Dogs LIVE for praise. Punishment sucks. It's supposed to. Your Praise to Punishment ratio should be about 20:1 OR MORE, meaning that you should be praising ANY good behavior at least 20 times more often than you are punishing bad behavior. They get the idea of accepted boundaries very quickly when they get "good luvins" every time they are doing the right thing.

DO go to your local library and get a book on dog training and USE the information in there. The only real difference between you and a "professional dog trainer" is that they have read the books and applied the knowledge where you haven't yet.

Dog training and behavior is not difficult to understand or modify. Being a "trainer" is not a difficult thing to learn to do. It just takes a little knowledge and application of that knowledge.

Answer 5

Nature of the animal causes this. I'd just about bet that you have a black labrador. I do and that's the way she acts. She's 11-1/2 months old. I am told that she will start settling down soon and indeed she does seem to be calming down somewhat.

Answer 6

When was the last training session. Okay I'm not sure if this will work. Buy a toy squeeky cat , find a way of opening it up.
Then Put some stinky solution into a container and put back into the toy. So everytime he bites on it the smell of skunk would spray on him.
Happy hunting

Answer 7

If he's only listening at home, he's not trained he's only doing tricks. He needs to learn to behave even when there's distractions around. Get him to an obedience class for some more training, with distractions.

Answer 8

Thats his nature, to chase and catch, just try to keep an eye on him when you open the door and watch them cars, hes not thinking about cars, just what he`s chasing, watch him closely--J

Answer 9

This is a pretty common problem.
He needs to be takem on more walks.