Dr Ian Dunbar
Letting your dog play in the park can be one of the quickest ways to lose control over your adolescent dog. Allow it to play uninterrupted and you'll quickly lose its attention and have no control over it whatsoever. On the other hand, if you integrate training and play, you'll soon develop reliable, off-leash distance control over your dog.
How to train your dog NOT to come when called
How to train your dog to come when called
Four steps to an emergency distance sit
How to train your dog NOT to come when called Many owners let their dogs off-leash without so much as a 'please' or 'sit'. Often the dog is excitedly bouncing and barking in anticipation of playing. Thus being let off-leash reinforces the boisterous behaviour. They delight in their newfound freedom, running around, sniffing, chasing each other, and playing together like crazy. The owners look on and chat. Eventually it's time to go - one owner calls her dog, the dog comes running, the owner snaps on the leash, and the play session is over.This sequence of events is only likely to happen just once or twice, because on subsequent trips to the park the dog understandably will not be quite so keen to come to its owner when called. It doesn't take much for the dog to make the association between coming when called and having an otherwise utterly enjoable romp in the park abruptly terminated. On future trips to the park, the dog approaches its owner slowly with head down. The owner is now doing a fine job of demotivating the dog's recall and is inadvertently training the dog not to come when called.Indeed slow recalls become no recalls, as the dog tries to prolong its fun by playing Catch-Me-If-You-Can. The irritated owner now screams for the dog to come, "BAD DOG! Come Here!". And, of course, the dog muses, "I don't think so! I think it would be a mite foolish for me to approach you right now. You're not in the best frame of mind to praise and reward me appropriately." But you are not going to do this with your dog, are you?
How to train your dog to come when called Instead, you are going to take your dog's dinner kibble to the park, call your dog every minute or so throughout its play session, have it sit for a couple of pieces of kibble, and let it go play again. Yor dog will soon learn that coming when called is an enjoyable time-out, a little refreshment, a kind word, a hug from you, before it resumes play.Your dog becomes confident that coming when called does not signal the end of the play session. Your dog's enthusiastic recalls will be the talk of the town! When it is time to end the off-leash play session, I like to soften the blow by telling my dogs, "Let's go and find your Kongs!" Before going to the park, I always leave stuffed Kongs in the car and back home as a special treat.In addition, you might consider teaching your dog an emergency sit or down, which is often better than an emergency recall. With a quick sit you instantly control your dog's behaviour and limit its movement. Once your dog is sitting you have several options:
you may let the dog resume playing
you may call your dog to you (your dog is more likely to come when called if it is already demonstrating willing complinace)
you may instruct your dog to lie down and stay, or
you may walk up to your dog and put it on leash For added stability, it is good practice to hold your dog's attention with your hand in a policeman stop signal and continually praise your dog for staying as you approach.
Four steps to an emergency distance sit The secret to off-leash control is to thoroughly integrate fun and training into all of your dog's off-leash activities. Interrupt your dog's off-leash activities every minute or so. Everytime you interrupt an enjoyable activity by instructing your dog to sit, for example, and then allow it to resume the activity, you are reinforcing the dog's prompt sit with a powerful reward. The more you interrupt your dog's play, the more you reward it for sitting promptly.First practice the following exercises in an safe area. This can be when your puppy is off-leash in your house or yard, when it is playing in puppy classes, during puppy parties, or when off-leash in dog parks.
Every minute or so, run up to your puppy and take it by the collar. Praise the pup, offer a tasty food treat, and then tell it to go play again. At first try this in a fairly small area with no other distractions e.g. your kitchen. Then try it with just one other puppy present, then with a couple of other puppies present. Gradually increase the number of puppies and size of the area until your puppy is easy to catch when playing, for example, in your fenced yard. Use dried liver treats during this first exercise so your pup quickly comes to love having its collar grabbed.
Once your puppy is easy to catch, dry kibble will suffice. Now, instruct your puppy to sit each time after you take it by the collar. Use the food to lure the puppy into a sitting position, praise the pup as soon as it sits, offer the piece of kibble as a reward, then tell it to go play.
By now your puppy should feel completely at ease with your running up to reach for its collar. In fact, it probably looks forward to it, knowing it will receive a food reward before resuming play. You may find your puppy sits in anticipation of the food reward - this is good, because the next step is to instruct your puppy to sit before you reach for its collar. Run up to your pup and waggle a piece of kibble under its nose, and once the puppy homes in on the food, use it as a lure to entice it to sit. Praise your puppy as soon as it sits, offer the kibble as a reward, and tell the puppy to go play - it is vital that you do not touch the puppy before it sits. Some owners are impatient and physically sit the dog down. If you rely on physical contact to get your dog to sit, you'll never have reliable off-leash control. If you are experiencing difficulties, go back to using freeze-dried liver.
Now that your puppy sits promptly as you approach, you can teach it to sit from a distance. Again, try this exercise around the house without distractions before trying it with other puppies present. Sit in a chair and without moving a muscle, calmly and quietly say, "Puppy sit", wait a second, then rush toward the puppy saying "Sit! Sit! Sit!", in an urgent tone but without shouting. Praise your puppy the moment it sits, take it by the collar, offer the piece of kibble as a reward, and then let it resume playing. As you repeat this over and over again, you'll discover that fewer and fewer repetitions of the instruction to sit are necessary before your puppy complies. Also, with repeated trials, your puppy sits sooner and sooner and with you further and further away. Eventually your dog will sit promptly at a single softly spoken request from a distance.
From now on, whenever your dog is off-leash, repeatedly and frequently interrupt its activity with numerous short training interludes. Ninety percent of the training interludes should be as short as one second. Tell your dog to "Sit" and then immediately say "Go Play". Your dog's quick sit is proof that you have control, and so you needn't push it. You needn't prolong the sit stay.Instead, quickly tell your dog to go play so as to reinforce the quick sit. In one out of ten training interludes practice something a little different. Once your dog sits, intstruct it to sit-stay or to down-stay. Or walk up to your dog and take it by the collar before telling it to resume playing. Next you can begin to integrate training into doggy games - a fun way to train your dog and exercise its mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Veterinarian and animal behaviourist,
Petalia
