[buckingfassist]

I just took her for her usual morning walk to the corner store. i decided to tie her to the bench outside while i go in to buy a coffee. first i had her sit then i used the stay command while attaching her leech to the bench. while i was tying the leech she somehow managed to run free, i scolded her off course but she did not obey. In stead she decided to run across a very busy street. I knew that yelling at her to come would only be counter productive so in stead i tried to bribe her with treats that i only pretended to be carrying. As soon as she got close enough i tied her back onto her leech and for the first time since becomming a dog owner i spanked her. She has no idea how close she came to dying... she apparently has 0 fear of incomming vehicles. so to break this down in a couple short questions:

1. did my dog run away from me because she does not view me as a pack leader?
2. if so how can i reverse this?
3. how can i train my dog to NEVER attempt to cross a street without me?

please help! i love my dog so much and if this incident were to repeat itself im not sure the outcome would be as painless as the first time...

[BrittanyG]

Firstly, it's LEASH. A leech is a creature that attaches to you and sucks blood.

Learn how to tie one handed, so you can hold the dog's collar. Or you could buy one of the leashes that has a detachable hand loop. Dogs do not have any fear of cars, they are like children in that respect. They have no idea what would happen to them if they were hit, so the fear is not there.

Spanking a dog after bringing it back to you is counterproductive, IMO. I understand you were scared and upset, but look at it from do's point of view.

She let me go
I get to run off
Now I get spanked?

Try to always keep in mind what you are conveying to your dog. Keep working on the sit-stay, and BE VIGILANT.

[buckingfassist]

thanks for the useless advice and the english lesson...

i dont want to have to restrain my dog while tying her leash, she should be trained to never run away from me unless im fetching her a toy or we're at the dog park. anyone with usefull TRAINING tips?

[Keechak]

Teach her the Stay Command, and the Come command. NEVER hit your dog after she came back to you that will only make her scared to come back to you the next time. if you need help teaching Stay, feel free to ask.

[TxRider]

To start I would never call my dog to me and then spank her when she comes. Next time she might decide she doesn't want to get spanked and stay away.

I always try to make sure coming to me is always a really good thing for her, one of the best things in life for her.

And if she slipped her leash, and was running around, she wouldn't understand what she was getting spanked for anyway, other than getting spanked for coming to me when I call.

If I'm going to correct my dog physically it will be for something she is doing at the time I correct her, as she is doing it, and even then only for certain things like snapping or growling or something beyond a simple mistake.

As for training a dog not to cross a street, you can likely search youtube and the web for help, I have only done that with one dog, and she was already well trained and very solid in coming when called, staying (as in she would stay, with me not in sight, for quite a long time) and even then it wasn't so easy and wasn't fool proof.

Teaching a stay that will hold long enough for you to go into the store and come back out would be a lot easier. Not crossing any street is a lot more abstract concept and a lot more complicated than just "stay here no matter what until I return".

For that I use the "stay game" and keep testing her. Start with a stay, increase distance, increase time, start doing it where you can go out of sight around a corner for just a second, praise her like she just saved the world when she does right, and don't punish when she makes a mistake, just keep trying.

Do it over and over every day, increasing the difficulty a little each day and making it a fun game for her.

Before long you won't even have to tie her when you go into the store. And if you call her from her stay half the time, and half the time make her stay until you walk back to her, she will likely get very very good at coming when called as well.

[buckingfassist]

Thank you TxRider... i know that spanking her was not the best idea and its not something i ever usually do. It was a fury of the moment type thing. I always try to show a calm and assertive energy, but when my beloved dog starts acting suicidal all rational thought goes out the window...

Im not expecting my dog to learn to never crossthe street without me over night but is something that im willing to put the time and energy into teaching her. And on the baby steps note, i think i need some more advice on the "stay" and "come" commands...

[RonE]

thanks for the useless advice and the english lesson...

The advice was spot-on. It's only useless if you don't want to listen to it.

[Keechak]

To train the Stay command. start with this step

make the dog lay down and then put your hand in front of their face and say "Stay" then move back about one foot distance. if the dog moves to get up Don't say anything, just calmly push her back into a down position exactly where you told her to stay the first time.

Repeat that process until the dog will not move while you walk away one foot then walk back, then give the dog a lot of treats for not getting up when you move.

Once the dog is good at staying in place with you only a couple feet away now it's time to walk further away. if the dog gets up repeat the process of saying nothing and replacing the dog where you left them (Don't let the dog get any closer to you) repeat until the dog is comfortable with you walking away up to 15 feet.

Now it is time to throw the dog some confusing body language. Jump up and down, say random words like "Carrot, or Monkey" Words you have never taught your dog. You are teaching your dog to stay even when faced with distractions.

The Final step is to leave the room while you have your dog on a stay for this exercise it is best to have someone else sitting in the room with the dog but not interacting with them.


Give the dog a treat for staying for
5 seconds then
30 seconds
then one minute
then 3 minutes
then 5 minutes
ect.

[buckingfassist]

Originally Posted by RonE

The advice was spot-on. It's only useless if you don't want to listen to it.

Sorry, no. I came onto this site asking for training tips. Brittany decided to correct my spelling error and suggested i physically restrain my dog while tying her leash. useless...

[Ayanla]

She doesn't understand that you spanked her because you were scared that she might get hurt, or that she won't get spanked if she doesn't run into traffic. From her view, you spanked her for coming back to you. Or, since you leashed her before the spanking, she may think the spanking has something to do with being put on the leash. As tough as it is, she should be rewarded for coming back regardless of the circumstance of her being away.

I think the most important thing to bring to training a dog is the understanding that, while dogs are incredibly intelligent and teachable, they are not human children. They aren't going to extrapolate your instructions, nor are they necessarily going to generalize what they've already learned.

Teaching not to cross the street without permission may be a tougher challenge than teaching her a solid sit/stay and a solid recall. I do teach my pups to sit at every intersection but that's more of an extension of "sit when I'm standing still" than teaching them not to cross the street without permission.

edit: As for the restraining her idea being useless...it's appropriate advice until she is 100% reliable on a sit/stay, which she obviously is not at this time. Neither of mine are 100% reliable and I would never take my hands off their leash without restraining them in some other manner. It's not about them not respecting me, or about them not considering me pack leader. It's about them not being reliable enough on a command to bet their lives on it.

[Dog_Shrink]

Stay command is great if you can get it out before the dog starts moving... if you don't... I always teach STOP as well. Whenever we're walking and we come to a corner I say STOP which meand they stop and sit until I say ok lets go. This way at least if they ever do get loose you have the chance 2 fold of them actually thinking before getting into the street and stopping or you can shout STOP and pray that they do.

Second... never leave your dog unattended. I had some one steal my Pomeranian out of my truck because of one of those quick dash into the store moments... I finally found him almost a week later after offering a $200 reward. THe people that stole him took him home where their pitbull attacked him and they gave me back his beated bloody body AFTER taking my $200 saying sorry this just happened... my ass... the blood was dried and caked on his fur... at least I was the last thing he saw before I had to euth him.

Lastly as the others said... NEVER hit a dog for coming back to you EVEN if you had to go collect him. You ALWAYS need to remain in control emotionally and DO NOT react out of frustration or emotional stress. You wouldn't do that to a child... then don't do it to a dog. All hitting does in inappropriate situations like that is break trust and make your dog doubt that coming back to you is in their best interest.

[TxRider]

Originally Posted by buckingfassist

Thank you TxRider... i know that spanking her was not the best idea and its not something i ever usually do. It was a fury of the moment type thing. I always try to show a calm and assertive energy, but when my beloved dog starts acting suicidal all rational thought goes out the window...

Im not expecting my dog to learn to never crossthe street without me over night but is something that im willing to put the time and energy into teaching her. And on the baby steps note, i think i need some more advice on the "stay" and "come" commands...

I work on the stay and come together with Hope. I've had her about 8-9 months from the shelter.

I started in the living room, a few weeks after I brought her home. I had her sit, said stay with a palm flat out towards her and took a step back. If she moved I just calmly had her sit and tried again taking a step or two away until she stayed for about 30 seconds. The I treat her and give her praise.

Then just take baby steps from there, once she did that I take 4-5 steps away and try again, always walking back to her at first.

If when I increase the distance or time and she fails, I go back to the last level she did right and repeat it more, then try increasing again.

Eventually you can start going around a corner, then into another room, always increasing it a little bit each time, and backing up if she fails.

Once it's solid inside, or in the fenced yard, you can try it outside on walks.

With Hope I'm now doing it on our walks. A quiet street, no distractions, I have her stay, and started again with just a few steps away from her, and walking back to her. I increased the time and distance gradually each day, and now I can walk a block away, and stand there for several minutes, and call her to me. She rockets to me like a bullet now, lots of praise each time, and the more this is repeated, the more solid both her "stay" and her "come" becomes. It's just conditioning through repetition.

Before long I'll start testing leaving her sight in a stay outside on a walk. It's a bit tricky with Hope though, she is very very prey driven and I have to be quite careful no squirrels or cats are out within a block of me.

That's just how I like to teach it, works for me. Look around this site and the web though, there are a lot of methods to improve coming when called and staying.

Like I said before though, not crossing a street is a lot different, how does a dog even tell what's a street? what's a driveway? what's a sidewalk? What's a parking lot? That's why I only did that with one dog, and it never was perfect.

Even teaching her what cars are and staying out of their path would be a lot simple for a dog to understand.

Originally Posted by Dog_Shrink

Stay command is great if you can get it out before the dog starts moving... if you don't... I always teach STOP as well. Whenever we're walking and we come to a corner I say STOP which meand they stop and sit until I say ok lets go. This way at least if they ever do get loose you have the chance 2 fold of them actually thinking before getting into the street and stopping or you can shout STOP and pray that they do.

Very good point, all my dogs learn a stop command. And it's quite easy to practice on a leash when walking. Mine don't necessarily sit when they stop, I'm more of a stop means just freeze in place and stay kinda guy.

I would add if you want to train her not to cross a street unless you say, you'll need to spend a long time getting the other commands quite solid to have a good foundation to build from anyway.