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My husky dog don't know that cars are dangerous

680 Views 7 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  JackB
I have a 14 months old husky and I walk him leashes because wants to explore a lot and run and he might go in the street and be hit by a car. Even with leash is hard to control him because he just pulls in the opposite way I want to go. It would be really nice to let him walk without leash, however I can't trust him with traffic. The second problem is that when he is free, he never come when I call him. I shout his name, he looks directly at me and I'm 100% percent sure he understands that I'm calling him, but then simply look away and refuses to come. Sometimes when I call him, he comes near me then in the last second when I'm about to put the leash back he runs and then come back to me and then runs when is near me. Is there a way to make him come when I call him and to make him fear the street? He understands the command and then he simply says "no". It is just like a donkey, understands what it has to do, however not doing, just to demonstrate me that he is the ruler here. To be honest, where I live in Romania, it is ILLEGAL to walk your dog unleashed unless it is a very small dog(Pekingese, Poodle, Bichon, pug). He is a 30 kg husky so maybe someone might fear him, however I don't think police would say anything because it is a puppy.
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Most Siberian huskies can never be trusted off-lead, especially an untrained puppy. They have a strong instinct to run and there is absolutely no reason he would instinctively know that cars are dangerous.
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I grew up in the country, very rural, gravel road. Our dogs were never leashed, and they went with us on horseback rides and hikes all the time which often required walking on roads, at least for stretches, with traffic. So I taught them to get off to the side whenever a car or truck was approaching.

It worked pretty well, and they'd do it by default even on their own. Did they understand.the danger? I doubt it. But they got out of the way and seemed at least to respect and understand that. In a city is a whole different thing. But I think practice and modeling correct behavior can and does go a long way toward keeping the dog safe.

Huskies are probably not the right breed for off leash walking, but I had a German Shepherd that I took all over a big city without a leash, no problem.
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First, you need to train your dog. Teach him to walk on a loose leash. There are lots of videos available - kikopup on youtube is a great source. Don't use aversive methods - huskies don't take to being forced or subjected to pain or heavy corrections. Teah him a proper recall. It's extremely important to make sure that coming to you is always a positive experience. Right now, you try to leash him when he comes to you ending his fun - that's why he runs whenever you reach for him.

Second, letting your dog loose around traffic is just dangerous. Even if he is trained, all it takes is one mistake and he can get hit by a car. If a loose small dog runs at him, etc, he can end up in the road. One driver not paying attention and he can get hit. Save off leash for controlled settings where outside factors don't put him at risk.
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Dogs have no idea that vehicles are dangerous. None. You can't teach it. They just don't know and assume vehicles will stop for them and avoid them.

I have (and have had) dogs go with me when I am out on the farm tractor. Most will trot right in front of you with not a care. You have to watch all the time!

On leash for a Husky is pretty much the norm for the breed. Even if you are out in the country the breed is notoriously difficult to get a reliable recall on. If the dog has another agenda you can be an after thought, even with training.

Do a search for loose leash walking training (it will help). There are many on line resources and quite a few threads on this site about this training.

Best wishes!
Dogs have no idea that vehicles are dangerous. None. You can't teach it. They just don't know and assume vehicles will stop for them and avoid them.

I have (and have had) dogs go with me when I am out on the farm tractor. Most will trot right in front of you with not a care. You have to watch all the time!

On leash for a Husky is pretty much the norm for the breed. Even if you are out in the country the breed is notoriously difficult to get a reliable recall on. If the dog has another agenda you can be an after thought, even with training.

Do a search for loose leash walking training (it will help). There are many on line resources and quite a few threads on this site about this training.

Best wishes!
My husky is like those kids that you see in park with their parents and when the parents say "Let's go home" the kids start crying and yelling that they want to stay more in the park and run and hide from their parents. As far as I understand, this is the default for huskies.
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I don't believe any dog should be off-leash on a public road, no matter how good their recall and off-leash obedience is. Not just for the safety of the dog (they're not robots, after all, and there's always the tiny chance that something totally unexpected will happen and spook/lure them into the road at the wrong time), but also because the drivers have no idea how well trained your dog is. When I drive by an off-leash dog, I have to treat it like a hazard that could dart into the road at any minute, which means my attention is split more than necessary. The only exception to this, in my opinion, are working dogs who need to be off-leash to do their job.

That being said, you can absolutely do things to improve your recall. You mentioned putting the leash on when your dog comes back. Does this always happen? Because it's very common to accidentally teach a dog that a recall means that off-leash fun ends, so you essentially are punishing your dog for coming back to you. Another common mistake is to scold the dog when he finally does decide to come back. You might think you're scolding them for ignoring the recall, but dogs aren't very good at that kind of complex cause-and-effect reasoning, so your dog thinks it's being scolded for coming to you.

If you have been accidentally punishing your dog for recalling, it's a good idea to pick a new recall word. If you were using their name, maybe pick a word like "here" or "come", or use a whistle, or anything else clearly different from what you've been using before. Start indoors, with your dog next to you. Give the recall cue, then immediately reward your dog with something awesome. Repeat several times throughout the day, until the dog is immediately whipping his head around to look at you when he hears the cue. Then you can start doing it from a little further away, so the dog has to come towards you to get the reward. When he's really good and responsive to this, start adding a collar grab. This looks like recall cue, dog comes to you, touch neck, then give reward. Once your dog's good with this, start actually grabbing the collar briefly before giving the reward. This teaches that a recall and collar grab are super rewarding, not the end of a fun time, and when done right it should completely solve the issue of him playing keep-away when he realizes you're reaching for his collar.

Eventually you'll move this outdoors to a boring, fenced location, and practice practice practice until it's super reliable, before you can start practicing in more interesting off-leash locations with bigger distractions like wild animals, other dogs, and people. Start clipping on a leash when you do the collar grab, then immediately remove it and let the dog run off-leash again - this will keep the dog from learning that you're going to end the fun if you give him the recall cue with the leash in your hand. The idea is that the dog can no longer predict which recalls are just for super good rewards, and which are because you need to leash him up for real. So long as the 'super good reward' recalls happen way, way more often than the 'leash up, fun's over' recalls, most dogs will be willing to take the risk and come to you when they hear the cue.
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I am not a fan of having your Husky off leash near any highway but you might want to work in some whistle training as a form of recall. Get some "special treat" the Husky likes such as those inexpensive little soft flavored chew treats in the foil package. Buy a lifeguard type whistle. Begin with short distances even still on leash. Blow the whistle which will get his attention and give him a treat when he comes which will be easy when the dog is close. Gradually, not all at once, increase the distance. Try it off leash in a contained area but don't overdo it. You want your dog to know that when he hears that whistle there is something really special at the source of that sound. You will be surprised how quickly a dog can pick up on whistle training and from how far away it is effective. Good luck.
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