mfagan0110

I am currently working on training my girlfriend's dog and she lives near a highway. She owns a Miniature Pomeranian that is 9 months old. The other day she got out and ran straight for the highway. Bad idea for such a small dog. She luckily made her way back to the house after a few minutes of trying to catch her. I am currently working on the basic come and sit and have made progress. But not when there are distractions. I can whistle very loud and can be heard for quite a distance. Is there anyway that I can train the dog to stop what ever it is doing and either come to me or lay down immediately after it hears me whistle and how would I go about this? Thank You for your time, effort and help.

Melamaphine

Hi

The best thing to do would be to join a dog training class in your area. It is one thing training a recall when the dog is focussed on you, but the real hurdle is keeping that focus when there are distractions.

A good trainer will be able to show you how best to keep your dog's attention. In the meantime, don't let her off her lead at all and make sure you take extra precautions for your back yard/front door.

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cassblonde

I second that - take a class.

My Susie is a larger dog(50 lb Shep mix) and is now a year old. We'll be starting classes in the new year. Why? Because I live 3 houses in from a busy 4 lane road and Susie likes nothing better than to chase Large vehicles(buses, transport trucks, cube vans). Whenever we are out walking she lunges at these almost every time. I know she needs us to be trained properly but haven't had the money to do so, so I just watch her closely(she goes into a stalk posture before lunging) and keep her leash short when we are too close to a road.

Thankfully the couple times she has managed to bolt out our front door she headed the opposite way from the road down two houses to the house where a lady feeds stray cats - I guess she prefers chasing cats to chasing buses.

Go to a trainer - I hope that at a year old Susie will learn well still and I can deepen my understanding of her through classes.

Cass

Kaos

Yes, a class is a good plan. One other thing you can do is start teaching her to sit and wait at every doorway until you give her a release word (I use ok). Eventually this should become automatic, so that if you accidentally leave the front door open, she will sit and wait. You can practice the front door on a lead initially, but practice with other doors also. Do you have a back garden? If so then when she asks to go out for a wee, wait for her to sit. Don't open the door until she is sitting and waiting. If she goes to bolt through the door as soon as you open it, close it again immediately. She will learn that the quickest way to get what she wants is to immediately sit and wait until you release her. She should do the same getting in and out of cars.

mfagan0110

Thank You all. I was already considering a class but trying to do all I could until We get the money. I will work on the sit and wait method and hopefully that will go over good. Thank you all.

Sugardog

A class would be a great idea.

In the meantime, practice practice practice that recall. Start her with treats and reward her generously for responding to the whistle. You want to reward her every time. Never call her to punish her or do something unpleasant to her (clip her nails, bath, medicine etc), always keep coming to you a good thing.

It will take a lot of time and work to get her to the level of training you want, so in the meantime, I also encourage you to teach her a command like stay or wait to stop her from bolting out the door. Also keep in mind you have a terrier. I can call my German Shepherd off a prey driven chase (like she's after a cat) and she easily breaks it and comes back, her prey drive is virtually zip. But my Chihuahua mix is a bit more drivey. I *can* call her off a prey driven chase, but I have to keep up the work with her constantly. I haven't been working with her lately, I wouldn't trust her recall at this point if she's after something. Terriers are known for being more drivey, so it may take more work and more consistency.

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mfagan0110

I have recent read an article on clicker train. Does any one hear Have any experience with this. If so might this work?

Sugardog

I've been clicker training for about 3 or 4 years now....It's a great, fun method that definitely works and will certainly help.

Basically the clicker is a bridge between the behavior and the reward. After conditioning, the dog learns that if a behavior is clicked, then thats the behavior he's getting rewarded for. It's a marker basically. It can remove a lot of ambiguity and confusion from training. Unlike praise, the clicker always has a solid definition. We tell our dogs "good dog!" for no reason sometimes. The clicker is also more concise so you can click and reward EXACTLY what behavior you want. I kid you not when I say that if you are trying to train sit and you repeatidly click a split second before the dogs butt hits the ground, you could train it to squat. It's a very powerful tool.

If you want to check into it more, look at www.clickertraining.com

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Monkey

agree with sugar on the clicker.. I use the basics of clicker when I work with dogs and the last one was very fearful borderline aggressive and he has shaped up a lot!!

Same principle as the clicker, clicker and hot dogs = super tools

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sheplovr

I personally feel all the training in the world and having maybe the smartest dog in the world if there is one, none living near a big highway is safe.

Dogs are NOT human, therefore the brain does not work the way ours does and not all humans use theirs either? It needs a fence up for safety first of all, classes never hurt to have an Obedient dog. But, I have had so many people contact me they turned their back a moment and their dog ran into the street and got killed, wanting a puppy. I make sure that they get fencing up before so and enroll in puppy classes and then basic obedience, work with the pup daily.

I would certainly never trust any of mine out with a highway in front of the property knowing a rabbit, squirrel, chipmunk runs and there goes the dog, bang gone if traffic is busy. Not many escape traffic on a highway. Better safe than sorry....training is great, but safety fences are better living along a highway.

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