Question on training my dog to be off a leash?
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at
5:06 pm
what is the best method to teach him not to runaway and come to me when he is off leash
Tagged with: Leash • Question • Training
Filed under: Dog Leash Training
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Your success with this depends on the breed. Sight hounds and other working dogs will sometimes obey their instinct over you. It’s difficult to overcome that.
To teach a good “come”, put a long leash on the dog and stand about 20 feet apart from at least one other person. Make sure each person has treats. Have one person call the dog to come (excitedly, happily, invitingly!), while all others look away. Have that person reward the dog when he comes. Than have them look away while another person calls the dog, and rewards him when he comes. Make it a game. Don’t ever call the dog to come if you are not ready to enforce it. He must come every time. It must always be fun. Grab the long leash if you need it.
If a dog comes to you after misbehaving, do not punish him. He will only learn not to come to you!
The only way I have done this is to take the pup on a leash first to its’ boundary and uses whatever command it is you “yourself” chooses to use and when you get to the boundaries set then keep telling the pup whatever and eventually take her/him off the keash and continue to do the same thing over and over again until he/she understands. It does work————–I have always trained my dogs and I dont have any problems with them-ya just have to keep working with them daily several times a day.
if he’s a runner, take him to a place where he can’t go anywhere, like tennis court. completely fenced in. The dog will only respond to someone who is in control. So don’t chase him. make him follow you. Always show your top dog. To properly training a dog takes time and consistency. The idea to train a dog is to develop a pack mentality with the animal so it knows it’s place in the pack. once that is done in a consistent manor. only then will the dog respond in kind. otherwise the dog is going to be confused alot.
Sounds like you got a dog from the pound? normally pups arn’t runners.
once in the court or closed off area.
step one let him go – he will run – then you catch him. fun:)
step two leash him and walk the area. around and around. praise him if he keeps at your heel, hold him at strength if he pulls the leash.
step three let him go again and repeat and repeat
It will take an hour everyday for a week before you both get the hang it.
show dominance by holding him at strength and resting your chin on the back of his neck. HE WILL KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS SO PLEASE BE CAREFUL HE MAY WANT TO FIGHT YOU FOR DOMINANCE. So show him who is stronger and hold him tight. you don’t have to hurt him. just hold him so he can’t move.
The ‘best’ method is the one that you can get good results with. That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s THE best, only that its best for you because it produced a good result.
Although there is much debate over things like equipment choices, reward systems, use of punishment, etc., etc., the fact is that most (if not all) of the various training methods proven to produce a durable result work the very same way.
1: Show the dog what IT is you want;
2: Give IT a name;
3: Reward the dog when he gets IT right; and only after he’s demonstrated that he knows the command/performance sequence do you
4: Correct the dog to help him keep it right.
To understand why its hard to advise which method is best for you, we need only examine the options available for step number 1.
You could mark and treat to capture the behaviour, you could use lure and reward to solicit the behaviour or you could use mechanical placement to insure the behaviour (just to name a few). Ultimately, which is ‘best’ is the one which:
a: produces the desired effect, and
b: you are comfortable using.
I predict that you will get many answers to your question, and you need to know that each one has the potential to be both the exact correct and the exact wrong piece of advice.