Boundaries, Roads & Swings

Hello Dog Owners!

First off, I would like to congratulate all of the students and their wonderful dogs that recently graduated from the DOT Academy Level 1 Outdoor Obedience Class.

What a fabulous class it has been over the winter months, with challenging weather that wasn’t able to dampen our spirits or put a downer on the lessons over the past few of months.

Finishing the class on a high with a range of competitive games, was extremely great fun and will have hopefully helped all of the participants see how far they really have come in such a few short weeks.

It was brilliant fun!

With January out of the way now and the final class of 2023 just finished, it’s now time to start looking at planning the rest of the year and 2024 is starting to look very good indeed.

What a year it’s going to be!

The start of this year is going to be Fast, Furious and Fun!

I just hope it stops raining!

Anyway, let’s get on with it!

ROAD SENSE: TEACHING BOUNDARIES AND CURBS

I’ve been having a bit of a struggle recently about what to do.

I know that they mean well and they’re only trying to help, but why don’t some drivers realise that I really don’t want to train my dog to step in front of cars, unless it’s at a dedicated crossing and the traffic has completely stopped?

Since my little lad was a small weeny puppy, I have been making sure that we only cross roads either at a dedicated pedestrian crossing, or where the footpath has the “knobbly” bits you can feel on your feet as you walk over them.

If not at a pedestrian crossing, we sit and wait until all the traffic has gone, so that he doesn’t link stepping in front of a car as a good thing to do.

But drivers will keep stopping and beaconing us to cross the road in front of them!

I know they’re being kind, but it can be awkward, as I wave them past or ignore them until they start moving again.

Truth be told though, sometimes it can be quite handy for somebody to stop and let us cross on a really busy street.

So what can I do?

Well, I have decided that a better course of action would be to teach boundaries, especially when it comes to curbs. The only way that my little lad will be allowed to step off the pavement, is with my permission.

And that solves my problem completely,

No longer will it matter if we are at a pedestrian crossing with lights, a zebra crossing or an ordinary nondescript pavement. He won’t be allowed to step off the curb until I give him the all clear.

This takes the focus from walking in front of cars and firmly on to the road BOUNDARY.

So, how do we teach this unique little skill?

Well, quite simply by using positive and positive punishment, more commonly put as treats and corrections.

There are a few stages that we shall be detailing over the next couple of newsletters, but for now let’s cover STAGE 1.

Stage 1 – Conditioning Pavement & Road Behaviours

Basically, we want to teach our dog that they are allowed to walk on the pavement without issue, but they are not allowed to leave the curb and walk into the road.

Using a suitable tool for reinforcement, such as a slip-leash or Martingale (half-check) collar for increased levels of communication, drop a treat or two on the the pavement.

Praise your dog for picking up the treats.

After you have done this a few times, throw a treat on to the road and as your dog goes to chase and get the treat, correct using your punishment marker and leash pressure, to let the dog know that they are not allowed to go into the road to get the treat.

Praise them when they move toward you and give them a treat from your hand.

Continue this procedure along different parts of the road and pavement, so that the dog learns that the same rule applies in different places and along different roads.

Occasionally prompt your dog using “OK” or “Cross” or another suitable command and walk across the road to the other side.

Repeat this procedure for a few days or until your dog gets the message and learns that it can only cross the road when you say.

We will look at how we can extend this behaviour and “proof it” in the next edition of DOT News.

I shall be starting to do this little procedure over the coming few weeks, so follow along and we can compare notes!

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HAD A BREAK? GETTING BACK IN THE SWING

What if you haven’t done any training with your dog recently?

Perhaps you made a good effort starting training, then you lapsed and haven’t done any for the past few weeks, or maybe you haven’t been too well or something else outside of your control has prevented you from spending that much needed training time with your young puppy, adolescent hound or older canine.

So what do you do?

Well, that all depends on how far you’ve got in training.

If you have a little puppy and you stopped training them only a short while after you started, then best just forget everything you’ve done and start once again right from the beginning. After all, that little ball of fluff has probably forgotten all of it anyway.

If you’ve been training for a while and just had some sort of gap in your training, for whatever reason, there’s nothing better than taking things back to basics and building back up from there.

That way, you can fill in any little gaps that aren’t going quite right!

Revisiting the basics such as Sit, Stay, Heel, Down, Stand, Come, Place and spending time working with Down/Stays, Turns, Speed Changes and Emergency Stops, can go a long way to sharpen up those rounded edges and blow the cobwebs from the old habits that you have both gotten into.

Concentrate on exactness, precision, engagement and timing to sharpen things up.

I would very much doubt an older dog forgetting things they have been taught completely. But maybe they have got a tad rusty, have developed a few annoying habits that have bled through into their behaviour in the absence of training, that you would rather not be there?

My advice would be go back to basics, tidy things up, make things better than they ever were and build up from there.

Maybe even take on a new challenge that will give you a different perspective or inject a little excitement into your training, such as joining a Rally Obedience class (something we’ll be starting in a couple of months!) or maybe doing agility or scent work to spice things up a bit.

Remember to train little and often when getting back into things, so that you give both you and your dog a little time to condition yourselves for longer training sessions going forward.

Well that’s it for this month – short and sweet.

Stay tuned for notifications of new classes coming your way too!

Until next time…

Happy Training!

Carp Diem

– Stuart