I'm now training my 3rd dog for running off leash. This one is an Aussie Cattle Dog. We live in the suburbs with a fair # of busy streets that we have to cross. We often pass other people walking dogs, cars often drive by, and runners often run by. Rules:
-Not allowed to cross certain streets w/o me. These are the busy streets. If she gets to the street before me, she must sit before entering the street. I will give her an explicit command when we will cross the street.
-Not allowed to socialize with other dogs while we are running.
-Can't go near other people that we might encounter.
-Usually we run in the street, but if I move over to the sidewalk, she must move to the sidewalk to. This is how we avoid cars.
-Can't get further than 30m from me.
It takes a couple months either running or walking every other day to get to the point that the dog is pretty much error free. The last thing that gets fixed is always the distractions. The dog wants to go play with people running around or dogs that are being walked. I do the training with treats. Sometimes I have to put a shock collar on also. The collar responds to a little handheld xmitter.
A lot of people seem to have problems understanding how to train dogs. It's really easy. Every time they do something right, reward. Every time they do something wrong, punish. Often the punishment can be as minor as a very close range "glare" right in their eyes. The important thing is that know that what they did is unacceptable.
Never ever let the dog get away with failing to obey. Have the discipline to resolve this every single time it occurs, w/o fail.nOne way or another, you have to regain control. Usually that just means walking up to the dog and glaring at her. Then say "sit", and she'll prob do it because she knows you're annoyed. If she doesn't do it, shove her ass down on the ground. Then tell her to Stay, walk 10m away, and tell her to Come. This assumes that these are all tried and true commands. If those are not tried and true, she's not ready to be off leash. Now that she is obeying commands again, you've regained control of the situation.
The beauty of the shock collar is that you can apply punishment even tho she is out of arms reach. So if she crosses the street to go play with children and ignored your command "Come", zap her. The shock collar provides a clear link between what she did wrong and punishment. That clarity does the dog a huge service. Another example. Dog gets well out of your designated "range". For me, that's 30m. Instead of calling her, zap her. What you can't do is let her get out of range, tell her to Come, and then chastise her when she gets to you. The reason this doesn't work is that you told her to Come, she did what you asked, then you punished her. If you create situations like that by not carefully thinking thru what you're doing, you'll create chaos and the dog will have no idea what it is that you want.
Some folks wring their hands over the idea of putting a shock collar on their dog. Used correctly, it's a fabulous training aid. It very much helps you avoid confusing, ambiguous situations for your dog, where it's not clear to the dog what they are being punished or praised for. You can set the severity of the shock so it's easy to set it to a level that seems to get the dog's attention w/o really bothering it much. You'll probably find that you have to set it to a much higher threshold than you thought.
After a couple months of training, the treats will go away, and I only need the shock collar maybe once every 6 months. The dog will start pushing the envelope on how far she can wander away during a run and a zap reminds her. One zap and she's good for another 6 months.
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