Help with training!

[Guest Anonymous]

my poor puppy! she doesnt understand that she cant go to the nieghbours house. she has already knoked down my neighbours grandchild, and now hes not too happy with me. my puppy iw a rotti-greman shepard mutt cross. she is about 5 months old. she has a good sit on her, and i am working on her sit-stay-come. the thing is, she doesnt allways listen to come when she goes to the neighbours for its twice as frusterating and embarrising for me. she goes to the neighbours because he has an older dog that she wants to play with, becuase she is my only dog. can anyone help?

[kendalyn]

You could keep her on a leash while outside until she is very good at coming when you call her. If your neighbors don't want her in their yard you really need to keep her out. If she'll run into your neighbors yard she could run into the road also.

She'll also learn her boundaries better if she is never allowed to run over there.

[Guest Mutts4Me]

I've heard a lot of negative opinions about boundary training, but that's what we did with both of my dogs. We do not have a fence, and my dad has never been willing to put one up. We don't believe in chaining dogs out, either, so boundary training it was.

It was easier with my lab, who we bought as a half grown puppy. Ours was his first yard. My mutts was another story, because she had spent the first year of her life as a stray in our neighborhood, so her first inclination was to roam.

What we did is keep them on a long training lead when they were outside. We'd walk them, and basically let them go wherever they wanted until they hit the property line, when we'd firmly say "No" and give a tug on the leash. This can take a long time and a lot of patience. But my dog can now be trusted to be let out on her own (though we keep an eye out through the window) to go potty. She can also be trusted not to chase rabbits and squirrels past the property line (a big feat for her). Our only problems arise when one or more of us go into a neighbor's ard, because then she wants to follow us. In those cases, she either has to be taken in, or someone has to stay in our yard with her.

Kendalyn is right. It is your responsibility to keep your dog restrained, and if you don't, your neighbor will be justified in calling Animal Control, especially if she's afraid the dog may cause damage. The dog should also be restrained so that it doesn't run into the road or after another animal.

[kendalyn]

Mutts4me, we kind of did that with Buck. I walked him around the boundary and told him no when he wanted to go past it. It works pretty well. He stays in our yard except to go say hi to the neighbor dog (which is ok with the neighbor) than he comes back to our yard. The neighbor dog is pretty old and won't play with Buck so he just comes back after a quick hello :-)

Dogs are so smart!

[gooeydog]

At 5 months old, you can't expect her to stay in the yard when there are so many wonderful things outside of it! She doesn't understand the concept of "her yard", and "their yard", but as mutts4me said, dogs can be taught fairly well to respect boundaries, if owners take the time to teach them. It's important for her safety though that you keep her on-leash until she understands several important commands, at the very least, a "stopper", either "sit!", "down!", "stand!", "stop!", etc; AND has a good recall (ie: "come", "here", whatever it is you use :wink: ). In most cases, the recall can be used to get a dog back to you if they're heading the wrong direction, or doing something they shouldn't be, BUT if that fails, your dog's life may very well depend on a backup. If your dog has been taught to stop whatever it is they're doing (no matter how great, how fun, or how interesting it is) when you give a particular command, then you have a way to stop a flight towards the road, or after a sickly looking animal, midchase even.

Most dogs aren't reliable off-leash until they're at least a year old, and require training to get there. Some dogs will NEVER be trustworthy off-leash. We have one dog who is reliable in most situations off-leash, but leashed in many situations just as a precaution. Another one is reliable in a lot of situations off-leash, but due to the seriousness of those which she's NOT reliable in (ie: other dogs around, she's very dog aggressive), is never allowed off-leash in anything less than a 6 ft fence, and even then only when supervised. Another is not trustworthy off-leash, she's usually ok for a while, but the first thing that interests her, and she's trying to run off. Two others are ok in low-moderate distraction settings, but not in settings with higher distraction. Freedom must be earned, it took about a year before I would walk the most trustworthy dog into the backyard off-leash, the others longer.

In your dog's case, hanging out with you in the yard isn't nearly as much fun as visiting neighbors. You can either make yourself "better", a la treats, toys, whatever; or make visiting less fun, a la corrections. Until you do that, and she's absolutely SURE that you're a better option than they are, you need to keep her on-leash, for her own safety (also, everytime she runs off and visits, it reinforces the fun of running off, making her more likely to do it again).

[imported_Kat]

Just to briefly say it is your responsibility to watch your pup and going back and forward freely to your neighbours is not smart. Your dog is only a pup but if she plays too rough and injures the kid you are liable.

[courtnek]

boundary training is very necessary and very viable with some dogs. You also need to work on her recall, with a 25 ft. lead and some treats. let her roam as far as the boundary line, then call her while backing up. If she doesnt come first call, give a tug on the line and keep calling till she comes to you. You can reinforce boundary training this way as well.
When she does come, treat her a make a big fuss out of her. The point is to make her think that coming to YOU is the best thing in the whole world!

HOWEVER....(there's always a down side) my Lab mix has been recall trained and still will not come back if something catches her fancy. Some of the hunting breeds are very unreliable about recall, they follow their noses. In that case, if she falls into this category, you can set up a runner.
It's basically a wire line attached to the house and maybe a fence, or a garage or shed. Something the dog cant wrap itself around. You attach a long 8 to 10 ft lead to the dog, and attach the lead to the wire. the dog can run up and down the wire and out to the length of the lead, and still stay
in your yard. Note - this is not an all day outside thing. Just for playing and pottying...it does not prohibit other animals from entering your yard
and bothering your dog, but it;s good if someone is watching and for short
play periods.