Door Dashing

[2SpoiledAussies]

Personally, I'd teach her to stay like everyone else said. But I'd also teach her to turn around once she gos in or out any boundary, meaning door, gate, etc. I've done this with my dogs and it works well. You just start off with her on-leash and walk out a door (If I were you I'd train this somewhere she doesn't have the problem of running off). Stop before you reach the boundary. Most likely, she'll keep going and ignore you. Eventually she will turn around (even just the slightest bit) and you just click her for it. Eventually she'll get to where she turns around to look at you when you go though the boundary, even if she was ahead of you. I wouldn't rely on it, but it would be great for backup.

 

[DevonW]

For door dashing whether it's the house or car. I taught them not to dash the same way you play crate games, just on a little larger scale. In order for the door to open they have to be sitting and they stay sitting until a release word is given for them to go out the door.

So I started rewarding them for being in a sit in front of the door. I would then open the door and if they moved forward I would shut the door again until they went back into a sit then reward the sit. I would repeat until I could have the door open all the way without them budging and then give a release word to "break them out" I gradually would increase the distance of where I am in proportion to the door and then add in distractions. So eventually the door could be open with no one around but the dogs won't go outside until they've heard their release word.

 

[vangorm]

Threenorns: It used to be a few times a week. In the winter we limited her upstairs time to when I was there so that it wouldn't happen as often.
Good idea about the treat specifically for the recall.

2SpoiledAussies: That's a great idea. Backup plans are always a good thing to have. I should specifically associate it with the boundary?

DevonW: For your dogs, does your hand on the door knob become a cue for a sit-stay? That sounds amazing, haha.

 

[DevonW]

DevonW: For your dogs, does your hand on the door knob become a cue for a sit-stay? That sounds amazing, haha.

It does yes

 

[vangorm]

Ooh, that's great! I'll make that the next project during our big training session of the week.
I also figured with the invisible boundaries thing that I could actually use the idea to keep her inside. If you were to come into my house, you'd walk on granite-type flooring then carpet. So it's a clear divider. I think this may work even better than the doormat since it will keep her in. I'm super excited you guys!

 

[vangorm]

Just a little update.

Annie is getting out more often now(around once a week--my family just told me they didn't tell me every time she gets out). Yesterday Annie got out while I was home(door was left open) and she shot out.. not right away, but after a few minutes I guess. She saw my mom and shot down the street, narrowly missing getting hit by a car. Once there were no cars, my mom called her and Annie came running to her! It was great... then she got into arms reach and Annie did her play stance and ran away again. :C At least she came, sort of though! That's a -huge- improvement! My mom called her again and Annie came back, tried to do the same thing again, but my mom managed to catch her. I gave Annie a bunch of treats and lots of praise(despite my family's displeasure) for coming/being caught. I'm trying to retrain the association with being caught. Usually my family takes her inside and crates her. I keep telling them not to, but.. yeah. Or at least if they do, give her praise for coming and give her treats first. So right now I'm crating Annie when I'm not home so I can do it how I want/need it done.

 

[vangorm]

If anyone still looks at this, how would you guys recommend venturing away from reliance on the leash? Today my dad put Annie outside. She had a short leash(4') on and then he was trying to put on the long lead, but I guess he put it on the wrong hook/didn't snap it down correctly since it fell off right away(we didn't know it did). We closed the door so and I kept hearing her barking, but she does that if she sees a cat or something outside(our dogs freak out if they see cats outside--they think they're ours and try to herd them back home xD), but I wasn't worried since I thought she was on her long lead. After a few minutes, I opened the door and called her in and she ran up to me with just the short leash on. That wouldn't have kept her in the yard--it wasn't hooked to anything but her collar!She just stayed in the area that her long lead allows. So strange! Bella gets let outside with no leash and no supervision all the time, but I know I'll never trust Annie that way unless we have a fence--and even then, only for very short periods of time. But still, I guess getting her to realize that the leash isn't the only time she needs to stay in the yard is important with the dashing.. Or is this all irrelevant?

 

[Mutt]

Mazzel and Boef also tent todo this (when I drop their leashes or anything). This is because they are very much aware that the leash won't go on forever. So a leash means that the area you have is limited. As soon as the leash gets of, they know they have their "freedom" back. I don't know if you already explained, but why don't you get a fence? Mazzel can be a true houdine when he wants to, but he will stay in our yard as it is fenced properly.

 

[vangorm]

We're hoping to get a fence soon, but it will only be for the backyard. That will be nice for training and recall practice close to home(rather than driving 30 miles to the dog park), but laws prevent us from covering our front yard since we live on a corner lot and it would limit visibility for drivers. We've thought about getting a baby gate with a door type thing on it for our patio/doorsteps but she can jump those and I worry about injury if she figured that out, so we'll see.

 

[Dogster]

Shivon has almost the same issues. At Dogcrazy's house, she ran out the door twice.

Thanks for all the advice and tips!! I was working on invisible boundaries a while back, but for some reason I stopped.

 

[vangorm]

Well I'm glad this thread has helped you too! It's helped me -loads-. I wish people lived closer to where I am so we could do some training together. xD But I live in the middle of nowhere. D:

 

[Dogster]

I wish people lived closer to where I am so we could do some training together. xD But I live in the middle of nowhere. D:

Same here!!!
We need a DTA reunion.

 

[vangorm]

That sounds amazing!

So I think, in addition to everything else, that I've thought of another way to work with Annie. It was nice weather out today(yay no more -16!) so I took the goofballs on a walk. Annie was pulling pretty bad. Guess it tells you how long it's been too cold outside to walk, haha! Anyway, we took a walk for maybe 2-3 miles(stopped when Bella was getting tired), and by the end of it, I stopped at a field to let them go and let loose of some of the last of their energy. I had some treats left over so I had Annie do some recall and since Bella's is already perfected, I let her do some of her favorite tricks. Annie's recall was great even though we hadn't played in that field before and there was trash everywhere! Super proud mama moment. Anyway, after that, Annie seemed to do much better with the pulling("annie, walk nice" would bring her back to the position I wanted her in), so I dropped the leashes. Bella I could walk with her not even on a leash and feel 100% confident that everything would be fine, but it's good for Annie to have a model. So the whole walk back was amazing(maybe 10 minutes). Annie didn't go any further than what I wanted her too and if she went further I'd step on her leash, have her sit, and walk to where I wanted her to be in relation to me and she did great. She even ignored some kids that were playing on the sidewalk next to her!

So I think if I can take her on a walk and practice recall in even more unfamiliar(and familiar) places, it'll be good for her. At one point during the walk, someone's pom came running over and even though Annie was trying to run over to it to say hi, she listened when I told her to leave it. What a great day!