My King Charles Cavalier bolts out an open door any chance she gets. She is 13 months old and one time was out the car at a gas station by a 4 lane highway and she barely missed getting hit, it was a little too tramatic for me to ever see again! My daughter thought I had hold of her when she got out, I didn't. Every now and then someone will come in the house not knowing where she's at and out she goes! She doesn't come when we call her and runs full speed and we have spent 20 to 30 minutes before getting her to come to us and she walks right to the door and goes in. She gets put out on a 30 ft line a few times a day and walked, we live on a farm so she gets long walks up in fields. In the house she comes when called, we live by a road that has semi trucks regularly and the speed limit is 40. That means the vehicles go 50 mph! I'm afraid she is going to get hit, and we don't know how to stop this behavior. We've tried tellling her bad girl, no and putting her in her crate as punishment, but then I read you shouldn't punish when they finally come to you but reward. Neither one has worked! Help me please!
Following the instructions on how to be the alpha in Secrets to Dog Training, will be a great help to you. Why? Because you will be teaching your little darling not to go through the door until you have -- you go first through every door, the inside doors and the outside doors.
How much obedience training has she had? You should practice several times every day.
You are correct in not punishing her if she comes to you. She will connect the punishment with the last thing she did come to you and will stop doing it.
Is she on a leash in the car? Considering her actions, she should be confined while in the car, either in a crate or fastened to the seatbelt (when fastened to a seatbelt, she should be wearing a harness that connects to the seatbelt, not her collar). She will not only be kept from leaving the car, but she will be a lot safer in case of an accident.
Thanks for the tips, i'm kind of computer illiterate and just had my daughter show me how to download the training. I thought the newsletters were my training tips and was becoming dissappointed in the training! So anyway, i've been around dogs my whole entire life, but never an indoor dog. Ekco is my first, and she's been an experience to say the least. I taught the things I taught all my out door dogs, sit, shake, laydown and roll over. My husband and 3 boys have always had a hunting dog or 2 and i've always had a german shepherd here on the farm for the last 28 years. House training has gone fairly good, we still have those incidents when she goes down stairs, which is not very often cause there is 3 of the kids bedrooms down there and she isn't supppose to go down there but when she does she pees in the hall every time, what's up with that? I will start restrain her in the car, she loves to go with us. The weather here has been under 20 degrees and as low as 17 below a few mornings so i'm not spending as much time outside with her as normal, but she has room in the house and runs quite a bit playing with 2 teenage boys and my 8 year old grandson that lives with us. I will have to figure out how to get her to let us go through doors first and see how that works. I will start reading my training downloads and get on that! Thanks for your tips, they got my daughter to find the downloads!!
I suppose, while your dog is learning her obedience, you could learn the computer? My work was in the computer field, before colleges ever had such a thing as a computer course!
Put a flat collar on your dog and attach a short piece of leather (I'd say string, but I imagine you have leather about the place). Have you taught her "sit" and "stay" or "wait"? If so, as you get to a door, tell her to sit. Then tell her to wait while you walk through the door. If she feels it is her right to go first, just grab that piece of leather and hold her back until you've gotten through the door. For the peeing: Have you made sure the smell is completely gone? You may not see it or smell it, but remember that her nose is far better than yours. If there is the slightest odor left, she will return to the spot. I think white vinegar is supposed to get rid of the smell, but it has been a long time since I did any housebreaking, so I could be wrong.
Good luck with dog and computer -- you may find the dog is easier to work! kjd
In addition to what kjd suggested, I would recommend you train your dog not to get out the car without your permission. It goes like this:
Have your dog on a leash and get her inside your car. Close the door. Open the door, grab the leash and tell her to "Wait". If she tries to get out of the car, push her back using your body, or block her with your hand.
If she waits, then tell her "You can get off now" and praise her and treat her. Repeat this many times even without driving to anyway. Just get her inside the car, close the door, open the door, make her wait, call her out, praise and treat. She will soon learn that she will need to wait for your permission to get out the car.
Everything is a routine for dogs. When you teach your dogs to "Sit" you treat and praise them at first but they will soon start sitting by themselves when you bring them their food bowls at the meal time, don't they? You don't even need to tell them to "Sit" any longer. Same thing with this one.
I am attaching a picture of my 3 dogs and even my foster dog (with a red leash) waiting without jumping out the car.[ATTACH]72[/ATTACH]
