What Your Dog WantsDogs who roam may be seeking something. If your dog is not neutered or spayed, he or she may be looking for a mate, and roaming is a great way to hook up with another dog. Sexual hormones are strong motivators and prompt dogs to find just about any way possible to get out of confinement, with the goal of breeding. Males run around the neighborhood searching for the scent of a female dog in heat, while females in heat roam to put themselves out there, where a meandering male may find them. Unaltered dogs usually lose the urge to roam once they are spayed or neutered. A few months after dogs have this surgery, their sexual hormones typically subside and they often become homebodies, content to hang around the house and stay close to their human companions. Bored dogs may wander around the neighborhood looking for something to do or in the hope of finding a little companionship. Other dogs may roam because they are anxious about being left alone. It’s important to put a stop to your dog’s wanderings. Roaming is one of the most dangerous behaviors a dog can exhibit. Dogs who roam are more likely to get hit by cars or to be injured in a dogfight. Fortunately, there’s a simple solution: Spaying and neutering are safe surgeries that not only reduce a dog’s desire to roam but can also decrease the likelihood of the dog developing certain types of cancers.
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To prevent escapes, youll need to find out how your dog is getting out of the yard, and more importantly, why they are so determined to get out.
Does your dogs ability to escape from the backyard have you convinced that they are nothing less than a hairy Houdini?
Repeat attempts to keep your pet confined to the yard may be frustrating, but every escape opens up the possibility of tragic consequences. If your dog is running loose, they are in danger of being hit by a car, injured in a fight with another dog, or hurt in any number of other ways.
Some dogs jump fences, but most actually climb them, using some part of the fence to push off from. A dog may also dig under the fence, chew through the fence, learn to open a gate or use any combination of these methods to get out of the yard. Knowing how your dog gets out will help you to modify your yard. But until you know why your dog wants to escape, and you can decrease their motivation for doing so, the recommendations below wont be nearly as effective.
For climbing/jumping dogs: Add an extension to your fence. Its not so important that the extension make the fence much higher, as long as it tilts inward at about a 45-degree angle. Be certain there are no structures placed near the fence, such as a table or chair or dog house, that your dog could use as a springboard to jump over the fence.
If you do decide to implement your own training regimen, make sure you do your homework. If you’re not experienced, you can confuse your dog and create an even bigger problem than you had before. So, before taking the plunge into home training, pick up a comprehensive book, or talk to a friend or veterinarian and make sure you’re on the right track.
When a dog runs away, usually the owner will go through a variety of emotions. Some will be wrought with sadness, others will be furious, but most will be more panic-stricken and confused than anything else.
This guest post is authored by Adam Holmes, a writer for wireless fence provider, Havahart Wireless and a lifelong lover of dogs.
It’s important to note that dogs run away for a lot of reasons. However, two of the most common are either she’s running away from something that’s scaring her, or she’s running toward something she wants. Once you’ve figured out her motive, you can assess your surroundings and formulate a plan that will prevent her from roaming about town.
Clicker training is an effective and humane way to train your dog. By using positive reinforcement, in conjunction with the audible stimuli of a clicker, you can reward your dog with treats upon the completion of a specific task.
How to Keep Your Dog From Roaming
Time for our young Cooper to learn the fundamentals of steadiness and stillness, patience and quietness. Place is a concept we teach early at Wildrose. This is where we teach a dog to tie out* quietly and stay calmly in a specific spot. These skills are the foundation for a dog that’s civil at home, on the trail, or in the field. Pups as young as three months can grasp the concept of place.
Place teaches dogs to remain still in a particular defined location—a dog box, a roll-up mat, or a platform. Grayson Schaffer never fully understood this with his dog Danger. He wanted to know when there was a time for the dog to be aimlessly roaming the house. Short answer: never. Place training is how we get the dog to want to stop roaming. Once the place habit is entrenched, pups will enjoy the comfort and security of a place just for them, the same way they fondly regard their crate. When the pup is in place, they may move about freely, sitting, lying about in any position as long as he doesn’t leave that mat.
Other reasons we take place training so seriously: 1. It reduces potential territorial dominance problems. 2. It makes travel convenient. 3. Our dogs remain relaxed and quiet at fireside on the mat in camp. 4. In a kayak, canoe, or raft, the dog must remain calm for his safety and yours. 5. When hunting, our dogs must remain still and quiet, either in a blind or on a dog stand.
HOW WE TEACH PLACE 1. Get a mat—a dog bed, a dog mat, a piece of carpet, or a crate pad, something comfortable. We’ve been using these rolling mats from Mud River, lately.
2. Introduce the mat. Have the puppy walk over the mat or bed. When your pup is on his mat, give the sit command and then a release command like “out” or “off.” Repeat this until he’s readily going onto the mat and sitting calmly and then releasing on cue. Now add the command “load” or “place” for the linked behavior of going onto the mat and sitting. Encourage the pup to hop onto the “place” with a treat.
3. Place the pup on the mat beside your chair. Now sit down by the student, lead in hand. Without a word, ignore the pup and begin to watch TV or read. If the pup is quiet a calm “good dog” is in order. Just don’t overexcite the pup and lose the tempo and control of the moment.
4. If your pup decides to exit the mat, redirect the youngster back to the mat with the lead and your “place” command. As the pup begins to stay longer without fussing, reward him with a little treat. Treat him for breaking his own personal best record, but don’t get in the habit of paying him to stay. Some dogs will continue to work for the treat. Others will get frustrated or think the drill has ended. The idea here is to build a habit that’s independent of reward. The dog stays because it’s all he knows how to do. Soon, our student will relax, lie down, and go to sleep. The process of place training has begun.
5. As we progress, we teach our youngster to stay on the mat as we move away. In time, it will become easy to move completely out of sight without attention barking. Deke, the Ducks Unlimited mascot, was totally place trained at home by the time he was six months old. I can get up and move about the house, but he’s going to stay put unless I ask him to move.
Raising a puppy isn’t easy. A young dog will want to play and run and nip. Keeping yourself from giving into those behaviors isn’t easy. Everybody loves to play with a cute puppy. But if you can keep your dog calm and build focus early on, that temperament will last a lifetime.
*A word on tying out your dog: Tying out your dog can be very dangerous, so exercise the utmost caution when you do it. Don’t tie out your dog on a deck, where he can fall off and hang himself. Never tie out a young pup when other dogs are loose nearby unless you want your pup to become a canine tetherball. Never go beyond earshot when your dog is tied. Tying out quietly is an important skill for dogs, whether you’re leaving them outside a coffee shop, tying them away from the food in camp, or travelling cross-country with an eight-dog trailer the way we do. Tying is not a subsititute for a secure kennel or fenced yard. Tying your dog out as a regular means of confinement is inhumane.
This article originally appeared on Outside K9, the former dog blog of Outside magazine, on June 9, 2009.