Our dog has become outrageous on leash and off: on
leash, he has taken sandwiches out of peoples hands and has learnt that
ripping plastic bags means food falls out, such as chicken cacciatore. We
have resorted to putting on a muzzle when walking the streets.
Off-leash is just as bad: People leave sandwiches and stuff on the bench at
the off-leash park. He’s even grabbed grocery bags with raw steak. This has
not helped his behavior problems because by the time I get to him, he has
eaten his reward. Now, he is even grabbing what people are carrying and
won’t let go, even dragging one person to her feet and scaring her.
While we do the obvious things that training books say to maintain dominance
such as make sure we enter a doorway first, he must work for treats, has to
wait for permission to eat, we have also taken him to two obedience courses,
my daughter does agility with him informally in the back yard. None of this
has worked: He seems to think he was the right to take the food off a total
stranger. His recall is inconsistent when he is distracted or is very
playful and wants to be chased. He was the "pick of the litter" and was
considered to be the alpha, so I don't know whether this is part of the
problem. He has not been aggressive with other dogs and is very social with
people.
At Our Wit’s End
Dear Wit’s End,
Training a dog doesn't stop with courses or with good manners around the house.
You have to train your dog for every situation you want him to be in. And in
this case, you need to train and reinforce two very important commands: "Come!"
and "Leave
It!" These are two commands that I teach all of our dogs as early
in their lives as possible; and these are also commands that can be taught at
any time in their lives.
You can teach "Leave It!" with just about
anything. The first dog I trained to leave it was in a class with other dogs,
and we used paper plates on the floor, each plate containing an attractive
treat. The object was to walk with our dogs on leash from one end of the
training facility to the other, passing the plates, and as you approached and
the dog was eyeing it, you said "Leave It!" and kept walking past. This was
repeated several times, each time getting closer to the plates. By the time the
dog finished doing this exercise, even with giving no treats or rewards other
than "good girl" or "good boy" or "good!" walking back past the items was a
breeze: All you had to do was say "leave it!" and the dog ignored the "it" item
as you kept walking.
Sometimes, "leave it!" has to be followed by a pop
on the collar, and you should be using a collar that will send the signal to
your dog that you want him to do something and you want it done NOW. You don’t
hurt the dog, you simply remind the dog by the touch or pressure or sound that
light pressure on the leash makes. You are telling the dog through that touch
that you want him to pay attention and do something.
I consider the
"leave it!" command as important as come! Both commands can save your dog's
life; both can spare you a lot of problems and issues. With dog laws becoming
tougher and tougher, the incidents you describe could get you and your dog in a
lot of trouble. And the problem is that you have not trained your dog to be out
and about with
you in public. I can use "Leave it!" to stop a dog from
jumping on someone, snatching something that could be dangerous, grabbing
something I dropped on the floor, something on the floor that could harm the
dog, counter surfing, and I am sure that you could use it in the situations that
you describe.
Until your dog has a reliable "leave it!" and "come!", I
would not let him off lead in dog parks or anywhere else given his predilection
for snatching stuff from people or stuff left laying around. And I wouldn't use
anything longer than a six-foot lead, a lead that you can gather up to keep him
on a very short lead. Whatever you do, do not use a retractable-lead to train or
exercise your dog.
If I am in a large field with no other dogs around, I
will work with a long lead (I use a 20 foot lead if I am training in an open
area), and at home I don't use any lead: I just say "come!" enthusiastically,
and I make coming to me the most wonderful thing the dog can do. Nothing is more
attractive to my dog when I say come than coming to me and sitting right in
front of me looking at my face. "You called? Here I am. What can I do for you?
Or do you just want me to sit here in front of you? Up to you."
Recently, one of my dogs went out a door that had
accidentally been left open. All the gates to our yard were open because we had
contractors fixing a bunch of stuff on our house. I saw the dog go out the door,
walked quickly out the same door, called her name, and said firmly and
enthusiastically, "Come!" She looked at the open gates, looked at me, and came
running to me and sat down in front of me. I praised her as I took her collar in
my hand and we walked easily back into the house.
You want your dog to
come when you call no matter what he is doing, and no matter where you are. When
you say come, you can stop incidents like you describe with one enthusiastic
word, one that has been trained in as a fun game with lots of rewards that make
coming to you the most exciting thing in his life. I can call the same dog that
got out off of squirrels and birds or anything else that catches her interest
because she knows "come!" means praise from my happy fun voice.
"Leave
it!" is a firm voice, loud in the beginning, softer when the dog gets it. I can
say "leave it!" so softly that others around me do not hear it, but my dog will
leave it.
You cannot shame your dog in the incidents you describe because
your dog is doing what an untrained, uncontrolled dog will do. So happy but firm
voice, and teach come and leave it. I think you will see a difference. Until
your dog is trained, don't put him where he can get in trouble. That means don't
take him to the dog parks or out on long walks with a long lead until he knows
what you expect him to do. You have to work up to these places slowly, one step
at a time. You cannot expect him to do something he doesn't know he is supposed
to do. You have to show him, and you have to take the time to do this right.
Keep in mind that it took you 18 or 20 years for you to master being on your
own in the world, and you had lots of educators, parents, and trainers telling
you what you could and could not do. You cannot expect your dog to do it in a
few months or even a year if you are not giving him continuous good training.
Good luck,
Jubilee