# training to keep dogs safe from traffic



## VictoriaW (Mar 16, 2011)

We have had a dog tragedy in our town. Lucy, a much beloved 2yo Australian Labradoodle, escaped her yard this morning, ran into the road, and was hit by a car. She died a few hours later. The accident happened in front of an elementary school bus stop and was witnessed by the family's 9yo son (a classmate of my oldest child). 

I am just so, so, so devastated for them. :'( :'( :'(

I wish I could feel confident that this could never happen to Gracie...but with a house full of kids constantly opening and closing doors and gates I need to do more to keep her safe. With summer nearly here and everyone home all day, this needs to be a priority.

Gracie's recall out in the field or out in the woods is quite good...but if she escapes the yard it is a different story altogether. The neighboring yards are exciting and unexplored! If she comes to me she knows that she will have to go back into her own boring yard. So the few times that she has gotten loose off-leash outside the house have been full of drama.

I'm curious to know what everyone thinks are the most important skills to build to keep your dog safe. Some that come to mind are...iron clad recall, waiting at an open door, waiting at an open fence gate, & emergency distance sit. 

Thoughts on building recall near roads would be most welcome. 

I just cannot bear the thought of anything happening to Gracie. We love her so ridiculously much -- she is a member of our family and we want to do everything possible to make sure that we are kissing her beautiful white face on her 15th birthday! 

There is a saying that becoming a mother is like having your heart go walking around outside your body. Well, I think that is also true when we become mothers of dogs...

Kiss your sweet puppies & keep them safe--

Victoria


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## threefsh (Apr 25, 2011)

I'm so sorry to hear of Lucy's passing. 

We used the Ian Dunbar method of boundary training for our front door. Riley will *never* just take off out the front door because we have made her wait there until she was released ever since she was a puppy. She is so good now that we can leave the front door wide open and she won't go outside. 

We also have her trained not to jump out of the car until we give the command "off". This has been a very important, especially when we are in busy areas.

Here is a link to a video of Ian Dunbar doing his boundary training:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCuY9uX7ods

We practice recall training at a park by our house surrounded by busy streets (plus a tall fence) and distractions. Riley is getting rusty on her recall (mostly due to being in heat - the hormones have taken over her brain!) Here is a video of our recall training a few months ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L4gwSUTX8o&feature=g-upl


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## hotmischief (Mar 11, 2012)

What a dreadfully accident. I hope their poor son is not too traumatised. I can't think of a worse way to loose a pet.

On the fencing issue - I have a friend who has a large estate (where I keep my horses) and her Bernese kept wandering off and got hit by a car. Fortunately he survived to live another 8 years. To avoid this happening again, she had fencing wire buried around the many miles of the estate and Santa (Bernese) wears an e-collar and when he goes near the fence he gets a shock. My brother who lives in PV in LA also uses this method on his retriever as they have an open plan front yard.

Whilst I am not a great advocate of the e-collar, I think it is a way that could save your dogs life.

Have a look at this link for ideas

http://www.petfenceusa.com/infer21codog.html


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## SteelCityDozer (Aug 25, 2011)

I would also recommend shock collar. You don't need to bury a line though. You can train by manually shocking everytime they reach the boundary. Still put up flags for training if you wish. Eventually you train they can only hit the street WITH YOU.

I know shock collars carry varying opinions but the fact is it could save your dogs life. Plus, we tested ours on ourselves first and it's the same as muscle stim which is used as therapy on humans.


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## Jimbo15471 (Mar 27, 2012)

I am facing the same issues right now. I have a 7 month old and he has been trained since he was a puppy to stay in the open yard. We have done clicker training since he was a puppy. He is absolutely perfect at recall and commands when we are training. We are in a residential neighborhood at the end of culdasac. The house backs to around 40 acres of parks and such so we go on/off leash walks everyday and he never goes too far and always comes back when called. Lately, he has been in the front yard like normal and has just decided he wants to run toward the front of the subdivision where all the rest of the houses are and traffic is. He won't listen and runs away when you get close to him. So I have been contemplating ECollar training him for instances like this. 

I am open to other ideas but I know he knows the commands but is choosing selectively to ignore them. He gets plenty of exercise everyday, as I would guess anywhere from 4-8 miles and he is completely unfazed. Thanks,


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Even when they are trained, they go through certain phases in life ( much like kids) and test their limits with you.


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## hotmischief (Mar 11, 2012)

Jimbo - sound like hormones  

On a more serious note, although I am not a great advocte of Ecollars - I have one. I had a Dane that was really well trained 99% of the time. Dogs are not robots and as well trained as you might like to think they are there is no such thing as 100%. This Dane was the friendliest dog - he loved people and other dogs and always wanted to greet them. We were out walking one day in the forrest and he saw two labs with their owners bye a road. Off he went, probably 1/2mile away paying no heed my recall command.

To cut a long story short I had to find a way of reinforcing the recall command to insure he was safe off leash. So I used an e-collar to retrain him to the command.

Fortunately, I have never had to use it on his Uncle Fergus as he never goes very far from me.

One question though - if you were to reinforce the training with an e-collar, I just have to wonder whether it would reinforce it enough to stop your dog leaving your open yard if he saw a cat out there or smelt a bitch in season???


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## kristen (Oct 18, 2011)

We did front door training with Odin, which so far has worked. He got out the front door once and sat on the edge of our porch. 

His recall is pretty good. However we were at High Park using their off leash trail system two weeks after Odin was neutered. He was walking great with us, and then all of a sudden he did a 180, and ran full tilt in the opposite direction, then took a fork in the path that we hadn't even been on. We had no idea where he went and he would not respond to his recall. We backtracked probably 1km down the trail to find him trying to mate with a seemingly undisturbed black lab. The lab's owner was clearly distraught. We got there, got Odin off of the dog and leashed, then asked the labs owner if she was fixed. He said no. (guessing it was at the beginning or the end of her cycle and the owner didn't realize it, otherwise I cannot possibly understand why you would take a dog in heat to a very busy off leash trail.) They had just entered the trail system when Odin found her. Odin had been neutered, but he still had enough testosterone in him to know what he was supposed to do. It was crazy to see his hormones take control of him.
Hubby was upset at Odin's lack of response to his recall, but I don't blame him, whats a guy to do when his hormones are calling the shots... 

However I don't trust him not to give chase to something he really really wants. Will definitely consider an e-collar. Hopefully I will never have to use it, but I sure will be glad I have it just in case. Guess its kind of like an insurance policy?


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## Jimbo15471 (Mar 27, 2012)

Yeah it must be hormones as he was neutered at 24 weeks due to going to daycare a few times a week. He does run across the street to a female yellow lab who is around 8 months and not fixed.


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