# Running into Street



## luv2laugh (Oct 6, 2011)

Ok, so I hate to say it. In fact, I am extremely embarrassed to say it, but Oso has a major issue.

Somehow, I managed to forget about it until Sunday night. Oso thinks running in the street in neighborhoods is just the best thing in the world. We live in an apartment opening up to a courtyard, so this is very rarely an issue. He knows not to leave our house until we say "ok" and even when on a 20 ft lead doesn't go darting out of the house after we say "ok," he goes more slowly and calmly. He also is used to walking next to the street on the sidewalk. What he's not used to is driveways and doors that open to driveways and then the road. 

Oso's recall on hikes is really good and this all started when my husband let him out of the car at my dad's house when Oso was around 6 months old. We thought he would just run into the house, but instead he went running across the very suburban and empty street as happy as could be. He completely ignored recall (I guess he knew we weren't going anywhere) and ran into a neighbor's house who had his front door open. He then darted around the neighbors yard and house and met the neighbor's nice dog - nightmare, right? Well, now that I look back at it, he's done this at either my mom or dad's house two other times, one time he jumped into someone's car, jumped out and then ran into another person's house (oh my!! I wasn't there for this one) and the other, he crossed the street and found a neighbor's dog and played with them, until we got him and brought him home (all _very_ exciting and rewarding experiences).

Somehow, I forgot about all this as it hasn't happened in a long long time. On Sunday, at my mom's house, at 18 months now, he ran out of a door as it was closing and into the street. My husband and I panicked. We later thought that we could have told him to sit and then "no" and then sit, as that is the command he is most consistent on at a distance, since we saw good old recall wasn't doing it. He followed my husband when he ran into the front yard at a sprint and called his name (but, just one badly timed run in the street could kill him). 

It scared me to death and I realize that if a car _had_ been coming it could have been his demise. 

I have a lot of ideas for recall, but am not quite sure how to teach this skill and need some ideas. We have a 20 ft lead, but don't have access to either parent's house as they live at quite a distance. We could easily drive into many suburban neighborhoods. Ideas?? Has anyone had to train for this before? 

I realize that just doing a lot of training when at my parents' houses and practicing rules about only exiting when we say, "ok," being consistent could do the trick, but I just want him to know to never ever to cross the street before we give permission.


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## MilesMom (Jun 21, 2012)

We definitely have this problem too. Miles thinks our neighborhood is a massive park. He runs to all his friends' houses, thankfully our neighborhood is 15mph but still makes me nervous hence the e collar training we are doing right now.


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## datacan (May 15, 2011)

**** tried to add to my original response and erased rhe whole response, instead ;D

But judging by how people on the forum feel about prongs (ecollar is difficult with this one) maybe it is on par with FF. 

So, I'll just say this much, dogs can be conditioned to stay on the sidewalk and never to step into the street even when chasing a ball.


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

L2L, you cannot be too careful. When Oso is in a neighborhood where this is a possibility, you can always snap a leash onto him before opening the door.

One of my neighbors had an "incident" a couple of months ago. Her daughter and son-in-law were visiting with their dog. When it was time to go home, they just opened the door, because Smooch always goes straight to the car... Right? Wrong.

I live in a small neighborhood with all dead end streets, so nobody drives very fast, but that doesn't matter. A dog is never a match against a car. Smooch was hit by a car, but she survived. However, surgery was required, healing and rehab were long and difficult, and the cost was in the thousands. 

It's lovely to have a great, well trained dog, BUT there is no shame in snapping a leash on to protect a life. 

Please read: "TRUST -- A Deadly Disease"

http://www.siberescue.com/Common/Leash/leashTRUST.html


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## Ozkar (Jul 4, 2011)

Have you trained him to stop at kerbs? I did this with all three of mine from the get go and they will not cross the street now without permission. They will walk as far as the kerb and then stop until I give the OK command. 

Perhaps do some kerb stop training?


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## Darcy1311 (May 27, 2012)

I always put a lead on Darcy when we are near traffic, yes she walks to heel off lead better than when she is on a lead, but she only needs to see a cat or other furry creature and potentialy she could run across the road.Better safe than sorry,in my opinion, on a lead while traffic is around..


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## luv2laugh (Oct 6, 2011)

Hi all,

Thank you for your responses. I'll have to be more careful when at other people's houses with making sure he is in line before we even open the door - even if he isn't going out. This time we were just going into the garage, but the garage door was slightly open. I also think making sure to do some training when we get to their house about the rules of in/out will do well. I can't expect him to generalize when WE are inconsistent. And the truth is that now that he is better behaved, we don't always focus on that at other people's houses. Bad owners!! 

As for curb training, Ozkar - we haven't done it explicitly and that sounds like a good start! What does that look like? I want to make sure there is no command involved, as each time he has done this, it is a "fluke like" experience where we aren't next to him or able to give a command. We aren't really in control at all ??? We _can_ get him back in control, but as soon as he's hit the street, I know that it _could_ be too late and in these instances, it's taken us much longer. 

MsWhipple - That link was heartbreaking and a good reminder. Always important to ask, would this be worth the consequence? 

Datacan- that's what I want, a dog who never ever will step in the street without a command from us. He needs to step in the street when we say it's ok (to cross the street, etc.) I don't know anything about prongs but I'll google it. If you have websites with good information, please post them. This only happens in a blue moon, but it's happened enough to guess that it may happen again.


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## jld640 (Sep 29, 2010)

Savannah and I work this issue constantly and even with constant practice, I still snap a leash on her if I see something that worries me.

That said, in one of the 'Dog Training for Dummies' books - maybe Puppies for Dummies - I can't remember - they taught something called 'Emergency Down'. I didn't choose to train it, but you might want to at least look at it. I tried googling it just now and didn't see quite the same intensity the book described. The way the book described it, a properly trained dog will drop like a stone instantly, but it is a stressful command both to practice and to execute. As I said, I didn't choose to train it. If you decide to look it up, let me know what you think.


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## Emily1970 (Apr 21, 2011)

We live in a densely populated area so when walking we keep the boys on leash, but when we come to a road to cross it, Riley (no clue why) thinks that the road is something that needs to be ran across as fast as he possibly can go and he will actually lunge even if there's cars right in front of us. We work on it all the time, but for some reason he thinks a road is a race track. :-\


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