HELP! Dog on the Loose!

[MISTY ESCOBAR]

Hello!  Our Ruby is amazing and so well-trained in many areas.  BUT...we can NOT have her outside without a leash.  She is a professional escape artist.  She has also learned to get over our backyard fence, and when she does it takes us forever to get her to come back.  I guess she thinks it's a game, or she knows that we'll put her back inside.  She will not come to us even with treats when this happens.  I guess she savors the freedom too much.  But it is a safety issue.  We live just a block from a main highway.  Which of your training videos would give training tips on how to get her to behave and stay close if she is outside and not on a leash?

Thank you!

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there!

I am glad to hear that Ruby has been amazing and has learned so much! About her escaping, I need a little more info:

Has Ruby been spayed?

Is she jumping over your backyard fence? How tall is it and what material? Does it have any gaps?

Is this a new behavior? when did it start?

Is she kept out in the yard unsupervised? If so, for how long usually?

What have you been doing so far to ger her to come back?

 

[MISTY ESCOBAR]

Thank you for your response.  Here are the answers:

1.  She is not spayed.  We are actually breeding her.

2.  She is not technically "jumping" the fence, she is climbing out.  We watched her try, so we know how she's doing it.  It is made out of wood - about 3-4 ft tall and has very small gaps between each board.  So, she is using those gaps to climb out.  We will actually be making the fence taller today. 

3.  Climbing the fence is a newer behavior, but her not coming when she is free is not new...she has always done that.  In the house, she responds immediately to the "come" command, but when she is free outside, it is impossible.

4.  We only have a small fenced-in space.  She lets us know when she needs to go to the bathroom, and we let her out alone.  Before she started escaping, she would go out to the bathroom and spend maybe 5-10 minutes sniffing around.  Then she would come right to the door and ask to come in.

5.  When she escapes, we have been taking treats out and calling to her.  If we walk towards her or follow her, it gets worse.  But we are near a main road, so we also don't want to just wait around for her to come back.

Our worry isn't so much about how she escapes, that's an easy fix.  Our concern is about how to get her to come if/when she does.  Not only when she escapes.  But we just cannot let her free outside without a leash.  We take my brother's dog and Ruby to the park.  My brother's dog stays close.  We throw her a frisbee and she fetches and plays.  Ruby wants so badly to be free with her.  We tried it, but as soon as she realizes that it's time to go home or to get back on the leash, she starts the "game" of running from us.

Thanks again,

Misty

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Thank you for the extra details, they are very helpful!

1.  She is not spayed.  We are actually breeding her.

I asked this just because raging hormones in intact dogs are one of the most common reasons why dogs escape and roam around. If she is nearing her estrus cycle that can make her more compelled and determined to escape. 

2.  She is not technically "jumping" the fence, she is climbing out.  We watched her try, so we know how she's doing it.  It is made out of wood - about 3-4 ft tall and has very small gaps between each board.  So, she is using those gaps to climb out.  We will actually be making the fence taller today. 

In these cases an extension can help. This extension doesn't have to necessarily increase the fences' height, just adding it in a way that it tilts inward at about a 45-degree angle can help so that there is no way to climb.

Here is an example: https://www.amazon.com/Dog-Proofer-Fence-Extension-System/dp/B082YG2DMS

If your fence has ''toe holds'' investing in a smooth, flat surface such as plywood or vertical boards make it harder to climb and jump over. 

Coyote rollers which are made of aluminum rods with a slick surface also prevent gaining traction and making it difficult for dogs to climb and jump over.

3.  Climbing the fence is a newer behavior, but her not coming when she is free is not new...she has always done that.  In the house, she responds immediately to the "come" command, but when she is free outside, it is impossible.

If she listens well in the house, then she has the basics down, the next step is to gradually increase the level of distractions and increasing the reinforcement value (use higher value treats for outdoor training). 

4.  We only have a small fenced-in space.  She lets us know when she needs to go to the bathroom, and we let her out alone.  Before she started escaping, she would go out to the bathroom and spend maybe 5-10 minutes sniffing around.  Then she would come right to the door and ask to come in.

OK, my concern was her spending too much time alone in the yard which can trigger boredom and a strong reinforcement history of engaging in certain behaviors (digging, barking at triggers, chasing critters.). It's reassuring knowing that she is interested in coming back inside after being sent outside to potty. That tells us that she values time in the home and around you. 

5.  When she escapes, we have been taking treats out and calling to her.  If we walk towards her or follow her, it gets worse.  But we are near a main road, so we also don't want to just wait around for her to come back.

Our worry isn't so much about how she escapes, that's an easy fix.  Our concern is about how to get her to come if/when she does.  Not only when she escapes.  But we just cannot let her free outside without a leash.  We take my brother's dog and Ruby to the park.  My brother's dog stays close.  We throw her a frisbee and she fetches and plays.  Ruby wants so badly to be free with her.  We tried it, but as soon as she realizes that it's time to go home or to get back on the leash, she starts the "game" of running from us.

OK, so this is something important to work on and it requires a multi-faceted approach. Recalls are something that we must work on for life, it's a relationship building foundation that needs to be maintained and polished and worked around a variety of distractions, adding them in very gradually.

Until she has proven to be more trustworthy, she'll need to be either on leash, on a long line and/or confined in escape-proofed areas. So here are some general tips:

-Practice, practice, practice recalls, starting in the house, and then in the yard, and then in outdoor areas using a long line,  here is the general guide: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/recall/

-Don't let her depend on the sight of the treats. In other words, gradually start fading showing the treats. If you always must show the treats, you'll be stuck with a dog who only comes when he or she visibly sees the treats as explained here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dog-listens-treats/ 

Therefore, start making the treat less and less visible and then start keeping the treats in your pocket, so that when she comes towards you, you surprise her feeding her several treats in a row to leave a strong positive impression on her. 

-Swap roles. Rather than moving her way or trying to chase her, entice her to chase you.  Run away, act silly, pretend you have just found something amazing, once she reaches you, praise and feed her several treats in a row. 

-Play the hide and seek game. This game encourages her to look for you: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/hide-and-seek/ Make it extra rewarding. 

-Reward voluntary "check-ins." Walk around the yard and feed her a treat/kibble every time she approaches you on her own. 

-Never punish your dog for coming to you, no matter how frustrated you are about something.

-Always make a big deal with treats and praise when your dog obeys the recall command.

-Make yourself more interesting than anything else around by acting energetic and silly! 

-Never call your dog to you immediately followed by something perceived as unpleasant such as clipping nails or leaving the dog park.

-Work on creating positive associations with having the leash clipped on. For example, call her, clip the leash and feed several treats in a row, then remove the leash and no more treats. Practice in a variety of contexts. You want clipping the leash to become super rewarding, to the point of eliciting a positive conditioned emotional response: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/conditioned-emotional-response-cer/

-Avoid calling your dog when you are unsure if she will listen. For instance, avoid calling her when she's sniffing, or at the dog park, do not call her while she’s playing if her recall isn’t too reliable and you haven’t trained much in that scenario. 

-Every now and then at the park (if fenced), call your dog, let her play with a tug toy or give some treats, then let her back to play.

-When you need to leave, once she is responsive to being called, and allows you to you clip the leash (after lots of practice), feed high value treats as you are walking so to leave a positive impression rather than a negative one (leaving the park with all the fun ending) and let her find in the car (parked near) a high-value edible to chew on (e.g. bully stick). Make this a new routine. 

-Remember to add distractions gradually; you can’t go from teaching a dog to come in your hallway and then move to the dog park the next day.

More troubleshooting can be found here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/why-does-my-dog-not-respond-to-his-name/

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

You can also start very easy, by taking advantage of her willingness to come inside after she goes potty by "capturing" the behavior. In other words, watch her from a window, and as soon as you catch the earliest sign of her heading your way to come back inside call her and once she reaches inside, toss several kibble/treats on the floor for a fun game of "find it."

Take advantage of her meals to call her and also when you have a new toy, hide it behind your back, call her and surprise her with it. You want her to perceive the recall as music to her ears. 

If she has a history of not coming when called with your regular cue, or if you have used it in the past for unpleasant things (like calling her when it's time to leave a place she loves or a nail trim) you may be better off introducing a fresh new cue so that is assumes a positive and strong history. For example, instead of just calling Ruby! you can change it to "Ruby.... Come!" Ruby grabs her attention, and the Come is said in a high-pitched, excited tone denoting great surprises.

You can also try using a silent whistle and conditioning her to respond to it. This is done by whistle, treat, whistle, treat, whistle treat, indoors. Then you can progress to practice outdoors like when she's already showing an intent to come back inside or on a long line.  Here's a demo on whistle recalls: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BiE6VXwBzM

While quite effective, when I use whistle training, I always wear the whistle on a lanyard around my neck and gift my clients with one too. Its important though still use voice recalls every now and then to maintain those in case one day we lose our whistle. 

Make sure that you make being inside also rewarding. Organize treasure hunts, play games, use food puzzles.  Train your dog using rewards so to pave the path for a deeper bond.

 Build a digging pit, filled with edibles and toys buried under sand or a bunch of balls. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-ball-pit-game/

Compete with what draws her away. In this video, I am playing the magnet game with a hound. I was using my silent whistle at first to get him to rush towards me, but after a while you can see he was anticipating me and just focusing back on me which I promptly rewarded. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW7GMKczo_I

I hope this helps, keep us posted on how things go.

 Happy training!

 

[MISTY ESCOBAR]

This is all such great information!  We will be reviewing this as a family and starting right away!

Thank you!

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Sounds like a plan! Make sure everybody is on the same page for consistency. Keep us posted on how things go.

Happy Training!