Ask the Trainer: Dealing with a runaway

This week's readers question is from Monika and reads:

I am writing to ask if you could give me some ideas about my dog. She is a husky x staffy and is 6 months and 16 days.

She is starting to run away when no-one is looking. When we are watching her she won't try. But as soon as our backs are turned she is gone. When we find her it's like she knows she has done wrong, but come the next day she will do it again.

We work during the day and she is tied up and let off when we come home. We run her two days of the week at the Redwoods.

When she runs away it is now getting harder to find her as she is now going quite a bit away from our house. If you can help us with some way to stop her from leaving the property, that would be great.

My advice: To address this issue we can break it down into three areas that need to be addressed.

Firstly I would have her speyed if not already done. I feel that six months is an appropriate age for this procedure as between six and nine months most dogs will experience their first heat cycle and small breeds reach sexual maturity.

The urge to find a mate will contribute to the desire to leave your property.

We then need to address her mental stimulation, at this age a half-hour walk daily is needed to satisfy her physical and mental exercise. In addition to a controlled walk on leash and off leash play 20 minutes a day of training exercises.

For example sit, stay, down, come, wait will ensure she is more focused on you for direction instead of making her own inappropriate choices such as leaving the property.

Finally, boundary training will resolve this issue. To teach her not to cross the threshold of the front door, section gate or other boundary you can begin indoors, for example the backdoor, so you have a controlled environment to begin with.

The steps:

Ask her to sit and wait as you move out the door first.

Reward her for staying with praise and a treat. Then invite her through the door with a release command such as okay.

Have her move through the door and come to you for her reward. If she does not hold her wait until you release her move toward her without touching her using your body as a block and restart with a sit and wait until she begins to get the idea she can only move across thresholds when invited.

Paw point of the week:

Remember that you must never punish your dog when it has returned as this will weaken your recall training. Would you want to come home just to be excluded from your family?

Contact me for the chance to have your question selected for publication at nadines@dogguru.co.nz for further information on Dog Guru visit www.dogguru.co.nz