Training dog to STOP at the edge of the street?

[tigerlily46514]

THE SNOW HAS MELTED!! :laughsnow:Now that we can see the cement of the street, I'd like to teach Buddy to stop at the edge of the street, to NOT put his paw on the cement of the street at the edge of our lawn without permission. I've seen dogs who do this on film. I've met one in real life. Does this confuse the dog when you take him on walks then?
How do you teach this?

I HAD Buddy pretty well trustworthy in our front lawn, (UNfenced), BUT, lately, he's had some dog-friends visit, that run up and down the street, and he's turning into a hooligan again!:msngiggle: NOw, he acts like his recall training did not ever happen.:dognowink: Bummer. I spent SO MUCH time on that, felt we had that about 85% nailed...it's back to zero it seems.:msniwonder:
NOW, if he even walks in the front yard, Mr. Buddy acts like, "Ooh, the front yard! :dogbiggrin: I have about 2 minutes to run crazy up and down the street before i am corralled! GO!"

So how does one teach a dog to stop at the edge of the street?

 

[tigerlily46514]

Also, we have a cement driveway through our front lawn. To me, it'll be okay if Mr. Buddy is on the cement driveway while in our front lawn, but i want him to understand he cannot put his paw onto the street cement. If that is possible. The driveway leads to our garage, where Craig is often in there working around. So Buddy will already be coming out of the garage onto cement...
Still, i want him to be able to distinguish, the driveway cement he is already on is okay, but the street cement is off limits.
(the driveway is slightly different type of cement, in color and texture, if that matters)...

Obviously, i am gonna hafta be more careful, now that all the 'boundaries' i THOUGHT i had established with Buddy have disappeared in one day...:msncry:

 

[snooks]

Most of the trainers and people I work/go to class with say they wouldn't trust a dog under 2 years old off leash period. Time spent training with increasing distraction and maturity both have something to do with it. It takes months in my opinion of testing with increasing distractions to determine/teach what will send your dog over the edge and what you can do to recall. Having some set up will help if you can get a friend to walk a dog friend by or act as a distraction. The more experience and training on different scenarios the better your knowledge of what your dog will bolt after and how to stop it. How about training with a long line so there is no obv leash and using body blocks to create boundaries.

If you don't concentrate on the concrete as the barrier it will probably be easier, since as you say you have a concrete drive which would be okay to walk on. I would try a tether on the long line and put a bungee on it or use a harness to prevent a hard neck jerk. Work on your stays and walk into the street, squat down, jump, make noise and reward for not coming over the line. Be close enough to body block any attempts to cross your boundary. Practicing just sitting in the front yard and watching things go by and getting and maintaining focus is your biggest tool. If you can distract and regain your dog's attention and cue him to leave things or come to you you'll get an idea of how he will react to certain stimuli and how to head it off. Is there a curb at the street? Maybe you could shape not stepping off the curb??

Do some work on a go to spot too which can be the middle of the yard or some other location so that you will have something for him to DO when the urge to go run comes up. Some dog's I've seen that were solid at the edge of the yard were actually taught to crawl up to the edge of the curb and not let their toes cross the edge of the grass.

Don't feel like you failed. You are doing things great but just need to up the ante with distractions and have some time training. This is a pretty evolved and complicated behavior to imprint and it needs lots of repetition with lots of different situations.

 

[tenniskitty]

heh! On leash is the best I can do! If dem dogs get off the lawn, they're brought right back with a sharp "Git home!" but that's because that's what they've always known! I know some people put up electric thingy-mcbobbers but we didn't, they just get BUSTED if they don't come home! J/K! I don't remember how we trained them, I think they already knew that when we got them. Good luck!-Tenniskitty&The Pets

 

[szecsuani]

I walk Pami off leash recently, as she is more likely to panic if she's on a leash (shelter dogs, yay...). She now always stops on the edge of the street, and waits until I let her go (if we are crossing the street).
What I did:
1. Got a good recall. A few months ago, she didn't have a good recall, and a friend of mine suggested, that maybe I should do more to show that I'm the boss.
Like I am the one who goes through a door first, and she can only do it if I allow her to (actually this is the only thing I did), and voilá, she now has a reliable recall, she comes back whenever I call her.
2. I always walk with treats in my pocket, and reward her a LOT.
If she comes back to me when I don't call her, or she looks back at me, I always reward her. So she learns that she ALWAYS has to pay attention to me. Most of the time I reward her if she stops on the edge of the street, OR after we crossed the street, so she sees that she did it the right way.
3. I have a key chain (funny huh? it's actually a key chain that you can put on your neck) attached to her collar, so if it's necessary, I can always catch her easily.
This is just for safety, as hungarian dog owners are... well... rude, they always let their dogs go to stranger-dogs (do you get what I mean), and Pami can easily be scared, or the other dog sometimes starts to chase her, which I definitely hate, so when we see a dog, I usually grab her "leash".
4. Work on a good stay too.
It can be really important, as your dog has to wait to be let go when crossing the street. (strange sentence...). Pami has a better stay if she is standing, she won't sit for a too long time, but most dog's don't stay if they stand, so it's godd to teach them to sit down at the edge of the street, and wait to be released.

Well, that's what came to my mind now, I hope I helped.

 

[tigerlily46514]

wow! Thank You All So Much!!

 

[Ina]

So how does one teach a dog to stop at the edge of the street?

I'm just wondering how you did with this. Is Buddy reliably staying on your front lawn? Any additional tips you might share?

Smokey is only 6 months old but we will spend lot's of time in our unfenced front yard. Before I start playing with him there I thought I better set the rules straight away even though he will be on leash at all times. I have this vision in 2 years time or so I will be able to weed the garden with a dog off leash in the front yard (wishful thinking).

 

[charmedwolf]

The way I taught our two older dogs was by flags. I set the flags up around where their boundary was, I even had one in the drive way but a painted mark. Then every day for a couple months we would go outside as a group and walk a little inside the line. If they tried to walk over the line with us we would verbal correct with a "no" and call them back over and praise like hell. Some dogs catch on very quick and you can remove every other flag but others take a while.

 

[Ina]

Thanks for the tip, Charmedwolf.

I will set that up with wind spinners and start practising .. should give us a good head start for the time when puppy becomes an adult and more reliable. And the wind spinners will look nice too in the garden!

 

[tigerlily46514]

ha is fun reading my old question, and realizing, i did somehow solve that one!!!
Buddy does stay in his front yard!!
(we leash him if we are busy/distracted, in case an enemy dog goes by...)

Now I can't remember for sure how i did it, but my dog does understand, he is allowed to walk around in the cement driveway, but not onto the cement street.

Re: stopping at corners, i did this. At each corner, when i stop walking, i make a distinct noise with my feet, one-two! very quickly sort of stamping/slightly sliding my feet into my stopped position. This makes the gravelly pebbles on the cement, make a noise.

this was all accomplished wordlessly...

NOW, Buddy is sooooooo acustomed to coming to complete stop when i do that "one-two!" slidey step with my feet,
that even on a walk,
if i do that "one-two!" slide-y foot noise,
BUDDY STOPS WALKING.

VERY HANDY!!!!
gotta love pavlovian training!! ha ha!! I got a "two-fer", a cue to stop at corners, and, SAME CUE (foot noise) to stop walking. YAY!!!!

(i never did train Buddy to sit at stops, like many ppl do,
cuz in the rain, the mud, the snow, he has long hair on his haunches, one less mess if he just stands there beside me)

 

[Ina]

Never thought of using the way I walk as a cue to get certain behaviour. Brilliant idea!

 

[tx_cowgirl]

Kikopup is working on a video to teach this. She does have one posted already showing the results from the way she teaches it(with Splash---believe it's something like "Teaching Boundaries" or something like that), but the actual how-to is still in progress I believe.

 

[reveuse]

I think with Ro he learned stop as a part of "heel" (which I put in quotes because for him heel is something in between a true heel and a loosh leash walking) . Heel literally took ages but in the process of stop/go stop/go.... he learned to stop (and automatically sit) if i stop. So now at the street or intersection or even just plain mid-walk if I sense an emergency incomming he literally does it verbally on a dime.

I love the idea of the flag/spinners ..... I think I'll try that one when we work on our off leash skills some more

 

[Sammie Dunn]

I've been doing this with Coco since the day I was able to have him out (before his injury). I just say "Coco, wait" and he stops and then I say "Coco, sit". He listens so I click on my clicker and treat him and say "Cross the road". He then gets a click and a treat when we have got onto the pavement on the other side of the road. He is quite clever for his age. Even when I know that there are no cars around I still get him to do it because I don't want any more accidents !

 

[Ina]

Even if some things don't make sense doing them with a little puppy - one always has to remember to teach things you want your dog to do when they are adults as well. So I like that you train Coco straight away the right thing.
I told my kids to scream in horror if they see the dog put a paw on the road. Actually the puppy got such a fright he never tried again to onto the road by himself :-)

 

[Sammie Dunn]

Yeah, well I thought that if I get him into good habits now then hopefully he will keep them. There are so many Staffordshire Bull Terriers in my town and alot of them have a bad reputation for being aggressive and not being obdient so when I told my friend's I got one (he is cross Lab), they were all shocked that I took him on. But I tried to explain that it is not the breed that is aggressive, it depends on how the owner trains him and we want our little Coco to behave so we are training him to be good and then I can prove everyone wrong.

 

[mewzard]

Great attitude Sammie.
<--- Oka, is a GSD cross, lots of people are wary of her. I even had a kid a school ask me if she was 'a bad tempered one'!! I knew that if i wanted her to be well mannered you have to start when they are little. Oka is almost 11months and she is brilliant! Everyone comments on how good she is and it's all because of that hard work when they are little. She has her moments but then she is a teenager!!

As for crossing the road i just use /wait/ as i think it's kind of annoying for Oka to have to sit and then get back up as she is a big girlie.
I want to teach her not to go off of the drive, but i've not the foggiest how to do that, we also don't have a clear difference between the end of your drive and the pavement.

 

[Sammie Dunn]

Why don't you not try to have her in the garden and when ever she goes near the end of your drive say "Eh-eh" and if she doesn't go past it praise her and give her a treat. I don't know if it would work but maybe worth a try. I've got my puppy sitting on my computer table just now as it is next to a window and he likes to watch however he keeps barking at people going into the pub haha He's been defensive of everything near the flat.

 

[mewzard]

Thanks Sammie. She'd have to be on a long line and i could do it - it's just tricky. Her best mates live next door and thier back garden is open to the front and off-lead she would just run straight round there ...we have problems with recall around dogs.

 

[Pei Pei]

I think with Ro he learned stop as a part of "heel" (which I put in quotes because for him heel is something in between a true heel and a loosh leash walking) . Heel literally took ages but in the process of stop/go stop/go.... he learned to stop (and automatically sit) if i stop. So now at the street or intersection or even just plain mid-walk if I sense an emergency incomming he literally does it verbally on a dime.

I love the idea of the flag/spinners ..... I think I'll try that one when we work on our off leash skills some more

What are the Shark, Ghost and March tricks?