It's a common complaint, "my dog won't listen to me when we are out in public!" Seems that many dogs get out of the house and their training goes out the window, so to speak. There's even a funny video prompt making the rounds on social media where it states "show me your dog doesn't listen without telling me your dog doesn't listen." There are a million videos of dogs completely ignoring their owners out on walks! While the videos are entertaining, this is a real problem and one that shouldn't be ignored. Dogs who don't listen out in public aren't just embarrassing; they could put themselves and their owners at risk.
Whenever someone tells me that their dog doesn't listen out in public, my first question to ask is how well they listen at home; do they come when they are called 100% of the time? 80%? 50%? Do they sit, lay down, leave it, and stay both with AND without food, or are they bribing their dogs to comply and the absence of food means the dogs ignores them? You've heard me say it many times before: we all like to get paid, but an intermittent reinforcement schedule means that your dog is willing and eager to do what you'd like them to do because they know you will be rewarding them at some point in time. For many dog owners, the truth of the matter is this: yes, their dogs are better at listening when they are inside the house and there aren't any distractions, but the bottom line is that even there (and in their backyard), the dog is easily distracted and less than likely to comply with the requested behavior. Taking this one step further; why are some dogs more likely to do what they are asked than others? Does breed or age make a difference?
Yes, breed *can* make a difference. For example, a Beagle is a scent hound, so if they are out and about and catch an amazing scent, they may pay less attention to you in that moment, but that doesn't mean that Beagles cannot be good listeners. And we all know that puppies, in general, are eager to please, while adolescent dogs often thumb their noses at training exercises, particularly if they feel that the exercises are boring, repetitive, or unnecessary. So, this brings us to our first important point: know your dog. What were they bred for? Were they bred to herd sheep with a shepherd, or were they bred to keep the laps of monks warm in cold weather? And while you most certainly want to work with your puppy every day on their basic obedience commands, you won't want to just keep up that same routine with your adolescent dog. You will want to move on to tricks and other activities that utilize those important, basic skills they have, but in novel ways that hold their attention and challenge their brains.
The next key point: context proofing. It isn't good enough that your dog sits for you at home when you feed him dinner. He must sit in other contexts as well, and include contexts where an immediate food reward isn't forthcoming. So, sit at the front door when it's opening; sit in the car and wait to get out; sit while you use the ATM machine; and sit patiently while you drink coffee in an outdoor restaurant or stop on the street to talk to a neighbor. Initially, you SHOULD use treats to reinforce all of those sits in different contexts, but once your dog can do it reliably, move on to an intermittent reinforcement schedule and use praise and physical affection to reinforce in between.
Here's a big one: ramp it up. Work with your dog around a lot of distractions. Before you practice coming when called off leash inside the dog park, practice coming when called OUTSIDE OF THE DOG PARK. I mean this quite literally, outside of the dog park. Put your dog onto a 15-30 foot long leash and let them run off and sniff the area outside the dog park. Call them back to you (definitely have yummy snacks ready!) and if they don't come right away, give that long line a tug and try to get their attention focused on you again. Your rule of thumb should be "I will not let my dog off leash anywhere until I am certain that she will come back to me, even with distractions." If your goal is to hike off leash with your dog, then you must practice good hiking behavior ON leash first. There will be birds and rabbits and squirrels (and other off leash dogs!) on those hiking trails too. You need to be certain your dog will leave those things alone if you tell them to leave it and call them your way. Practice does make perfect on this.
Do keep your sessions short and positive. While training classes are often an hour in length, frequent short session (less than 10 minutes, and 3-5 minutes is ideal) will help your dog to understand what you want, learn to do it across situations, while not getting bored or overwhelmed. Build sniffing and exploring into the breaks between your training sessions. Sniffing and exploring is rewarding in and of itself, no food rewards required! If you find yourself getting frustrated, your dog will know this. Give yourself a time out if you find yourself yelling at your dog, yanking them by their collar or leash, or lashing out. You are a team and there's no place for any of that on a good, reliable team.
One last thing: If you have an anxious dog (she's reactive to other dogs, she's afraid of noises, scared of new people, etc.), then context proofing will take longer and you may never get to the point where being off leash is safe. Set realistic goals for your anxious dog; you can definitely work with her to the point that they two of you can have nice, loose leash walks together where she listens for your cues as to how to behave.
And it goes without saying: while someone with a small, distracted, disobedient dog can simply laugh and pick their dog up when he won't sit at the curb, that isn't an option for those of us with medium and large dogs. We all need to work with our dogs (and with each other) to get to the point where they are safe in public spaces.
As always, if you have questions about your dog's behavior, you know where to find me.
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