3. Your dog will probably try to rush out. Say “Ah-ah” and use alternating pressure on the leash to show him that you don’t want him to go through the door.
Alternating pressure means you tighten the leash only enough to PULL him slightly backward, then you quickly loosen it to give him a choice again. Be quick! Don’t let him get all the way through the door before you pull him back.
Tighten the leash the instant his toes go over the threshold and loosen it the instant his toes are back inside.
Your first few pulls should be just strong enough to
slide/drag/propel him back into the house. But if he continues to rush for the door each time you loosen the leash, make your pulls sharper, more like a corrective jerk.
Use common sense! TUG a Chihuahua! Gently!
4. You may need to “check” your dog with the leash a couple of times or you may need to do it ten (or more!) times. It doesn’t matter. When the light bulb finally goes on and he WAITS inside the open door with no tension on the leash, praise him quietly. (Don’t get him all excited.)
5. Close the door and lead him into another room for a short break, then head toward the front door again and repeat the exercise a second time, and then a third time.
Three times is enough for one session. You can do another session of three “Waits” later in the day, if you wish.
“Wait” on a completely loose leash
After practicing “Wait” for a couple of days as described above, make one important change. As you approach the front door, don’t tighten the leash at all. Keep it loose. Just say, “Wait”
and open the door.
Without the reminder of the tight leash, your dog may try to rush through when the door opens. The instant his toe crosses the threshold, say “Ah-ah” and tug him firmly back inside the house. Once he’s inside, say again, “Wait” and slacken the leash to give him another opportunity to rush through.
And another, and another, and another, until he accepts the reality that “Wait” means the same thing today as it meant yesterday – not to go through the door.
The choice is ultimately his – your job is simply to provide the consequences. Each time he steps out, he is tugged back in, which makes it crystal clear that stepping over the threshold gets him nothing but discomfort.
Dog training means providing your dog with opportunities to take some action while you provide a positive or negative consequence to that action.
Your dog will do what benefits him most and he will avoid doing what makes him uncomfortable.
It’s up to YOU to provide the benefits (praise, petting, treats) and the discomforts (corrections) so he will make the choices you prefer or that are best/safest for him.
When your dog finally stays inside the house with the leash loose and the front door open, praise him quietly.
Close the door and lead him into another room for a short break, then head toward the front door again and repeat the whole exercise a second time, and then a third time.
“Wait” with distractions
The next step in practicing “Wait” is to add distractions. When the front door is open and your dog is standing there and the leash is loose:
! Hum or whistle a happy tune.
! Do a few knee bends or jumping jacks.
! Talk to an imaginary visitor at the door.
! Sit in a chair near the door (inside the house) and read aloud from a book.
What should your dog be doing during this time? Well, he can just stand there, or sit, or lie down, or walk around within the limits of the leash. It’s his choice. He simply can’t pass through the open door. (No barking, either!)
Is he still waiting? Good!
! Have your son walk by, OUTSIDE the door.
! Have your daughter walk by, bouncing a ball.
! Have your son run by.
! Have your daughter skip rope in the front yard.
Whether it’s you or your kids providing a
distraction, it must be done in a way that’s fair to your dog. Don’t speak to your dog. Don’t look directly at him. No teasing!
When your dog is doing well with distractions on a regular leash, graduate to a 20-foot leash or rope. Now you can get quite a distance from him – always staying inside your house, of course. Your dog may choose to walk around the room with you, or he may decide to hang out near the open front door, peering out. The only thing he cannot do is cross the threshold (or bark or chew on the woodwork!)
“Wait” while YOU go outside
1. Switch back to a shorter leash. With the front door open and both of you standing there, repeat, “Wait.” Now YOU step over the threshold. Keep some tension on the leash – upward and backward – as you step through, to help hold your dog in position on HIS side of the door.
2. As soon as your foot hits the ground outside, turn and face him. Now he should be inside the house, and you should be just barely outside, on the porch or stoop, holding tension on the leash to keep him indoors.
3. Caution him, “Wait” and loosen the leash. He may try to rush outside to join you. The instant his toe crosses the threshold, use the leash to bounce him back inside the house. You stay put on your side. Once he’s back inside, caution him, “Wait” and loosen the leash again to give him another chance to either rush out or stay put.
No matter how many times you have to bounce him back inside, when he does finally stand there – actually, he can stand or sit or lie down or even walk back and forth, just so long as he stays on his side of the threshold – he has just done a marvelous “Wait.”
4. Praise him. But softly, so he isn’t tempted to rush out to you. “Good boy. Wait. Good boy.”
Hold up your hand like a stop sign, to help remind him.
5. Finally, say, “Okay! Come!” That should bring him running across the threshold! If not, use the leash to encourage him to join you outside. “Good boy!”
Now it’s simply a matter of getting further away from the door – gradually – and adding more tempting distractions as your dog waits inside.
Sometimes, instead of calling him outside to join you, go back inside the house, praise your dog for waiting, and close the door. In other words, don’t always give him an “Okay!” to come out.
In practical life, as you know, there will be many times when you need to go outside for a moment by yourself – say, to accept a package from UPS. Then you’ll go back inside the house without your dog ever being allowed out.
So he should learn right upfront that he doesn’t always get to cross the boundary after “Wait.”
Other places to practice “Wait”
Have your dog “Wait” before going INTO your house, too. For example, after a walk, say, “Wait” and open the front door but don’t let him go IN until you’ve given the “Okay.”
Have him “Wait” at the back door before you let him out into the yard. Or have him “Wait” before coming into the house from the yard, after a potty trip.
Have him “Wait” before going through sliding patio doors.
Have him “Wait” before going in – or out – of the gate to your property.
Have him “Wait” on one side of an open doorway, such as the doorway between your kitchen and living room.
Have him “Wait” at the top of the stairs before going down.
Or at the bottom of the stairs before going up.
Don’t ask your dog to “Wait” OFF-LEASH anywhere where he could dash into a busy street. A dog will always choose the worst possible moment to forget or ignore a word – and all it takes is once for your dog to be dead.
Teach your dog to “Wait” inside your car
When your dog is in the back seat of your car, you should be able to open the car door without him jumping out.
WORD #33: “Go car”
1. With your dog on leash, walk toward your parked car. When you reach the rear door, say, “Wait” and open the door. The first couple of times, hold the leash slightly taut to remind him of what this word means.
2. When you do loosen the leash, be prepared to check your dog quickly if he tries to jump in. Once he is waiting at the open car door with the leash loose, tell him, “Okay! GO CAR!” and encourage him to jump in. Help him, if necessary, by using your hands to boost him up – or use treats to motivate him.
Pick up a small dog and physically place him into the back seat.
3. Now for the hard part! Close the door and let him stay in the car alone for ten seconds. Then caution him (through the closed door) to “Wait.” Open the door and quickly get hold of the leash so you can stop him if he tries to jump out. Caution him again, “Wait” and completely loosen the leash to give him the opportunity to stay in or jump out.
And another opportunity, and another, and another, until he realizes that “Wait” means the same inside the car as it did inside your house. “Good boy!” Close the door and repeat the exercise.
4. After three to five repetitions, let him come out. “Okay, Jake!” That should bring him bounding out. (If he is small, lift him out yourself – don’t let him injure himself by jumping.) 5. When he’s no longer making any attempt to jump out when the door opens, switch to your 20-foot leash so you can get further away from the open car door, yet still have control over him if he should leap out.
Oh, and add distractions – you know about distractions!
Riding safely in the car
When we practiced “Wait,” your dog was loose in the back seat while he was learning not to jump out of the car. But it isn’t safe for him to RIDE loose in the back seat.
As Jake leaped – for the third time – from the back seat into the front seat, Roger startled and jerked the steering wheel violently to one side. “Jake!” he shouted. “For the love of Pete, will you settle down?”
With the wind whistling in through the open windows, Jake couldn’t hear anything. The excited dog thrust his head out the passenger window, squinting his eyes against the wind. He bounded across the front seat and into Roger’s lap, craning his neck out the driver’s window to see if things were more
interesting over there.
“Jake!” cried Roger, shoving at the dog and struggling to steer with one hand. Jake leaped into the back seat again, plunked his paws onto the rear window ledge, and began barking vigorously at a motorcycle behind them. “Jake!” Roger shouted in vain.
If you allow your dog to ride loose in the car
You’re putting your dog, yourself, your passengers, and every other driver and passenger on the road in danger.
In a crash, warns a highway safety article in Readers Digest, loose objects, including pets, become deadly projectiles. In a 30 mph crash, a 15-pound object loose in the back seat
continues hurtling forward at 30 mph until it strikes someone or something with 300 pounds of force.
In other words, even a Miniature Schnauzer, because of momentum, becomes the equivalent of two Saint Bernards hurtling forward to fracture the skull or break the neck of someone in the front seat.
The Institute for Highway Safety says, “After the collision outside, there are always collisions inside.
Both wreak havoc.”
Your loose dog may not only cause injuries during an accident, he may actually cause the accident by jostling your arm or engaging in some antic that distracts you from paying full attention to the road.
And it’s not just you and other people who will be hurt. Your loose dog will be battered against the windshield, or flung through an open or shattered window or doog into the street. The impact will injure or kill him or set him loose in traffic, where he will take off in a panic and be lost or hit by another car.
Please, folks, if you truly care about your dog, secure him in the rear seat:
! with a special canine harness and seat belt like the Ruff Rider Safety Harness (www.ruffrider.com)
! or in a crate that has itself been buckled into the rear seat so IT can’t hurtle around the car during a crash.
Don’t buckle your dog into the front seat of a car with airbags. Airbags blast out of the dashboard at a fearsome speed that can kill a dog.
Too idiotic for words
! Riding on your lap while you drive?
! Riding in the open bed of a pickup truck?
! Riding on the rear window shelf?
Another use for “Go car”
Along with using “Go car!” for actually getting into the car, you can also use it to cue your dog that a ride in the car is imminent.
Attaching a word to an upcoming event helps your dog develop the mental skill of visualizing that event and anticipating the fun that goes with it.
While you’re still in the house, ask him, “Go car?” Then follow up immediately by clipping on his leash and heading toward the car.
Make sure there’s no delay! Don’t ask your dog if he wants to go for a ride, then get bogged down looking for his leash,
checking the weather, finding the right jacket, visiting the bathroom, grabbing a snack, or answering the phone.
Make your preparations ahead of time. Find out what the weather is and decide which jacket you’re going to wear.
Put a snack in your pocket. Go to the bathroom. Check to see that his leash is in the closet where you thought it was.
THEN ask your dog, “Go car?” and whisk him out to the car right away.
“What if my dog doesn’t LIKE riding in the car?”
Well, has he had the chance to associate car rides with a fun time? Or does he only ride to the vet’s office or to the groomer or boarding kennel?
If so, he is likely to have an unpleasant association with car rides and your cheerful “Go for a ride in the car?” may send him running into his crate or under the bed.
You may be able to fix this by taking your dog to fun places.
Drive him to the park. To the woods. To the beach. Even if only a block away! Play cheerful music and sing along. Have
someone ride along with you and feed your dog his favorite treats.
The goal is to give your dog
pleasant associations with the car so he will change his opinion of it.
Sit-Stay
When you were teaching your dog to pay attention to you (Word #30: “Watch me!”), you taught him to sit quietly beside you.
But what if you want him to STAY sitting even when you’re not standing beside him?
WORD #34: “STAY”
1. Start with your dog sitting in Heel Position,