wandering spirit.

[jokowalczyk]

Hey Mike,

We have had our black lab for 4.5 months and with your help he is turning out to be a great dog. To refresh your memory we live out in the country and have the dog outside for the most part. In the last month we have started to live him loose outside during the day all the time. We are home all day and spend most of the time outside so it is easy to keep an eye on him. He either follows us around, gets in the way or passes out in a shady spot. If we are inside he sleeps by the door. For the night and when not home we hook him to the doghouse. We decided trust him a little more.....
Recently he has taken off twice in the span of two weeks. After the first incident we decided to keep him chained up for the most part again but gave him another chance after few days of doghouse arrest.
I really hate to have him chained up a lot cause it is nice to have him be part of our life a little more. I let him in the house in the mud room/kitchen only since my husband doesn't like dogs in the house. We are building a sunroom/mudroom for him for the winter.
Since we got him in the shelter we don't know what his history is. He was found walking on the road and that is all.
We got the dogtra collar but in both cases of take off it didn't work. I think he was too far cause it works in other cases when we call him. Is it cause he is not attached to us enough yet. Do puppies get attached better than adult dogs ( well he is about 1.5 yrs so still young).... Or does he just have a predisposition to taking off....the beagle at heart...

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

It is hard to tell without more details, but it sounds like most likely there are a lot of missing pieces to your training plan.

For instance, you have a dogra collar, but did you formally train him in phase 1 and phase 2 obedience with the flexi? Have you watched the training videos and trained in the technical way and see that he understands the whole predictable chain reaction of commands on the flexi and then the flexi with dogtra, then dogtra with line line?

Remember, this is a support forum for a very technical training style so you must make sure everything it is in place or it will be difficult to help.

Tieing him out on a dog house will probably have the opposite effect of him sticking around - since he is going to feel more restrained and not part of the "pack" and he will act more like hunting beagle when loose. It is highly recommended to get him into the house or be sure to work with him daily on bonding exercises like obedience, play, and walks.

Without formal training and relationship building where he is intregrated more with the family there be less desire to stay close if he is used to being seperated anyway- and the dogtra collar will only confuse him and potentially violate the 3rd foundation step in our triangle.

This dog should not be loose period without a fence if you don't want him taking off - until you know for sure everything is in place. That is part of the management plan in the system. When you reach the point where he understands the recall in phase 3, then he can be lose supervised. But, even that should be tested in an enclosed area around distractions before trusting out in the open.