Behind the Game with Dog Training

When You Didn’t Train from the Get-Go

Did you fall behind on the dog training?

Any of these reasons sound familiar:

• You scoffed at the idea of needing to “train” your dog, only to realize, “Crap, I really do need to train my dog.” I’m serious here. When I had my twins, the hospital gave me a number to a Mother’s of Twins group. I scoffed; I didn’t need a support group. Two weeks later, delirious from lack of sleep, with infant twins screaming, I called the number and blubbered through tears, “I have twins.” It happens people, it happens. We scoff at something and then learn we really shouldn’t have.
• Possibly you were on a roll with dog-training and then your job switched your hours. Or you had surgery. Or any other reason that side-lined you on the training front.
• Maybe you got your dog just before, or right after, the Pandemic hit and the ability to hire a trainer or socialize went pfft!
• Or you intended to hire a trainer or start obedience classes but, due to the Pandemic, finances got stretched too thin and/or local restrictions prevented meeting with a trainer.

Whatever the reason, if you’re behind the game like I am with training, don’t worry. We still have time.

It Won’t Be Quick or Easy

I’m not trying to be a Debbie-downer, I just want to keep things in perspective so you don’t lose hope. If I say it will be a breeze and it’s not, you’re going to either think you got an untrainable dog or that I’m an idiot. Neither of which are good.

Always remember, your dog will pick up some things quicker than other dogs. As with raising kids, do not compare where your dog is with another person’s dog. Your dog might not take to the idea of “sit,” he might walk away when you say it. Pandora (my pup) picked it up right away. It was crazy simple how fast she got some things like sit, look at me, and high five. It also gave me a false sense of belief in my training abilities. Which utterly crushed me when I realized she wasn’t going to do everything as easily as sit. That was part of the reason we fell off the training wagon.

If your dog is willing to walk out the front door on a leash and walk by vehicles, I envy you. I don’t even care if your dog doesn’t have leash manners. I’m in full envy. Pandora will not walk near vehicles or where she can hear them. It would be fine if we lived in the middle of nowhere, but we don’t. Again, no comparisons between dogs. Every dog has their own quirk. If you envy Pandora’s ability to pick up commands quickly, just remember I envy your ability to walk with your dog in public.

One of the first things you may have learned when researching how to train your dog is that it is best to do so after they have exercised. Dogs who get plenty of exercise are also better behaved because they wear off destructive energy. Can we revisit that I can’t walk my dog?

I can walk her, I have found a location where I can walk Pandora and she can get plenty of exercise, but I don’t have the time to drive out there every day. The ability to walk out the front door and go for a walk eludes us.

Persistence and Repetition Pay Off

Pandora has had this fear of vehicles since we brought her home. Nothing traumatic has ever happened to her near vehicles. When we’d go to see her, she would run around in a corner of a parking lot near a road. She was completely oblivious to the vehicles. What caused the fear? I have no clue.

We brought Pandora home three days before she turned eight weeks old. She is now one. We’ve just recently had two teeny, tiny successes with the walking.

The day before her first birthday (Feb. 3), she went to the vet. The vet is right off the main highway that runs through town. In case you don’t catch my drift, let me be clear, lots of vehicles, lots of loud heavy vehicles. Due to the COVID-19 era, we have to wait in the car. I tried to make the best of the wait by pointing out all the other dogs going into the vet on leashes. Pandora watched them, intrigued. Each time the vet’s door opened and a dog walked in, Pandora stood still with eyes wide open. The equivalent of us watching a horror movie and sitting rigidly, silently imploring the dingbat entering the killer’s lair to run the other way.

When the vet tech came out to the car, she asked me to lead Pandora to the door on her leash. I knew that wasn’t going to happen, but gotta try. Pandora jumped to the back seat and then to the front as I opened doors trying to snag her. Finally, I picked her up and set her on the ground and started walking. We walked the whole three yards to the vet’s door like a normal person and dog out for a walk. HALLELUJUAH! Then I handed the vet tech her leash. At that point the success turned into a typical dog-visiting-vet comedy. Pandora dropped low and dragged the tech back toward the car. I had to cut her off, pick her up, and hand her to the stunned tech.

Pandora is a tiny, mid-size dog. She’s an Australian Cattle Dog, but she’s definitely on the tiny size. However, she’s a ball of muscle. Her strength is what shocked the vet tech. Couple muscle with the adrenaline of fear and I’m not sure what the lady expected. It was probably that Pandora seemed okay about the situation until the lady opened the door.

Success Came AFTER Months of Training

I have been working with Pandora on this for many months. Each time I’d take her to her favorite place to walk (a bunch of trails away from everything), I’d keep her on the leash for a little bit and work on leash manners and “look at me.” Then I’d let her off the leash and let her run. ACDs are velcro dogs. She doesn’t run too far away. She’ll get a little ahead and then come back and keep repeating. The majority of the time, she comes back when called. She only ignores me if she’s sniffing something good.

I’ve also been working with her in the backyard. Having her wait and then come to me, or wait until I come back to her. Then I would put the leash on her while we’re in the back yard after Frisbee time and work on leash manners. She’s not as receptive in the back yard. She lies down, afraid that I’m going to make her go to the front yard.

When I say leash manners, I tell her “with me,” and want her to walk by my side. If she starts to pull, I change direction. And we keep repeating.

A couple of videos I watched to learn leash manners: 5 Reasons Your Leash Walking Isn’t Working and 5 Quick Tips to Stop Your Dog from Pulling both are from McCann Dog Training.

In an effort to desensitize her to loud vehicles, I’ve been playing YouTube videos of garbage trucks at work. With the stereo on and the volume up enough that it sounds like garbage trucks are hoisting cans in our kitchen. She’s been getting better with vehicle sounds. Yes, there really are channels that have hours of garbage trucks doing their thing. I hear those trucks in my sleep now.

If you need to work on desensitizing your dog to loud vehicles this YouTube Garbage truck video has over an hour of garbage trucks doing their thing.

Our second success came a few days ago. I took her to a local dog park. It is off a medium-busy road. Meaning you can still hear the vehicles, but you usually can’t see them. In order to visit the park, you have to park your vehicle approximately ten yards away. She hopped right out of the car and headed for the dog park. I was so excited I filmed it and put it on our Stubborn Dog Novice Owner Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLaXls5D0cN/

I didn’t worry about her leash manners, we were experiencing progress!

When you get a moment of success don’t worry about perfection. Get the big success first, then worry about those nuances.

There Will Be Setbacks

Also, know that there will be setbacks in dog training. It sucks. Many times I have whined that I’m never going to get Pandora to walk around the lake. We sit just up from a great loop around a lake. It’s perfect for a midday walk, an evening walk, a whenever we need fresh air walk. If we ever get to that point. Yes, I still get discouraged and need encouragement at times. Please feel free to send encouragement in the comments.

One of our setbacks came on the heals of me pushing a little too hard. I figured I would carry her up to the mailbox and then walk her back down the driveway. It’s about 25 yards from our drive to the mailbox. It worked. She was excited to get back to the house. But the third day I tried it, she ran away from me to avoid getting the leash on – we were still inside the house.

I backed off for a month and then started the backyard training. We’d been doing that training for almost a month when we had the mini-success at the vet’s.

Don’t Lose Hope

The training takes time. It will test your creativity to defeat the biggest obstacle. In the end it will pay off.

I’m not at the end point yet with Pandora, but I truly believe this. Despite my many whining sessions, I do believe we’ll get to walk the lake someday.

If you have any tips on what’s worked for you in walking a fearful dog, please share, I would love to hear them.

Other posts you may find interesting: Australian Cattle Dog, Novice Owner