Train dog to stay within gates?

Dingle_berry

Is it possible to train a dog to stay within a garden? How is it done? I won't use shock collars or fences or things like that.

My guy is about six, some kind of Papillion mix. He is very eager to please and get praise but also very nosey and curious. Theres a big garden that he loves galloping around. The only entrance/exit is an electric (not electrified!) gate. The gates are slow to close. It has happened a few times that as someone leaves he gets out and ends up locked out. He stays by the gate barking and somewhat stressed.
I would like to train him to avoid the gates altogether if possible - any suggestions?

Stheno

Ime you will need some sort of barrier, it could be as simple as chicken wire just to set a boundary for him

once the boundary is set, most dogs don't want to cross it

aonb

My neighbour has a slow closing electric gate. Her dogs have got out and strayed off twice. She was lucky she got them back. But now the iron rule in her house is, that if the dogs are out front, you dont pull away from the gates - i.e car stops close up to gate - until they close, so that the dogs dont get out. Not a solution I know but a habit that you could get in to that might help while you are training him to stay back from the gates - Im sure some of the training 'experts' will be along soon with good advice

DBB

Hi OP,
Ideally, you'd need to try to ensure that your little dog just isn't out in the garden, with access to that front gate, when there's someone leaving.

However, you can teach a dog to not cross a visual, non-physical boundary, but bear in mind that this is nowhere near failsafe: it can't be! No boundary is failsafe unless it is too high, or otherwise too difficult for a dog to cross. But you know that, I'm just covering my butt here

So, do bear that in mind, that I give the following advice on the assumption that you don't rely on it for your dog's safety! And I would not recommend this AT ALL for lack of a full garden boundary, just for a small, sometimes unsecured section of a boundary such as in this case.

Okay, here goes. I'd suggest that at some distance from the gate, you make some sort of line, a visual signal to the dog that you will teach him not to cross. You could, for example, use spray paint, or a line of posts or flags stuck in the grass, or a rope stretched between pegs at eye-height to the dog (not very high in this case!), or even just a rope lying on the ground. Whatever you decide on, this line should be a good bit back from the gate.
Once your line is in place, put your dog on a lead. Approach the line with him, and just as you get to it, give the dog a verbal cue.. "Go back", or "No cross", or somesuch. Immediately after you say it, run back into the safe part of the garden with your on-lead dog, and give him a delicious treat.
Do this again, and again, and again at different parts of the line.
You should notice that after a few days, as you approach the line, your dog will start to become a little hesitant, perhaps looking at you, waiting for the reaction. At this point, you can start to progress it.

Put a harness on your dog, and a light but long rope/strong cord attached to the back-ring. Now walk to the line again, this time giving your dog a small amount more freedom to approach the line without you right beside him. As he gets close to the line, issue your verbal command, and run back into the safe part of the garden again, treating him as you get there, just as you've been doing all along.
Again, you should notice after a while that your dog is hesitant about approaching the line with you a small distance away from him, and will come away from the line at your command, without you being right next to him.

Now make your distance from him a little greater, still holding your long rope. And do the same all over again, until you can see that your dog is hesitant about crossing the line, and will return to you in the garden at your command.

Next, give your dog the full length of the harness-rope, allowing him to trail it behind him, but staying close enough to the end of it that you can stand on it in a hurry if need be, and start testing your training! Play with your dog out in the garden, get him distracted, and if he approaches the line during play, issue your command again: if he stops at the line, BINGO! He should come back to you for his treat. But do continue to practise this, and if at any stage he looks like he's going to cross the line, get to the end of your rope so that you can stop him, and bring him back into the safe part of the garden from a distance.

Once he is pretty reliable, it's time to start practising in a life-like setting: enlist the help of some friends to drive out your gate, whilst you play it cool in the garden with your dog on the long rope, running about. As the car leaves, if your dog heads for the gate, you know what to do! As he gets to the line, issue your command, be prepared to jump onto the end of that rope, and have a party when he comes back for his treat!

By practising it a number of times in this real-life way, you will build up confidence in your dog, and your training, to get to the stage where you can let him off that rope when out in the garden, in the knowledge that he should (*should*:o) stop at the line. Again, I emphasise that events could happen that motivate your dog to cross the line more than coming back to you, and example of how this may not be failsafe, at least for every dog.

Eventually, you may be able to get rid of the line in stages, and you must do this gradually, because your dog should eventually just get into the habit of not going beyond a certain point, even though he can't see it any more.
Needless to say, this should never be relied upon when you're not there, and you do need to make sure you're about (or someone else who's done a bit of this training with your dog) when the car-leaving situation arises. There's a good chance that he would stop at the line even if you're not there, but no guarantees!

Frigga_92

OP, we have trained our 3 dogs not to go down our driveway without us. We have no gate on our property but have a long driveway and this is bordered by huge evergreen trees so it is fairly enclosed. Our older dog, a great dane, was fairly easy to train, we allowed him to go to the top of the driveway but if he went any further we just said no, we were very consistent and he has never once strayed further but he is a very clingy dog so that probably has something to do with it as well.

Our other two dogs, german shepherds, were a bit more difficult to train and will still chase a strange car away down the driveway (not a bad thing in fairness to them) but never go on the road. We did something similar to what DBB suggested with an extendable lead and commands. The younger german shepherd, who is only just gone 1 year, is very good and doesn't have slip ups but our other german shepherd, who is around 2 and a rescue dog who had a rough life before she came to us, is way more protective of the house and wants to be in the business of every car that comes up our driveway so will still give chase on occasion if she's given the opportunity so we have to watch her carefully.

However, we never let our dogs outside on their own unless it's Summertime and we leave the back door open and are in and out of the garden ourselves a lot. They tend to just lie there in the Summertime anyway.

Dingle_berry

Thanks for the advice guys. He's very obedient and eager to please so I think he will pick up this new trick quickly.

It is of course only a bit of backup and no replacement for keeping an eye on the nosey bugger!

One last question - does this framework work with all training in general? Show the dog what you want it to do (or get it to do it), praise it when it does it, keep repeating while gradually lessening your direct/immediate control?

DBB

Dingle_berry wrote: »

One last question - does this framework work with all training in general? Show the dog what you want it to do (or get it to do it), praise it when it does it, keep repeating while gradually lessening your direct/immediate control?

That's pretty much what it boils down to for a lot of stuff alright! However, I would not rely on praise alone when you're introducing a brand new skill: food treats really switch most dogs on, and are a fantastic motivator. Used in conjunction with verbal praise, they can be gradually phased down so that the accomplished dog gets random, occasional food treats for the skill... but always gets warm verbal praise.

boardbrowser

Really great advice and a nice working protocol by DBB. Might i add that when the behaviour looks really polished that you 'proof' or test the training.
This might involve you placing something on the other side of the visual boundary, say for instance a toy/ treat. You are in effect creating a scenario that might tempt your dog to cross to 'the dark side'.
allow your dog to see you place the item/object and when he gets too close ( say 10 feet ) that you immediately give him the verbal cue ( too close etc) and then call him back to you and reward with a really high value treat ( lunchmeat should make a nice impression maybe even jackpot with several tiny pieces given in succession but do so intermittently during advanced training ).
I find that incorporating somewhat of a 'worried' tone of voice works well when you give verbal prompt( too close etc) so as to condition your dog to a real life situation should he cross the visual boundary that has been set as you are not likely to have a jolly 'come here ' voice when concerned about his safety should he head out the gate towards the road.

kristian12

Some great advice there, i would also say every now and again repeat the training as it can do no harm to reinforce what's already learnt.

As to the training not being fall proof, my 2 are very good and have never had an interest in crossing the boundary wall (or going through the gate) even though it's only 3ft high even when we are stood the other side of it they just stand watching. Until the 1 day a friend came with her dog and as both her boy and mine can be cantankerous we decided to walk them 2 minutes up the road together leaving the little lady behind. Well she was having none of it and cleared the wall after us in 1 leap . My fault entirely i should have put her on the lead as well. There is now a trellis on top of the wall