It's frustrating when your dog doesn't stay close to you on walks, whether they are leashed and especially when off leash! Take a look at these 4 easy ways to teach your dog to want to stay near you, even in the face of distractions! Let’s face it, the environment will always win when it has more interest and value to your dog than you do! So we have to build value for staying with you each time you go on a walk or hike.
Start this behavior on a long line, then dragging a long line, then a shorter line, then off leash in a safe area.
Make sure the food you are using is worth it for your dog to come take it! Real meat, smelly food, whatever he REALLY likes! Be generous with reinforcers in the early stages!
1. Following this process captures the desired behavior of staying close to you. When your dog stops to sniff, stop with her. That will keep the distance shorter that she has to return to you when you mark and treat her. This makes it easier for her to earn a reinforcement at first. It also increases the rate of reinforcement so your dog will remember to engage with you more often. Over time you can increase the distance you travel.
Next (separately) gradually wean the dog off the mark and treat and just reward for the longest returns. Keep playing with a toy toss at the end of the training session.
2. Start with a shorter walk so your dog’s arousal level stays lower and he can still think about his connection to you rather than the environment taking over. Walk your path then come back to the starting point. Retrace your steps over the same path. It's as easy as that! You will see a HUGE improvement just doing that!
3. Capture any attention your dog gives you. Mark and treat the instant your dog turns his head towards you, turns his body back toward you, Or other wise acknowledges that you art with him. Feed the food at your side where you want your dog to eventually be.
4. Apply Premack Principle by tossing a toy or playing tug after two rounds on the path or sending your dog to sniff something after you have put him back on leash. This helps to give an extra reinforcement for your dog paying attention to you.
Once the dog is tired, they get overstimulated and think of you less often and the environment more often. Every dog has a different limit depending on where they are in mental maturity and attention span so choose the distance wisely. If he does get overexcited, stop and take a break. In the early stages of training, it might mean going back to the car or go home. Later on you might sit on a bench or log and lay your dog down for a calming break. If your dog is off leash, leash him up for 10 minutes to calm down while you continue your walk before unleashing him again. Unleashing to give freedom is another form of applying Premack Principle. It reinforces the previous leash walking.
When we started Clover in this process at about 10 months of age in wilderness areas, her attention time was about 15 minutes before we needed to take a break. When we got our other dog Lucy at 22 months of age, her mental attention span off leash was about 25 minutes before she would lose general focus on us. Over time we gradually increased the duration and both dogs attention spans increased.
Previous foundations I did with Clover to help her want to engage with me despite higher level distraction locations were: teaching her to play with and retrieve the bumper to me and I taught arm motions then hand signals to send her around cones and other objects. This helped her to learn to pay attention to my body language and watch me more often. If you use only verbal or sounds for signals, the dog doesn't have to pay attention to you and will just wait to hear your cues. This means YOU have to initiate the dog coming back, rather than the dog taking on the responsibility of a check in with you. This is called an “auto check-in” or “default check in”.
Keep your dog close when running off leash, prevent him from running away using these four tricks! They help to lower your dog's arousal on walks to keep him in responding and in thinking mode.
