Training tips to keep your dog at home

Neutering, commands, ‘invisible fence’ all key to halting wandering canines

My wife and I live in cottage country and our dog is starting to annoy our neighbours. He is a four-year-old German shepherd mix and he loves to wander off our property and go visit the neighbours. This gets the other dogs in the area worked up and our neighbours upset. We had him neutered last year and then this year we took him for obedience training but he continues to run away from home. How do we get him to stay on our property?

To your credit, you have already taken some important first steps to try to rectify the situation. Neutering greatly reduces roaming in male dogs. Intact males tend to wander and roam more than neutered male dogs.

In your case, this was obviously not sufficient.

Obedience training is also absolutely critical to ensuring that your dog stays on your property. A dog that obeys commands will usually listen when you order it to stay put. However, an incompletely trained dog will only listen when it wants to — and this may well be the case with your dog.

There are some training techniques that may be helpful for keeping your dog at home. Start with the basic command “come” while your dog is on a long retractable-type leash. As you give the command, start to “reel in” your dog. Follow this up with lavish praise or a treat. Repeat this until you no longer need to physically reel in your dog. At that point, you can try without the leash.

If your dog still refuses to obey your command to “come,” you can try the following: Go to a corner of the house and command your dog to “sit” and “stay” while you are on one side of the corner. With your dog still on the leash, go around the corner so that your dog does not see you, then give the verbal command “come” and gently pull your dog toward you. Your dog will think that you have control over it even when it cannot see you. Do this repeatedly until you feel your dog is obedient, then try it without a leash. Remember to follow up with a reward or praise.

Admittedly in some cases, even neutering and a rigorous training program may still not be enough to keep a dog from running away. In these cases, a dedicated fenced-in run may be necessary or you made need to keep him on a leash full time whenever he goes outdoors.

Finally, if all else fails, you can consider looking into an “invisible fence.” Invisible fencing employs an electronic collar that gives off an unpleasant “buzz” whenever your dog wanders beyond a buried cable on your property. Your veterinarian can tell you more about this product and you can research it online.

Whether your dog wanders off or stays close to home, it is always a good idea to have your pet microchipped with an identification microchip just in case he does get lost.

Dr. Bernhard Pukay is an Ottawa veterinarian. Address letters to Pet Care, Ottawa Citizen, P.O. Box 5020, Ottawa K2C 3M4. Email: pets@ ottawacitizen.com. Due to the volume of mail, not all letters can be answered.