how to get a dog not to bolt out of the door?

[misdee]

help please???

if the front door is opened a smidge ralphie gets out and runs amock.
#atm his recall is pretty shit, so we're working on that. but not ideal when i'm racing after him praying he doesnt leg it down an alley and onto the main road.

please please adviswe.

[bumpybecky]

can you put his lead on and hang into him before you open the door?

or would it be possible to out a stair gate up a couple of metres inside the door, blocking the rest of the hall? (depends on house layout)

or build a porch on so you've got two doors?!

[Happymm]

Teach him to wait-we are doing this all the time at the mo. Our pup has to wait to come out of her crate-if she makes a move before I release her I shut the door in her face-literally! Though gently of course. She got it pretty quickly TBH. She also has to wait to go through doors and for treats and for her food-that's the hardest, as she's a lab :o She's getting to about 3seconds for that! Once he can wait reliably then he should wait to command at your front door too.
If not-keep him on an indoor lead.
Good luck :o

[misdee]

we have a gate.

and he can wait, for food, etc. inside the house his door manners are pretty good and if my and dh are there he doesnt do it.

but if its one of the kids he bolts.

yesterday i spent time in the street waving a bag of freeze dried lamb, whilst callinmg 'ralph come!' over and over. he thought it was a great game and it turned into a manic doodle dash.

[musicposy]

I could be wrong here (like one of those parents blessed with children who sleep through the night and thinks it's actually down to their great parenting ), but I've always thought our two dogs are excellent when we open the door because we've never tried to stop them going out when we open the door, so it's no big deal to them. I notice most people's dogs have to be restrained at the door, but we've never bothered to even try with ours. So I tend to open the door and neither of them bat an eyelid; if I am going to the car or to do something on the front garden they will sometimes follow me out there and then back in again, but not bother to go any further. Most of the time our older dog Budgen doesn't even bother to go out at all. The only thing I do do is keep a box of treats to shake by the door if a cyclist/ jogger/ group of dogs come past, because Poppy (Jack Russell/ spaniel x) can still have dodgy recall at times. Weirdly, she's better at not roaming off outside our house than anywhere. I think it's because it feels to her much like the back garden - generally pretty boring.

It took a bit of nerve at first (and a pocket full of very smelly, high value treats) doing it with Poppy but despite her sometimes challenging recall , I was very keen for her to be like Budgen is - utterly reliable at the front door. I started by opening the door, walking to the car nonchalantly, turning and walking back inside and praising Budgen like mad with food, ignoring Poppy all the way. Poppy couldn't resist following back inside to see what the fuss was and then I praised and treated her like mad. I then just built on that.

I remember my dog as a child (sheltie, same as Budgen) was always restrained, never allowed near the door, and one day he got out by mistake. The excitement completely overcame him and he ran over a mile through the village being chased by us. I always remember how distraught I was - he was so lucky not to run under a car/ be stolen/ get completely lost. I made my mind up then that when I had a dog opening the front door would be no big deal so I had peace of mind.

I have to say, though, that we do live on a very quiet road on a housing estate with no through access, non existent traffic (it's almost entirely old people who don't drive) and a big circular green in front of the house, so I'm pretty confident of their safety. Plus Poppy is very food orientated, so I know she'll immediately coming back inside with a half decent treat on offer should she look like she's going to stray into even the slightest danger. She's never refused the treat in favour of staying outside - and once again, I realise lots of dogs are not like this.

So this may be a completely impractical suggestion - and I'm happy to be flamed by those who know better! Just that it worked for us, with two completely different character dogs (one of whom has quite challenging behaviour at times ).