During the hot summer months, dog owners tend to go out with their 4-legged pals more often, which is good. But not until your beloved pet starts bolting down the street, chasing people around and causing general mayhem. Well, every dog owner has experienced getting in trouble because of these stunts.
If you want to teach your dogs to stay in the yard even without a permanent fence in place or to stay out of areas they shouldn’t go to, yard boundary training is importance. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Preparation
Purchase marker flags from your local hardware store. These flags shall be used as a visual boundary in addition to the invisible dog fence.
You will also need treats like roast beef, grilled chicken or any treat that your dog will go crazy for. A clicker can also be used to communicate to your dog that she did the right thing.
Boundary training flag
Start the training inside the house. Show your dog a boundary training flag. Once the dog touches it with her nose, call her to you and give her a treat. Then, place the flag a few feet away from you and give her a treat once she returns to you. Do this a couple more times until you condition your dog to move away from the flag.
Go outside
Before you move the training outside, it would be best to work with your dog for at least a week in order to make sure that they understand that they’re supposed to move away from the flag.
Place the stick end of the training flags into the ground at about 8 to 10 foot intervals. Use a leash and walk your dog around the boundary of the yard. When she targets a flag, click and give her a treat.
You are conditioning the dog to return to you once she sees the flag. Practice with your dog several times a day for about a week. Eventually, this will become an involuntary response to the dog.
Train off-leash
Continue training with your dog outside, but this time remove the leash. Walk your dog around the boundaries again. Make sure to reinforce your dog often during the training. Also, survey the scene before removing the leash. If there is too much distraction, you might want to put her back on leash.
