Boundary Training

[BG and Gavin]

Looking for wisdom and experience concerning boundary training.  We will be opening our cottage in 6 weeks.  Our property is not fenced.  I would like to do some training with Gavin to keep him within certain parameters of our property.  I would not let him outside unteathered and unsupervised, but when we are outside with him I want to be able to have him off-leash without him wandering into the bush, into the water or onto the road or other's property.  We have been working dileigently at obedience classes and I practice STOP with him obsessively in preparation for when he spots a rabbit, chipmunk, porcupine etc.  I do realize however, that over-coming prey instinct is a lofty goal, especially for a 7.5 month old GD.  Anyways any experience gladly accepted. 

 

Also if there are any fellow cottagers out there, please consider joining the Cottage Doodle group.  I think that cottage life will pose a number of challenges and fun times and I will need all the help I can get.  Thanks!

[BG and Gavin]

Let me know how the training goes Stella. I am still in the investigative stages. We are going up North (Bruce Peninsula) this weekend and I am curious to see how he does with a little freedom and no fences.

[Eva (Lilo and Rocky)]

I would NEVER trust a dog to stay within an unmarked perimeter unless there was some sort of visible or invisible fence, especially not in the woods where all kinds of critters reside. Dogs are hunters by nature and the instinct can be very strong. I know that firsthand from my own 5 year old dog who - despite having a utility title - disobeys me occasionally if she is onto a particularly exciting scent. My Dad's old German Shepherd who was a retired police dog did the same on several occasions. Dogs will be dogs!

[Ginny Nightingale]

My friend has a collar that she has trained her GD with that has no fence associated with it. You train the dog to come back when they get a vibration from the collar (the collar comes with a video teaching you how to do that) and if the dog does not come, you push a different button which gives a shock similar to the invisible fence. I saw it in action when she brought her dog to my house and the dog came back quickly whenever she gave him the signal on her remote control. It was pretty impressive. Drs. Foster and Smith carry it.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Yes, i have Doggtra collars and the vibrate alone, when i use it, works to get Luca to return but I need to train Calla too. I got mine on Craig's list for less than 1/2 price.

[Leslie du Mont]

I just got done spending a month down at our cottage on the Gulf Coast. Our property is fenced in on three sides, but has the water and a boardwalk by the front fence. Our 1 year old GD Atticus never figured out that he could go around the back yard to get anywhere out front to where the people/bicyclists/driftwood/sea life is and are. :-) When I took him out of the yard, I always kept him on a leash or 25 foot training lead bc I wanted him to be "free" but not "too free." ...Even when we were playing fetch in the bay. ;-)

I need to figure out what to do about bathing him at the beach. We have an outdoor shower that we haven't used yet. I guess I'll have my husband check and see if it has warm water or just cold water. I'll have to get me one of those shampoo nozzles. That sounds cool!! And after smelling our dog with his eye wateringingly bad "bay seasoning" I know that this is a top priority before we go back down there!!!

Good luck with your puppy at the beach this summer!

[BG and Gavin]

Thanks for your reply Leslie. You must join my group "Cottage Doodles." The outdoor bathing is exactly the kinds of things that I want to talk about there. I will insert a link here if I can figure out how to do it :)
http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/cottagedoodles

[Jennifer Tramell]

I think that a lot depends on the personality of the dog. We had a dog for over 15 yrs and we took him everywhere. We could trust him to never go too far. We would walk him around the area and show him where we were staying and tell him "stay close". The cabin on the lake, a 15 acre farm, subdivision, didn't matter he would always stay close. He knew our property line and wouldn't cross into the neighbors grass. It was really remarkable. Our shepherd mix was similar but maily because she stayed with her "big brother". Webster, on the other hand, gets completely distracted when he hears another dog bark and tears off to find the barker. We have moved to a house on 6 acres and there is currently no fence. Webster has run off to the neighbor dogs several times. We have a long soft rope to which we tie him. When he wants in the house, he comes to the door, we untie him, and he comes in. We will eventually get a fence but for now this is way better then him running across the road.

[Natasha]

I had the EXACT same issue and background with "stop."

Here's how it all went down (Rouser had just turned 1).

Rouser approaches the edge of the property line (no fence) - the boundary between our vacation rental and the golf course.

Rouser clearly smells bunnies (he knows them from our home).

I say, "Rouser stop!"

Rouser looks right at me and darts onto the golf course. I start yelling out panicky "ROUSER COME" commands

Single golfer (older man) laughs while husband chases Rouser for 10 minutes and Rouser keeps puppy bowing and then running into the burm where the bunnies live and 10 bunnies at a time dart out of the burm.

Rouser gets put on long lead and sits nicely with the rest of us.

I wish we a better recall at the time, but it has taken us until very recently to get a semi-solid recall down. Even though we can now get him to walk off-leash and come after we let him chase lizards and greet a dog, we are headed back to that same place and he will be on a long-lead because I know those bunnies are just too tempting and I don't want to mess up all the amazing work we've done lately.

Sometimes, you need to make sure you set your doodle up for success :)

[BG and Gavin]

By way of follow up, we have purchased the Petsafe wireless fence as was suggested. Hoping to set it up in a couple of weeks at the cottage. Thanks for all of your help.

[Janette Baillie]

We just purchased the Invisible Fence and so far both dogs have run back and forth thru it several times. We need to do some more training . . . .

I looked into the wireless system like you have, and decided against it as it wasn't a big enough area. I did learn that the older style dimmer switches can interfere with the signal, so if you happen to have dimmer switches at your cottage, it's something to keep in mind.

[BG and Gavin]

Another follow-up. We set up the wireless fence this weekend and began the necessary training. Gavin seemed to catch on right away. He did not actually get shocked during our 3 training sessions. We pulled him away every time the collar began to beep and pretty soon he was doing it on his own. I threw some treats over the line and he walked up to just before the flags and sat down. Next week we will up the distraction level - perhaps a line of children or a pack of dogs to entice him. I believe I read somewhere that he needs to get shocked at least once in order to realize the consequences of breaking the boundary. Anyone have any input on this? By the way, I did not feel comfortable using the collar on him until I took a shock mysself to know the intensity. My loving husband stepped up to the plate and crossed the line with the collar in his hand. He said it surprised him. but was not too intense. So shock tally is Gavin - 0, DH - 1

[Stella]

Glad to hear it is going well for you guys. Our two are now totally trained to the wireless fence, and as soon as they hear the beep will turn around instantly. We play fetch and if I throw the ball too far neither of them will go after it, they just sit down and wait for me to get it for them. We do take them beyond the boundaries for a really good run around (90 feet isn't really that big for two doodles!!), but it allows me to have them outside and off leash with me when I am gardening, washing the car etc etc without having to worry about either of them going too far.