Explanation of why your dog moves away from you quickly and far away
Many people think that this has to do with bonding or dominance, but this is not true. Some breeds tend to have a greater urge to run free as they belong to the Running dogs, hunting dogsn or. Stöberhunde belong. If your dog is one of these breeds, it is normal for him to be very far away from his carer on walks.
Let's take the example of the Weimaraner. This breed falls under the running dogs and Hunting dogs their running and Hunting needs as soon as the lead is taken off. This could be the reason.
Some dogs find it Exciting the environment and set a good pace in the process. Your dog may run far ahead of you and then come back in your direction or explore the area to the left and right of the path. If you have a dog like this, your dog will be well occupied and will notice you less than usual. However, he won't lose sight of you completely. If things get dicey, your dog will be back with you in a matter of seconds.
However, this will not be pleasant for you as a carer and is more likely to be the Feeling that their No connection or have a Loss of control is about to appear. If a deer, fox or hare crosses the path, you will probably think that your dog is about to run away. In most cases, this is the case and it's the same for us trainers. So we need a solution.
- How does the dog remain responsive when it is in its element?
- How can I ensure that my dog doesn't move too far away from me?
- How do I recognise the signs before it's too late?
I'll explain what you should never do first. Most of the time, you make exactly these mistakes and don't realise that you're doing something wrong.
Running behind
Even if you think you can catch up with your dog, you are unlikely to succeed. In most cases, your dog will see this as a Game prompt or thinks you are finally taking part in the rummage. But this behaviour on your part will prevent your dog from coming to you and being put on a lead. So just leave it!
Screaming
For your dog, shouting is more like cheering, if it reaches the dog at all. It is therefore better not to do this, as your voice might make the dog realise that you are angry and keep away from you. Only with very sensitive dogs is shouting sometimes successful, but these dogs don't usually move that far away from their carer.
Punish
Even if we sometimes wish we could punish, this is not an option. Firstly, teletact devices are banned here (animal welfare relevant) and we therefore have no way of punishing directly. The situation is different with these lemon-scented devices or beeping sounds or water splashes. Everyone will have thought that a remote control would be just the thing to punish the dog when it disappears over the horizon.
Imagine now that you are the dog, and you suddenly get the spray of water or the scent of lemon while rummaging around. Would you know what you had just done wrong if you were a hunting predator following your instincts? No, of course not, and that's how the dog feels too.
Assuming you use such devices, this can quickly lead to unpleasant side effects. In the free environment, there are so many opportunities for the dog to associate the punishment incorrectly. It would be different in the laboratory, but that's not where we are. Such associations and unnecessary stress can cause behavioural problems that dwarf all previous problems.
Conclusion: Do not use such devices as a punishment and look for non-violent approaches to solving your problems.
Moving on to the topic of fear?
Hide and seek
Hiding can be a game, but it can also lead to a breach of trust or a big fright in the wrong situation. This hits some dogs very hard and they are sometimes unable to detach themselves from their humans. Other dog characters sometimes don't even notice when their human has suddenly disappeared.
The shock is huge when the carer is gone.
Now imagine what it would be like for you if you were browsing and suddenly your carer was gone. The shock will overwhelm you and exactly in the situation where you actually wanted to establish contact with your carer. So your dog is punished in a situation even though he was looking for contact, which is what you actually expect from him.
Conclusion: It's better not to hide in this situation.
What you can do
Marker signal
Conditioning your dog to a marker signal, e.g. the familiar clicker. This can make your life easier in many situations and can be used as a secondary reinforcer. However, I will go into this in more detail in another report.
If you are not familiar with this method, it is best to work with praise. However, I would advise you to use a neutral marker signal or, even better, the clicker. This is because the dog also recognises your emotions from your voice and the clicker is always neutral.
Always keep an eye on good reinforcement with the dog
As we focus more on reinforcing good behaviour in non-violent training, this means that we reward every situation that is positive in order to encourage this behaviour and thus avoid getting into a situation where we might have to punish.
Conclusion: It must be made worthwhile what we want for a behaviour. This must be at least as rewarding as the reward for misbehaviour. Ideally, the reward for correct behaviour should exceed the reward for misbehaviour. (Not always possible).
Use real amplifiers - also known as primary amplifiers
For you, this means that you need different reward levels during training, which are measured by the weighting of the performance that your dog provides or is directly perceived as a great reward by your dog.
If you see in his eyes: „Wow, that's mega“ or "That doesn't even exist, how great is that? Then you're right and you've found a primary amplifier.
This can be food, or social contact, playing, ball, swimming and dummy search - simply everything that your dog does not have to learn, but perceives as a reward on its own.
On the subject of reward - confirmation?
Let it be exciting with you
As you will have already realised, the environment is varied and therefore exciting for your dog. You can do the same for your dog by rewarding them in a varied way and thus making it exciting for them.
These basic principles actually always apply. „Sometimes more, sometimes less.“ It also depends on the dog's previous life, the type and definitely also on your sensitivities.
How can you train your dog or yourself?
On your next walk, simply pay a little more attention to your dog. We start small by observing the dog and training ourselves to recognise the behaviours that are displayed.
sort and categorise. These can look like the following, for example:
- Slow down
- Stand still
- Eye contact
- Or even come to your neighbourhood
Once you are able to recognise these signs, you will notice that your dog will also show them again and again before he moves too far away from you.
So you can be happy and have the key to a dog that doesn't just run off and forget everything behind it. You should always honour this! It doesn't matter if your dog didn't actually stop because of you, but because there was something to sniff out.
Now use a marker signal or the click to get through to your dog. Of course, the signal must be well constructed and understood. Your dog will now experience a pleasant feeling of anticipation when he hears his marker signal. He will be much more willing to pay attention to you and will expect good things from you.
Capture good behaviour - not the dog
Instead of catching your dog because he runs too far away, from now on you catch good behaviour. Whenever your dog shows one of the behaviours listed above, give your marker signal and at least praise him. This is particularly important if your dog is not willing to accept a reward from you. If he doesn't like the food, it's not a reward for your dog, but he may reward himself. Or he may simply enjoy your praise.
Practise in a distraction-free environment
Now practise the traits in a distraction-free environment and show the dog your varied rewards. He will quickly understand what great things you have in store for him. Slowly increase the distractions and you will be successful.
When you are ready, your dog will also emerge from the exciting dog world to collect a reward from you. His behaviour will now show itself more often in a positive way.
If you practice things more often with slowing down, stopping, coming back and eye contact on your marker signal and varied reinforcers, you will see this behaviour much more often.
You can check your success with the training if you make a tally sheet with the 4 behaviours he displays before the training and if you make another tally sheet after one to two weeks.
You have trained successfully when your tally grows. Stay on the ball and keep practising this way. I would suggest that you build up the recall in the same way and reinforce it properly. Then even longer distances will hardly be a problem. But your dog may no longer see any reason to move so far away from you.
Pay attention to the following when recalling
This way, you don't incorporate any mistakes into your training that have to be painstakingly corrected. Very often the dog is called back exactly when it has gone too far away. Coming is rewarded, which is basically correct. However, a positive recall itself becomes a very accurate predictor of rewards and therefore a so-called tertiary reinforcer, a third-class reinforcer so to speak. The first (primary) reinforcer is the actual reward from you, the second (secondary) reinforcer is the marker signal, because it also promises a reward and the recall promises a reward before the marker signal. This means that your positive recall reinforces the behaviour that your dog showed immediately before.
Reward your dog when it comes to you quickly when called. Even if he was a long way away beforehand. However, I would play it safe and practise the recall at a short distance and incorporate it when the dog stops or looks at you. This way you can train the recall without making mistakes. Once he has arrived, the primary reinforcer will of course follow, i.e. food, play, praise and everything from your reward box that your dog loves.
More on the subject of recalls?
