Kiko is about 5 years old. We have been a family for 2.5 years. We walk 4-8 kms per day. No leash.
He obeys, no, come, sit, and stay in three languages.
There are two times when he won’t come when I say “Come”. One is bath time. And the other is if he is enjoying a morsel he found in the street. I have accepted that.
Yesterday, we were at an outdoor restaurant. Kiko is under the table. I have taught him not to bother the other seated customers. Suddenly, his ears perked up, and he takes a few steps. I see he is checking out a young cat. I tell him “No” and “Come!”. I repeat it. And he takes off after the cat.
Well, I am very pissed. Because we don’t do the leash thing, I need to have voice control.
Am I over-reacting? Or do I need to work on re-enforcing the “Come” command? I am not even sure I can teach him not to chase a cat.
Yeah, I’m gonna add to the chorus. Keep him on a leash. Not only for the dog’s safety, and not only because the law requires it, but out of consideration for other people around you.
You act like the dog is making an almost human like ethical choice of some kind to disobey you. You need to stop anthropomorphizing your dog’s behavior. Dogs are not set and forget. Dogs are pack animals and are constantly testing you. Your methods have gotten lax and sloppy and your dog knows perfectly well what he can get away with. You are being played by an animal with a average brain size of 2.5 ounces. It’s not he dog it’s you who needs to tighten up your procedures.
You taught him that “come” is optional when you let him ignore you all those other times. Even if you hadn’t, no one is perfect. Sometimes the dog is going to mess up, which is exactly why most owners use safeguards like leashes - so a dog’s mistake doesn’t become deadly for it, or another animal.
You are neither over-reacting nor needing to work on reinforcing the "Come’ command; you are derelict in training him to wear a leash b/c the ‘leash thing’ is almost certainly a law where you live and your dog is no more a genius/special snowflake than any other dog in that area.
It is a dog.
There are laws about dogs to keep them and people safe from each other.
You are not above those laws either.
If there’s an unassailable reason you don’t do the ‘leash thing’ like all the other plebian dog owners, then your dog has just shown you he cannot be trusted in public. When he does it next time and gets hit by a car maybe you’ll believe him then?
You need to reinforce come, and introduce a “leave it” command, but most of all, you need to put him on a leash.
The training is for if something happens, a leash breaks, he gets out of your yard, something unusual- bad things can happen to your dog and you have to minimize the chances of that happening as much as possible.
Dog training really boils down to time invested with the animal. And repetition. Well trained dogs (and it sounds like he is very well along) really just want to please their master. Training to the level of ignoring all distractions is an achievable goal if you just put in the time. I previously had a German Shepherd who was so reliable I could put her on sit-stay outside a store on a busy sidewalk, where she would patiently wait for my return for up to around 10 minutes.
Work on “Leave it” (start with food, which he will get to have, after he “leaves it”).
Never, ever call him to something unpleasant like a bath. Go and get him.
If he runs away instead of coming when called, guess what you get to do if he’s not on lead? Chase him and catch him. He gets a firm “no”, and a “come” and you bring him along with you. The leash must go on at that point and he gets to earn off-leash privileges again.
I believe that you’re in Mexico and therefore there may not be leash laws. There are still a lot of excellent reasons for using a leash, including running into traffic after a cat. I do think you have made a solid foundation, and expect that you can achieve even better results with more work. Just remember that this will never be a one-time training project. You must practice to get the result you want. Once you have it, you must practice to keep it.
If daily sessions (they needn’t be long) sound like a drag, then I, too, would recommend the leash when in busy public areas, or in places where failure to obey could pose a danger to your dog or others.
I would hope so. Especially where it’s illegal for the dog to be off leash. The nightmare scenario for me is when another dog is off the leash and instead of being interested in going after a cat and refusing to listen to its owner’s commands comes after my dog. Then it could be injured or perhaps even die, or I’d have to risk getting accidentally bitten to break it up. Or maybe it’s among the tiny % of dogs which can cope with my dog in a fight, but either way dogs are at risk of injury which wouldn’t be if everyone just followed the law.
Sorry OP, that whole idea pisses me off, from the perspective of a town with a leash law. If somehow it’s legal to handle your dog that way where you live, mine can’t be there, and wouldn’t be.
Dogs chasing cats really, really pisses me off. I know it’s in their nature which is why they need to be leashed. This was totally on you. Please leash your dog. I don’t car if it’s legal or not. What if he takes off after a kid running? Or another dog?
Why is it so important to not have him on a leash? An ego thing?
I’ve seen dogs trained to the point that they will not chase a cat, and would not eat a chunk of steak in front of their nose without explicit voice command from their owners, but that’s a pretty extraordinary level of training, and probably not all dogs are capable of it (or owners capable of delivering it).
Reinforce the ‘stay’ command, with a leash, at least in situations like the one you described - where the dog running off could be hugely disruptive.
I don’t see any point where the OP asked about whether or not they should use a leash.
OP, I personally would never ask pet questions here. They, like social issue questions, produce threads that are more about judging the owner than answering the question. If you respond in any other way than acquiescing to the demands, it will just get worse. May even wind up closed.
That doesn’t mean you won’t get posts like Mangetout’s that actually answer the question. But be prepared for a lot of attacks. If you do continue on in this thread, respond to the real answers, not the incriminations.
Of course, you can do what you want. But I just wanted to warn you. I’ve seen it go bad so many times. I personally don’t consider it worth it.
I think it’s fair to say that a lot of the posts about the leash are arising out of incredulity - you can’t just drop a comment like “we don’t do the leash thing” and expect complete unspluttering acceptance. It’s a provocative statement, even if it wasn’t intended that way.
I don’t agree that it’s like social issues where people judge (separate question). It’s somebody setting out the premise that they act in a very probably illegal* and definitely irresponsible way, so how should they go about it in the details? They can’t except any reasonable audience not to question the premise.
Anyway the person is asking on the interwebs. They really need a ‘warning’ that anyone and everyone can respond within reason (there have been no personal insults etc) as they please?
*leash laws are common enough, especially inside a town, which is clearly implied by ‘outdoor restaurant’, to expect a clarification that it was legal to have the dog off leash in that place if in fact that’s the case.
