What TO Do And NOT To Do If Your Dog Runs Away And Doesn’t Listen

Today I’m going to talk to you about what to do and what not to do if your dog were to suddenly run away from you and not listen when out and about. Here’s a story about what happened yesterday at the park showing what not to do.

I was walking my dogs and this loose dog ran over. As the owner approached her dog acted fearful of her and then ran away. Luckily a stranger was able to capture her dog for her. As she approached her dogs she obviously was feeling emotional. She probably felt embarrassed and angry. So what happened was as she took her dog she took out her emotions on her dog. She most likely was thinking that by acting angry and aggressive towards her dog it would teach the dog to listen to her. Also to not run away from her.

But what she actually was teaching her dog is that if her dog is loose and she approaches her dog something terrible will happen when she actually catches her dog. She literally was teaching her dog to avoid her if the dog were to run away from her in the future. That is probably the same reason why, when her dog was sniffing my dog’s, that as she approached her dog acted fearful and then ran from her.

Keep Your Emotions In Check

It’s very hard for us as humans to not act emotionally. But in order to train our dogs we have to put our emotions on the side. We Must think about what will affect their behavior in the future. So I’m going to tell you what you should do if your dog were to suddenly run away and not listen to you.

If your dog were to run away from you it’s important to quickly assess how dangerous the situation is and act accordingly. For example, if your dog is running towards a busy road and you know that yelling at your dog is going to get your dog to stop in his tracks then do it. Worry about your dog’s safety first and what will keep your dog safe. And then you can think about training later. But in the next example I’m going to talk about what to do is if there isn’t a dangerous situation happening.

If There Isn’t a Dangerous Situation

Say your dogs run away from you at the park and they’re safe. What you can do to get your dog to want to come back to you is to act happy and excited. Instead of acting angry and annoyed which usually makes dogs want to stay away from you. So you can use a high-pitched voice calling them and pat your legs. I wouldn’t suggest approaching your dog but you can go to the side. If your dog is out in front of you, you can run sideways back and forth. Running away from your dog can help but obviously you’re creating more and more distance from your dog. So I suggest zigzagging to the left and the right. And you can actually even approach your dog without them knowing it by slowly zigzagging towards them.

Another idea is dropping treats and running. Still another idea is laying down on the ground and making high-pitched noises. Most dogs find that it’s not a threat if you were suddenly to lay down on the ground. Now if none of that works I suggest going over to your dog in an arc. Especially if they’re distracted by something. Instead of a direct approach you’re going to arc around and try not to look at your dog as you go to approach them.

The Final Step

And the final step is when you do get to your dog. When they’re distracted by something, like a stranger or another dog, you’re going to get your dog in a neutral manner. Because this is going to train them in the future that nothing bad happens when you actually do get them. So say they’re sniffing on the ground you go over and you grab their collar in a neutral manner. Or maybe pick up your little dog in a neutral manner. You must try your hardest not to take out your emotions on your dog. It is going to be a little bit embarrassing if you’re out in public and your dog’s not listening to you.

There are a couple of things you can train now to set yourself up for success if this situation were to happen to you. One is proofing a recall with distractions. Another is teaching tricks that will, as a result, get your dog to come to you because they want to do that specific trick.

Tricks You Can Use

Here are some tricks that you can use. One of them is asking your dog to touch your fingers. Basically you say touch and your dog comes and touches your fingers and then you have a dog that is with you. Or maybe a little dog learns a trick where they jump into your arms. If you have a little dog you can say jump up and then you’ve got your dog. That’s my favorite one for little dogs! Maybe they like weaving through your legs or going between your legs. You can give them that cue and if they love it they’ll come running to do that behavior.

The other thing that you can do is teach your dog what to do if they are ignoring you. Say they’ve run over and they’re smelling another dog and you want to now collect them in a neutral manner. Without training some dogs can find it extremely punishing to be picked up. Also having their collar grabbed and pulled away from something that they like. So in training sessions you can teach your dog to find these behaviors neutral or even pleasant. That way if you do need to go and get your dog they are not seeing you as this really horrible thing that’s coming and spoiling their fun.

For Little Dogs

One thing to do with little dogs is first handling and then work on picking them up. So you’re just going to touch them on their sides and use a marker word. Gradually work on picking them up until they feel comfortable with it. If you have a dog that’s very uncomfortable with being picked up you can teach them to jump on your lap. You bend down and then they jump into your arms rather than them being picked up.

If you have a larger dog you’re obviously not going to have them jump in your arms or carry them. But you can teach them the collar grab. Basically teaching your dog that when you take their collar and lead them it’s simply a cue train with positive reinforcement. It just means move with me in the same way you would train a recall. This way your dog enjoys coming to you and your dog is enjoying being led by you.

Without prior training a lot of dogs find this extremely punishing and intimidating. So when they’re loose and you have to grab their collar and you haven’t trained it you’re basically training your dog not to be caught by you. Then they’re going to start avoiding it if they find it to be a punishing experience.

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