Always wanting to be the first.....

868 Views 10 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Lori Z, Oct 9, 2011

RemRem's Mom

Discussion Starter · Oct 5, 2011

Hoping I can get some more ideas on how to make my boy not run me over getting out of the car. When we go places in the car and stop to get out he wants to get out with me at the exact same time. Which at 72 pounds is not very comfortable and I do not like it for safety reasons. He is always on his leash in the car and I make sure I have a good hold of him before I even think about opening the car door. I have him sit and tell him to wait and slowly open the door and keep telling him wait. Sometimes this works other times he gets overly excited. My trainer told me to start making him stop and wait at all door ways so he gets the idea of he can't go unless I release him. If my husband and I go it makes it easier because one of us gets out and makes him stay till released. Keep in mind I can put his favorite treat on the ground and till him to wait and he will not touch it till I release him. (It must be hard because he will look up or around just not at his treat

). Thanks for any help you can give me.

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melbrod

· #2 · Oct 5, 2011 (Edited)

Consistency--practice the exit process the same way every single time. My husband is a practitioner of the commonly used Erratic Training Method; consequently I still deal with this problem from time to time....grrrrr....

You could also treat your dog while he is sitting and waiting. That reinforces for him that that is the correct behavior. If you treat after he moves and gets out of the car, you've just taught him the wrong thing.

That's my best shot at it. Good luck!

Oh, with the treat on the ground thing--along the same lines--I will actually throw the food around and the dog is expected to stay--but I always make sure I then pick up the food and give it to him while he is staying. I don't release the dog to get up and get the food for himself. Again, that emphasizes to him that he is never to go after the food on his own but is to wait until I give it to him.

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Adara

· #3 · Oct 5, 2011

RemRem's Mom said:
Hoping I can get some more ideas on how to make my boy not run me over getting out of the car. When we go places in the car and stop to get out he wants to get out with me at the exact same time. Which at 72 pounds is not very comfortable and I do not like it for safety reasons. He is always on his leash in the car and I make sure I have a good hold of him before I even think about opening the car door. I have him sit and tell him to wait and slowly open the door and keep telling him wait. Sometimes this works other times he gets overly excited. My trainer told me to start making him stop and wait at all door ways so he gets the idea of he can't go unless I release him. If my husband and I go it makes it easier because one of us gets out and makes him stay till released. Keep in mind I can put his favorite treat on the ground and till him to wait and he will not touch it till I release him. (It must be hard because he will look up or around just not at his treat ). Thanks for any help you can give me.

Self control, impulse control games. Google its yer choice on youtube.

I do not ASK for sits at the door. I shape it. I start simple. I wait until they sit, I release, then I open the door. I slowly work up them staying in a sit while I open the door. This is a process and you take baby steps.

Does he ride in a crate or harness/seatbelt? If not that wou dbe my first step for safety more than anything. Then I'd again go about it slowly. I wouldn't "ask" for it verbally. When I open the crate if my dog starts to bolt, I shut the door. Sorry charlie. That's not how it works. They learn the crate doesn't open until they wait calmly.

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RemRem's Mom

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 5, 2011

Adara said:
Self control, impulse control games. Google its yer choice on youtube.

I do not ASK for sits at the door. I shape it. I start simple. I wait until they sit, I release, then I open the door. I slowly work up them staying in a sit while I open the door. This is a process and you take baby steps.

Does he ride in a crate or harness/seatbelt? If not that wou dbe my first step for safety more than anything. Then I'd again go about it slowly. I wouldn't "ask" for it verbally. When I open the crate if my dog starts to bolt, I shut the door. Sorry charlie. That's not how it works. They learn the crate doesn't open until they wait calmly.

Thanks I'll look at those videos when I get home tonight. Right now he just sits in the car, but have looked at the seatbelt for dogs. My question is do they work? I do not have any friends that have tried them and hate buying things that really do not do what they say. The crate is not an option because my one car is a two door sports car and the other a four door but there is not enough room in the backseat for his crate. Thank you so much for the tips and let the training continue.

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RemRem's Mom

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 5, 2011

melbrod said:
Consistency--practice the exit process the same way every single time. My husband is a practitioner of the commonly used Erratic Training Method; consequently I still deal with this problem from time to time....grrrrr....

You could also treat your dog while he is sitting and waiting. That reinforces for him that that is the correct behavior. If you treat after he moves and gets out of the car, you've just taught him the wrong thing.

That's my best shot at it. Good luck!

Oh, with the treat on the ground thing--along the same lines--I will actually throw the food around and the dog is expected to stay--but I always make sure I then pick up the food and give it to him while he is staying. I don't release the dog to get up and get the food for himself. Again, that emphasizes to him that he is never to go after the food on his own but is to wait until I give it to him.

I have a husband that is the same way and I told him he is going to obedience class so he can learn. lol For the most part if I tell him how I want Rem's training handled he does a good job listening but he is very forgetful and not as patient as I am. But in this matter its going to take a lot of repeat training and my neighbors might think I'm strange as I get in and out of my car and never go anywhere.

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Adara

· #6 · Oct 5, 2011

RemRem's Mom said:
Thanks I'll look at those videos when I get home tonight. Right now he just sits in the car, but have looked at the seatbelt for dogs. My question is do they work? I do not have any friends that have tried them and hate buying things that really do not do what they say. The crate is not an option because my one car is a two door sports car and the other a four door but there is not enough room in the backseat for his crate. Thank you so much for the tips and let the training continue.

My friend uses a harness for her male Dobe. She has a small Mitsubishi car that won't fit a Doberman crate. I think some brands work better than others. It might be worth doing a search here.

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Gia's Mom

· #7 · Oct 6, 2011

I taught Gia to sit at the Door always untill I enter with the sit and wait command. She tried to start jumping out everytime the door opened to our SUV. Sine she is a pup she had to learn to wait so we can help her so she doesn't jump that far down. I found to teach her to wait at the car door by opening the door and immediatly turning around an giving her a treat and saying sit wait. While she chomped away I would than say unload she would stand and have her attention on me not just jumping out. She is food driven so it was pretty easy to teach. Good luck. I know how it felt with Gia pouncing on me getting out

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Lori Z

· #8 · Oct 6, 2011

Eli has been taught to wait but he is a doberman after all...so on that note the other day I opened the back of the car at his most fun place the park and much to my surprise he jumped right out. I put him right back in and closed the back door again, opened it and made him stay in the back with it opened while I slowly got ready, getting his ball in the chuck it, yawning, turning slowly, flexing my arm. HA! Then I told him ok. I then had him "hup" back inside and repeated the whole thing one more time without telling him to wait just expecting him to as he was taught. He got it.

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mmctaq

· #9 · Oct 6, 2011

I do not screw around with this... "Get Out Of The Car Without Permission And DIE!!!" is one of the first things I teach. I will practice everywhere (starting in a closed garage, if I have to) and my goal is to be able to walk away from a car with all of the doors wide open and the dog staying inside. Failure to obey car door etiquette is one of the few true sins my dogs can commit, and the consequence will be whatever is necessary for dogs to completely understand this.

I have had two puppies enrolled to start class with me and get dead before the class session even began... one of them was the result of bolting a car door (a tiny toy puppy, and it was killed by someone closing the door on it). I have three times seen dogs race into Petsmart by themselves... luckily, they knew where they were when they bolted and came straight into the store instead of going for the main road just some yards away... of the three times, twice it was the same pair of Dalmatians... how does it happen that someone KNOWS that their dogs do this, and they STILL open the car door without having leashes on the dogs???

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mmctaq

· #10 · Oct 6, 2011

Lori Z said:
Eli has been taught to wait but he is a doberman after all...so on that note the other day I opened the back of the car at his most fun place the park and much to my surprise he jumped right out. I put him right back in and closed the back door again, opened it and made him stay in the back with it opened while I slowly got ready, getting his ball in the chuck it, yawning, turning slowly, flexing my arm. HA! Then I told him ok. I then had him "hup" back inside and repeated the whole thing one more time without telling him to wait just expecting him to as he was taught. He got it.

I clicked the "Thanks" button on this because of your pitching your dog right back in the car and making him do it right, twice, while making it more difficult. Then, your first sentence caught me... "but he is a Doberman after all"... are you saying that you would expect a Doberman to be less obedient or less able to resist temptation than another dog?

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Lori Z

· #11 · Oct 9, 2011

mmctaq said:
I clicked the "Thanks" button on this because of your pitching your dog right back in the car and making him do it right, twice, while making it more difficult. Then, your first sentence caught me... "but he is a Doberman after all"... are you saying that you would expect a Doberman to be less obedient or less able to resist temptation than another dog?

Yes actually. I have never had a dog this stubborn. I am a herding breed person, lived with several GSD's and aussie's. Eli's lessons took much longer. I have always trained my dogs to stay in the car until told they could leave and in fact could leave any of them in the car with the windows all the way down for hours, not that I recommend this for most people and I lived in a small rural mountain town. Eli has tested, tested and tested again, that is his particular nature. So yes my doberman has been more difficult, impossible(?) nope not at all but he does push boundaries in a way no other dog I have ever owned has. At almost 3 he should not have jumped from the car but he did. I consider myself an experienced trainer, I trained a ScH I GSD dog and titled several others (I am not on par with some of the great trainers on here but I can hold my own with large intense dogs) but Eli, well my Eli is something else. Is he well trained, yes for the most part but occasionally he still does what he wants like getting out of the car that day and I have to remind him. I didn't think this was unusual with dobermans from what I read on here.

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