Old Trainer: Your role as pack leader with an unruly dog
Dear Old Trainer: Gabe, my 2-year old Ridgeback, knows all the basic commands, runs with me on the desert trails, and is great on the leash most of the time. But every so often, just when I least expect it, he takes off with me holding on. He’s so strong he almost pulled me into the street twice. Should I start lifting weights or what?
Renee, Scottsdale, Arizona
Old Trainer: You don’t control a magnificent beast like Gabe with strength, you control him using canine psychology and will power.
Arnold Rothstein, gambler, bootlegger, and World Series fixer, once advised his protégée, Lucky Luciano, “Never allow your principles to stand in the way of your self-interest.”
Gabe agrees with Arnold. He’s not forgetting the principles you taught him, he’s just putting his own interests first. All dogs do it if they can get away with it. Humans too, for that matter.
When a trained dog ignores his training, he reveals a lack of impulse control combined with a bad habit. Your job as pack leader is to control the impulse and to replace the bad habit with a good one—obeying orders from you.
The way you do it is to interrupt his thought process the instant his attention strays, then praise him when he shifts his focus back to you.
Start the training in a place with few distractions. Carry a rolled-up newspaper. Whack your leg to make noise, order him to sit and say “look at me.” He is not allowed to even glance anywhere but at you for three seconds.
If he looks away, whack your leg with the paper, touch him on the neck with your fingers, and say, “look at me.” Do it every time he looks away. Direct his head with your hand if you need to. If his attention strays, take him out of the sit position, move a few feet, and repeat the exercise. The objective is to teach him to ignore the mailman, that bird flying by, and the cat across the street and focus on you.
When he looks at you for 3 seconds, pet him and brag on him and take a 10 second break for love and play. Do 5 reps each session, 5 sessions a day.
Be relentless. Show Gabe his only option is to obey. Be as tough as the Warden in Shawshank Redemption, but each time he does it right praise him and love on him. Ridgebacks are smart and love to learn, so relax and make a game of it. If you have a good time, Gabe will too.
This is a life and death matter—same as teaching a child to stay out of the street—so be firm and he will learn fast.
Test him by putting the leash on him and taking a walk. Have your newspaper handy. At the first sign he is losing concentration, whack your leg, interrupt him with the sit command and go through the exercise. Don’t take one step unless you get the response you want. If he doesn’t focus on you, take him back to the training area and resume training, beginning with “sit” and “look at me.”
This tactic works with any bad habit. Interrupt bad behavior the instant it occurs, every time it occurs, and you will soon be able to refocus Gabe’s attention with just a word.
This story was originally published June 7, 2020 at 5:00 AM.