Dog Park Troubles

[Guest hplove45]

Hey all, I'm back after some time spent just lurking. I have a question regarding my greyhound Neville's behavior at the dog park. Whenever we're alone, Neville is the most perfectly behaved dog and always obeys my every command. However, it seems like all hell breaks loose whenever we're in the company of other people, particularly at the dog park. At the park he spends his time traveling from person to person to see who will pet him next, and sometimes he even follows other families to the gate and tries to leave with them! He NEVER listens to me, and when it's time to go I have to chase him down, put the leash on him, and literally drag him out the gate and to the car. My friends' dogs don't even need their leashes on when they leave; they follow their owners to the gate. Neville shows absolutely no loyalty. The dog park is huge, and so unlike with other dogs who stay close to their owners or at least come to check up on them once in a while, it usually happens that Neville never comes within ten feet of me the entire time we're at the park and never acknowledges me, despite me trying to follow him around to make sure he isn't getting into trouble. I have tried bringing treats with me to coax him to walk nicely to the car when it's time to leave, but it doesn't seem to work. Help! And thanks in advance.

[kudzu]

Practice, practice, practice. Start in an easy situation & get reliable response. Then go up slowly to ever more distracting environments. If people are the big distractor then work with first one person around then as response become reliable add another person.

 

If your dog is not responding to you in the park situation then don't waste your breath. You will only be teaching the dog that those words are meaningless. You likely need to cease visits to the dog park for now. Work on training, reliable response, response time, etc. When things are working better overall try the park in off times when there are few people or dogs.

 

Also, be sure to add in the catch & release method. Catch your dog, give a big reward & then release him to go back to play. If you have an established pattern already of dragging him out & him avoiding you then you need to work in a completely different area, use a different command, different body language, different treats, heck use a different leash. Any or all of those things could actually be cues to him that it's catch & drag time. (I am not criticizing you but merely trying to show it from a dog's perspective.)

 

If you want a place to start for training go here for the Levels Training system: http://sue-eh.ca/page24/page26/ This system makes training as easy & understandable as any other I've ever seen. Best of all it is highly effective. Please give it a shot. Ask if you have any questions about it.

 

Good luck.

[MaryJane]

I would suggest avoiding the dog park for the time being because you will reinforce negative behavior.

 

You mentioned that he listens to you when you are alone but, what about when walking? I'm thinking you might need to bring your dog to places like dog food stores so he starts to learn that not all people all going to pet him.

 

Do you have a fenced in yard - if yes, how is his recall there?

 

Have you taken him to obedience classes?

[Guest mariah]

Also, be sure to add in the catch & release method. Catch your dog, give a big reward & then release him to go back to play. If you have an established pattern already of dragging him out & him avoiding you then you need to work in a completely different area, use a different command, different body language, different treats, heck use a different leash. Any or all of those things could actually be cues to him that it's catch & drag time. (I am not criticizing you but merely trying to show it from a dog's perspective.)

 

Yep! The treats probably aren't working well in this situation, because he's more motivated by socializing with others. So when teaching him recall in the dog park, you'll want to use that as your reward. If he learns that 90% of the time you calling him over and snapping on the leash means a quick snack and then back to socializing, he'll be happy to come when you call.

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

Ok, think about your hound. Not what you expect, but look at things from your hounds perspective. They have never had recall training. They have never been turned out in a large area with different people. They have never had the opportunity to be in such a large open space. Now, you have the hound for a short time, and put the hound into this new open space, lots of people, differnt smells than what they are used to. You expect the hound to act like other people's dogs that have been raised in a home with a human.

 

As has been suggested, you need to take your hound to obedience class, that is a start. If you are going to take him to a dog park, I suggest you really work on recall with something like a sports whistle. This will work much better than the human voice, it is much louder, more specific of a sound, and will carry over wind noise and other things.

 

To work a sports whistle recall, you need two people in a quiet environment with NO distractions, such as a fenced yard:

1) cut up some tasty hot dogs into small slivers

2) each person takes a plastic baggie full of slivers

3) you both stand 5' apart

4) one person blows the whistle, when the dog looks at the sound, you give a sliver of hot dog

5) alternate who blows the whistle, as the hound gets better at the sound/reward system, start moving apart

6) work your way apart as far as possible

7) once you have the hound running between the people, add a visual que to the sound (such as waving your arm above your head back and forth)

8) when you run out of room where you are practicing, then try the dog park (go at a time when not many people are around)

9) try it at the dog park.

 

The reason I say to add a visual que is because if you are separated by a large distance (say 300 yards or so) and there are people between you and your hound, your hound may go to the closest human. By adding the que, the hound will look for the movement and since they are sight hounds, they can see 1/2 mile away and will recall to the correct person.

 

Also, dont ever let your hound "follow" you in an unfenced area, regardless of how long you have had him and how "trustworthy" his recall may be, believe me its not worth it.

 

 

Chad

[Guest sheila]

when I have taken a new hound to the dog park the first thing I do is take a long lead (not a flexi lead) and work on recall. I let the hound out, and then call him/her back. If they come back I treat. If they don't come back I reel them in and walk a little and start over. When I have done this a number of times with success I start off leash. The minute the off leash goes wrong I collar them up and go back to Step One. This has worked with all but one hound. I had one hound running dead out for a stream in the dog park but since it was 45 degrees and muddy I called for him to STOP! The brakes went on so fast he actually skidded in the mud and trotted back to me.

However it isn't 100%. I had one little gal that was as stubborn as the day is long and no amount of the above ever worked on her. The minute she was off leash she went deaf and it ALWAYS took me 45 minutes to corral her at the dog park. Good luck!

[Guest MnMDogs]

When I used to take Matty to a large fenced area to play, before I let her off a leash I made sure she would respond to treats. "Want a cookie" worked way better than calling her name! I made it a game, let her run and play and take off then yell "Want a cookie???" and she would come flying back to me. But that was one of the most food motivated hounds I'd ever met.

[Hubcitypam]

At the park he spends his time traveling from person to person to see who will pet him next

This was Buck. He'd circle the edges, pee and poop then spent the rest of his time walking under strangers hands. If I could get a lab or border collie to chase a ball he *might* chase them. Other than that it was all about sucking up to human strangers.

sometimes he even follows other families to the gate and tries to leave with them!

Rex did better than that . He'd just stand at the gate the whole time hoping someone...anyone...would get him out of there.

 

Finally I asked myself if I was going to the dog park for them or to make me think I was a better dog Mom.

 

Except for the water access, they both hated it. After Poodle was almost disembowled by some small and medium dogs we just quit going. IMO dog parks and open play daycare situations are fabulous things for labs, goldens, etc. but very few greys do well in either unless it is an all greyhound crew.

[GeorgeofNE]

If your dog doesn't have reliable recall, you should not have him off leash at the dog park IMHO.

 

Every time you call him, and he doesn't respond, and you have no way of compelling him to (e.g. a long line, which is obviously not going to work at a park with a Greyhound), you are training him more and more that "come" is not something he has to do.

 

Please don't feel I'm being critical. My Greyhound wouldn't come when he was called if I had filet mignon and a potato, if he didn't feel like it. Which is one of many reasons we do not visit dog parks.

[Fruitycake]

If you are up for reading, there is a great book about bonding: Bonding with your Dog: a trainer's secrets for building a better relationship by Victoria Schade (Howell Book House, 2009). It is about how obedience isn't always due to a close connection to your dog - how obeying when you are close and there are no distractions is easy-peasy work, but how hard it is when there are other really great things that take precidence in the dog's eyes. It sounds like your situation - you've got a dog that likes and listens to you when you're the only game in town, but you aren't "all that" to him when there are other potential things out there. And if he's not paying attention to you in the dog park and whenever you do manage to catch him you leave, you are actually *punishing* him for being caught (getting caught = fun times end = I don't want that!). Mariah has the great suggestion that at least a couple of times after you go to the park and you DO catch him, treat him and reward him with what he really wants - more socialization time (so he doesn't think "crud, my person is trying to catch me and take me away from here").

 

It takes work to get your dog to always (or 90% of the time, because always is a myth) think you are absolutely the BEST thing in his universe. Certainly there are going to be situations where something else will deafen your dog, but it seems that any other human within reach has that ability, which means you need to increase your own value in his eyes. More training is needed before he gets the privilege to be off leash in the dog park.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Fruitycake

[Feisty49]

Don't know how long you've had Neville, but I wasn't comfortable about Annie Bella's bonding relationship with me or her loyalty to me for about 4 months after I got her. I knew she liked me and I knew she worried when I left the house without her, but there's a point in the canine/human relationship when you know you're best buddies with all the love and trust that goes with it. With Annie Bella, I think it took 3 months with me before she realized that this was her forever home, not that she knew the name, but she know that no matter where we went together, she always came home with me. That trust is what made me trust her to come when I called her in a dog park.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Feisty49

[krissy]

Don't know how long you've had Neville, but I wasn't comfortable about Annie Bella's bonding relationship with me or her loyalty to me for about 4 months after I got her.

 

This. Even though Summit had a recall at about 4-6 months, it was not until I'd had him almost 12 months that his bond with me was strong enough for the recall training to REALLY click. I don't know how else to explain it. We had worked on lots of recall before then and he was pretty reliable. He understood the concept. But I feel like at that time he still had moments of "Meh, I don't really feel like it, maybe I don't have to" whereas now with a better relationship I get more of a feeling like he WANTS to always obey, he wants to always be near me. When we go to greyhound runs he is very independent and likes to wander around on his own away from the pack. But he also likes people and he likes to get petted and rub his muzzle on people. But he always comes to check in with me first. Again, this only really became evident at about 10-12 months and after A LOT of training/bonding.

[Guest hplove45]

Don't know how long you've had Neville, but I wasn't comfortable about Annie Bella's bonding relationship with me or her loyalty to me for about 4 months after I got her. I knew she liked me and I knew she worried when I left the house without her, but there's a point in the canine/human relationship when you know you're best buddies with all the love and trust that goes with it. With Annie Bella, I think it took 3 months with me before she realized that this was her forever home, not that she knew the name, but she know that no matter where we went together, she always came home with me. That trust is what made me trust her to come when I called her in a dog park.

 

 

This kind of worries me, because I've had Neville for about eight months now and he is nowhere near the relationship that you describe with Annie Bella. Don't get me wrong; he has made leaps and bounds and is very quick to learn. It took me about an hour to teach him sit, shake, and lay down. But his recall is just atrocious.

I did what someone else suggested and brought him to a pet store. He stayed close to me and completely ignored all the other people, which earned him lots of praise. But I'm thinking that maybe this was just because he was in a new situation and was nervous? When I take him for walks he all but drags me when he sees another person. This behavior popped up about two months after I got him; before, he was extremely shy and would cower away from people. Now he is just the opposite.

Whenever I take him to the ball field to run, his recall is perfect without any of the other distraction. I just have to say his name for him to stop on a dime and make a beeline for me. I'm just not sure how to work on his recall with all the distractions of the dog park without actually going to the dog park...

[Guest sweetpea]

Don't compare your relationship with your dog with anyone else's relationship with their dog.

 

It's totally specific and individual. No disrespect intended to any other posters, but inferring

that somehow you haven't "bonded" with your dog and that's evidenced by his lack of reliable recall

is simply not true.

 

Sweetpea is the best dog in the whole world, in my house and on leash she knows what I want her to do

before I know what I want her to do. Perfect heal, she comes when I call, she goes when I send her,

she stays when I ask; she sits, she downs, she waits. And I worked and worked and worked with her

on recall.

 

But when she gets in that park it's like she switches off completely. She doesn't hear me

she doesn't acknowledge me; I could be wearing a peanut butter and baloney overcoat, and she would

still ignore me.

And you know what our trainer said? "You might just have to accept that this is the way she is."

 

So I did. And that was 3 years ago, which was 2 years after we brought her home. Time and trust and

bonding had nothing to do with it.

 

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that recall is important, and there are some dogs who are good at it.

Mine isn't one of them.

 

If you can get him his run at a ball park, and also work on recall there,

why aggravate yourself with following him around a too big dog park?

 

Good luck!

 

Buzzy

[kudzu]

It's totally specific and individual. No disrespect intended to any other posters, but inferring

that somehow you haven't "bonded" with your dog and that's evidenced by his lack of reliable recall

is simply not true.

I totally agree.