How do you teach an animal road sense?

[juliacornwal]

Any suggestions anyone please? My lovely border collie has no road sense whatsoever and we live on a main road. In general she's safe enough because we're very careful with the doors but very occasionally one of the grandchildren will leave a door open and she sneaks out and will rush headlong into the traffic without a second thought.

I've tried sitting her on the side of the road and saying 'NO!' Making her wait for me and walk beside me, but she doesn't get it! Any magical answers please?!!!

[cove]

teach the animals to read a road map and let them familiarise themselves with a GPS system.

[know-ledge]

i'd be more worried about the grandchildren perhaps following the mut when it goes..... Headlong into traffic.....and the driver of the cars who have to swerve when the mut goes .........Head long into traffic.

[aka pixi]

theres a little bit at the bottom of this page about road training julia. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/36390 5/easy_steps_to_train_your_dog.html?cat=53

I suppose it just takes time, practice and a bit of patience. good luck

[obNOXious]

All you can do julie is to continue as you are doing. I train all of my dogs to sit every time they encounter a curb, which means that after a while it gets pretty automatic to sit at the side of the road and wait for instructions as to what to do next. I also train all of my dogs to respond to hand signals, that way if you spot your dog over the other side of the busy road you can signal her to sit and she won't just come bounding joyously over to see you and get wiped out in the process.
You're doing all the right things, you just need patience and lots of it, keep reinforcing it over and over again, and if it's a collie make sure it's fairly tired before you do any serious training as theyre prone to silly excitablility and not listening to you if theyre too bouncy.

[shaneystar2]

Good grief Julia I would be on edge all the time .
I lost a little dog who slipped his lead and bounded off into the traffic after a cat he had spotted on the other side of the road .it was heartbreaking .I had only had him a month .
Why not try one of those( childproof ) gates in front of the door pro tem until you can get her into the mindset that she must not cross that boundary unless allowed to .
Old Shaney was a bit headstrong in that respect and what I used to do was get to the kerb .Say SIT in a loud voice and then give a him bit of chewy when he sat and tell him he was a good boy . If he didn't sit I would just keep saying it until he did. Just SIT nothing else ..Heaped the praise on with a shovel when he sat . Good boy/ girl etc ....Then when it was clear I used to say "walk on".Praising all the time .
Took weeks of practice but we cracked in the end ,until he did this automatically without any commands when we were crossng roads.
You need to be consistent in your tone of voice and commands .No deviating . No "now sit down there's a good boy /girl etc .Short sharp commands a la Mrs Woodhouse !
You feel a bit of fool yelling SIT and standing there whilst drivers look at you as if you are a complete maniac but rather that than cause an accident as I know to my cost .

[lankeela]

Although nothing will stop a dog if it is intent on crossing a road, the one thing we teach all newcomers to training is the 'rapid' down. Teach your dog to lie down and then during heelwork give him a 'down' command in a very sharp voice, accept no dilly dallying, no second command, enforce the down by using the hand on the back of the neck or by drawing the dog down with the lead. Gradually use the command if the dog is off the lead and if you have taught it properly he will drop wherever he is.
If your dog learns no other command this is the one that may save its life, as said above if the dog finds itself on the opposite side of the road you don't want it to come to you, you want it to stay where it is, and the down command (which at that point will be shouted in a manic tone!) may just do the trick. Of course this will only work for you if you happen to see the dog go towards the road, but it is a very useful thing to teach. We also teach a drop on recall, so the dog starts to come towards you and then you give it the down command, so it drops where it is and then you can either recall the dog to you or return to the dog and praise.

Hence the car sticker 'dog trainers drop them anywhere'!

[juliacornwal]

Wow, great, GREAT ideas; thanks so much everyone. I shall be out there on the edge of the drive with her this morning.

I suppose I should admit I have been a bit lax in some ways, because the field I take her in for an hour each morning is absolutely secure, so when she goes near the edge I don't think to call her back. Right then, from this morning onwards she does what I want when she's out there!