My wife has a 12 pound house dog. When this dog weasles it's way out the front door, child entering, adult who does not know, etc, she takes right off down the driveway. If the dog is on a leash she is civil. Just need to be able to touch her without touching her.

I was thinking e-collar. The problem is I want one that, when I am ready, can be used on my GSD. Who makes one that has collars available for both dogs?

Thanks

 Quote: Ron Gibson

My wife has a 12 pound house dog. When this dog weasles it's way out the front door, child entering, adult who does not know, etc, she takes right off down the driveway. If the dog is on a leash she is civil. Just need to be able to touch her without touching her.

I was thinking e-collar. The problem is I want one that, when I am ready, can be used on my GSD. Who makes one that has collars available for both dogs?

Thanks

The obvious question: Your wife has not trained the recall?

Taking off out the front door is a very basic first-step training issue.

Yes it is. And if I or the wife are in the living room there is no problems. If we are coming in the door or going out the door there is no problem. If the leash is on the dog there is no problem whether or not we are in the room.

But if the wife or I are not in the room, the one coming or going, or the dog is not dragging the leash she will bolt. Now I think the dog should behave as well off leash as on. She does know her commands but if she is not on leash or we are not right there she could care less.

Any other recommendations?

Ron, I don't see where an E Collar would help with this. Since the dog behaves while dragging a line, and also if you or your wife are in the room, you would still have the same problem, I would think. If you are in the room, no problem, if you are not in the room, an E collar won't do any good anyway, I wouldn't think. You said you have good recall, so you can get the dog to come back after it escapes from the door, if I am understanding you right.
Sounds to me like what you need to do is train the dog to NEVER go through the door without permission. I know I've seen this addressed on this board before.
I guess you could use the E collar to train that behavior. If you want one that will fit both a small dog and a large dog, I would suggest you contact the manufacturers. Or check out Ed's selection of training tools on this website.

Basicly the dog behaves quite well dragging a line or if either of us are in the room.

My thought here was to set the dog up for failure. I can see the door from outside the house without the dog seeing me. If I can give the correction while the dog is showing this kind of behaviour while she thinks the wife or I are not watching shouldn't it deter?

And we do have good recall while on leash.

YES, an e-collar will help you with this problem, IMHO -- Just be SURE to get Ed's DVD http://www.leerburg.com/318.htm FIRST...

Then check out an Innoteck IUT-300 "Smart Collar" -- I would get a pair of them, personally, because that's one investment you will NEVER regret !

The key to success is Ed's protocol on de-sensitizing the dog to the e-collar's presence -- Follow his technique to the letter & your dog will obey whether s/he's wearing it or NOT <:-)

I agree on training the dog to not go through the door. I once had a greyhound mix that I got from a shelter,wonderful dog, but when she was a pup EVERY time the door opened she would bolt and no amount of calling would get her back. We would all climb in the car with hot dogs or some other good treat and follow her until she decided the treat was worth more than the running. Then we would tell her what a good girl she was for coming to us, even though I wanted to kill her! In her defense I knew nothing about dog training other than the instinct that if I yelled at her I would never get her to trust coming to me and we never really did any obedience training though eventually she would sit, laydown and stay. Now I know much more, and with my dog since day one I make him sit and stay before I open the door and wait until I say OK. Granted when he was really little the stay was .5 sec or so, now I can walk halfway down the sidewalk and he waits.

A method I learned from this site is to close the door (Carefully) on the dog's neck as it tries to bolt. Leave it just enough room to get out and when he tries, the door closes and does not allow the dog back in or out. It will probably wiggle at first, then calm down. Once calm you allow it back IN and make it sit before passing. I have used this successfully with 6 dog's now. No need for the E-collar, train everyone in the house and the dog should learn quite fast. You can also do this with your leg. I stood at the door and if they wanted out they had to sit before I'd open it. If they even moved a hair toward the door I'd start to close it (After using the above mentioned technique and they realized what I was about to do). Now, I can open the door and they may not sit, but they don't leave. If they want to leave, or I'm sending them out, they sit right away.

My chow is usually on a leash I connect over my shoulder while in the house. There have been times I went to leave and was suddenly jerked back because he sat at the door while I tried to exit.

Ron,
I totally feel your pain! We have a 9 pound chihuahua and two large dogs (GDSx 80pounds, and St. Bernard 100 pounds). Sometimes those little ones get away from you just cause they're so darn small and quick. Hard to catch before they zip out the door - AND THEY KNOW IT!

Anyway, we got an e-collar - just one for all the dogs since we only use it to train certain sticky points. Once they've learned, we've discovered we no longer "need" the e-collar except maybe to do some polish work. I got a second smaller nylon collar that fits the chi and poked holes in it for the e-collar element. We switch the e-collar element back and forth between the larger and small collars depending which dog needs to use the e-collar. And we start on the lowest stim level for all three dogs and use higher stim when necessary.

Roz.