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Permalink Reply by Geri & Sidney on March 11, 2009 at 12:01pm

What helped us with Sidney's bolting habit was to keep going to refresher obedience training classes until he had an unwavering "stay" and "wait" commands. We make him sit and wait before we open a door, and after we are sure we have a good grip on the leash, then we release him.

We are still working on "come". He's resilient to that one when he gets ahold of a scent that is more interesting than we are!

He's mostly good on the leash, but especially at the start of the walk when he is super-excited, he does pull some. He settles into a good walk after the first couple minutes. Again, a good training class will teach loose-leash walking.

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Permalink Reply by Corgibyassociation on March 11, 2009 at 1:32pm

I went to one but it wasn't a great obedience class. It was kind of sad to learn that. I may have to look into petsmart classes I guess.

She was really good at stay when she was smaller, around 6 to 8 weeks old and she learned to sit at 6 and half weeks (I got her a little too young.) She at least comes.

She's ok at walking but when her brother is out with us she has to keep up or be in front and it drives her nuts if I don't let her go anyway.

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Permalink Reply by Geri & Sidney on March 11, 2009 at 1:43pm

Sidney has to be in front, too! He walks much better if he is first in line. Funny, I would think a herding dog would want to be behind everyone to make sure they are doing in the right direction, LOL.

We took some basic obedience at PetSmart for our older dog Bruce. They are pretty good there! :-)

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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanton on March 11, 2009 at 4:05pm

Just re the bolting from car thing -- My guys aren't bolters, but our cousin, a mini-dachsie is, which we discovered to our horror when he leaped out of the car window while staying with us (and both Corgis looking at me, like, is he insane? We prefer the chauffer to open the door so we can make a grand entrance). So for car rides, he got a doggie seat belt -- a harness with a strap that the seatbelt goes through. He can move around, sit up, look out the window, etc., but can't go leaping for the great beyond. However, I also am feeling more and more strongly that dogs in cars should be seatbelted regardless of whether they bolt or not -- for everyone's safety. My guys aren't thrilled, but I feel better.

We are terrible leash walkers, so I'll let the obedience mavens give you hints on that. We live in the country, so aren't on leashes all that much.

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Permalink Reply by Spartan on March 11, 2009 at 6:13pm

With Spartan he use to walk in front of me and I found myself stepping on him and always looking down when we would walk. Someone suggested training him to heel and It's been a few weeks and he is doing much better now but, we are still working on it. I did have him pulling to and got him a harness which works great cuz when I tug him and release it's not on his neck. I found he really loves pieces of roast beef that I give him when he's doing good on a heel. he loves it. When I do take him with me in a car ride it was the same with the wanting to bolt right out and so with the treats again, I am training him to stay. Sometimes he doesn't even want to get out of the car and am still working on him to come as well.

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Permalink Reply by Corgibyassociation on March 12, 2009 at 10:04am

Yeah, I saw some seatbelt harnesses at wal-mart that looks remarkably like the one at Petsmart. It's a universal harness that you hook up. I think I will get that for the dogs. I would really like to keep the Weim from pacing erratically in the backseat, it gets distracting for me when I drive. Anything if it means that Freya isn't being trampled on. She loves to lay down, she isn't too big on looking at things (mainly cause she's so small and can't look over yet.)

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