Ep 080 Don’t Kill Your Dog: Build a Protective Perimeter

Thoroughly teaching your dog boundaries is the key to feeling like you’ve done your utmost to protect her.

Discover how to be CERTAIN that you’ve done everything in your power to make her understand the boundaries.

In this episode, learn an incredibly thorough way to teach boundaries to your dog.

Show Highlights

• Praise is only praise whenever your dog makes a choice or has a big reaction to something, and then you give attention to that choice.
• Devin’s nod to Guns N Roses—Use Your Attention—it’s how to win friends and influence dogs.
• This episode is especially for dog owners who have ever felt responsible for losing a dog because she didn’t understand boundaries and didn’t want to stay in the property.
• During the process of owning a dog, owners need to understand that things will happen and communication and effort is key to teaching your dog boundaries.
• There are times you relax, assuming that your dog will stay with you instead of being distracted, which is normal
• Devin refers to the book: The Four Agreements by Miguel Don Miguel Ruiz
• The fourth agreement is to always do your best
• The goal for today with reference to the fourth agreement—always do your best and do whatever it takes to feel complete.
• So in the event that if something goes wrong and your dog gets hurt or killed, you know that you have done your absolute best, and you don’t have to be upset with yourself.
• It is imperative to understand how you are communicating to you dog, and how dogs understand those boundaries.
• Boundary training your dog entails spending an extensive amount of focused time with her.
• In general, people with a fence just let their dogs out in the yard not thinking about possible darting issues or jumping the fence due to a bigger distraction on the other side.
• The invisible fence creates a boundary because your dog is afraid of being shocked.
• Correction of a behavior—anytime you over-correct a behavior creates fear—is the way the shock collar and invisible fence works for your dog.
• We must remember that dogs are very willing to test boundaries, just like humans are.
• Bennie has learned that if the temptation is big enough for the dog and she runs through the fence, she learns that the shock is only for a brief time, and only at that particular spot.
• The dog will only think she can get through that part of the fence in the future.
• However, the shock is often big enough to keep her from coming back through the fence.
• You can also work on boundaries in the car, etc.
• Bennie explains more about a “double boundary” which removes two stress points:
  • Darting our the door
  • What happens after that – you have to put the leash on because the owner is now in control

Homework

• Not the whole property—just an area you want her to stay in
• This is a long process and is going to take a lot of awareness on your part.
• If you don’t want your dog to go out of the yard, you want your dog to say within the boundary.
• The process takes a few weeks or longer

• Steps:
  • Walk with your dog on a leash the entire border of the boundary or the size of the yard
  • 4-6 times a day for 1-2 weeks – each time she wanted to go over the boundary, I would do a quick correction and keep on the path for a week or two so she knows what the border is
  • The next 1-2 weeks will be crossing the border 3-4 steps. If your dog comes with you, you will be running towards the middle of your yard. Bennie recommends to have an object in the middle of the yard and head towards that object.
  • In about 10 ten times of walking around the border, you want to cross the border and your dog stays within you need to come back across the border and give your dog lots of praise
  • The goal is for you to cross 10 times at different spots along the border and to do so 10 times in a row and your dog stays in the border
  • The next week you are going to drop the leash and you going to step across the border 3-4 steps and if she stays across the border you are going to give her lots of praise for staying within the border.
  • If she follows you across the border, you are going to ignore her. you will give one verbal correction. if she goes back then you go back in with her and praise her
  • Episode 052 – Help Your Dog Make the Right Choice at the Right Time helps to better understand this correction because in this case it is not a big deal that you went outside the border you just need to come back when I call you
  • Episode 039 – Train Your Dog With Balance – your praise must be at a level over your correction, because in this phase the correction shouldn’t be that tough. It should be just a little pop to show that she should be paying attention
  • In this case, you will continue this process until the further and further you can get out of the yard and your dog stays in the yard while you keep giving her praise and correction

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