PROBLEM SOLVER
Open-Door Policy
BY JODI ANDERSEN

ACK Family Dog March/April 2006

One might naturally assume I wouldn't have any problems with my own dogs' behavior. For the most part, I don't. Thankfully, my dogs have been far more agreeable about doing what I say than my children and, aside from the occasional misstep when my beloved beasts have a momentary lapse in good sense, I'm proud to say they're exemplary canine good citizens.
But recently, my 9-year-old Golden Retriever, Scout, has been wandering well past the boundaries of my property. Like most dogs when faced with an open front door, mine are eager to bolt out. They will stay (when told not to run out) but, like most dogs, would rather go out than stay in. Scout's behavior, however, is new. He has never been a wanderer.
When he started acting this way, I warned my children to be even more careful about making sure he didn't charge out the front door. This of course solved the problem of the wandering dog but it didn't solve the
problem of the dog wanting to wander. Naturally, with the dog under lock and key I no longer had to worry about him disappearing, but, as the dog trainer, I knew I had to do more than just close the door on the issue.
It occurred to me that if I could teach Scout that being home was better than being out, he might not want to leave home in the first place. If I could stop the desire to bolt, I could stop the wandering that followed. So here's what I did.
BEHOLD THE POWER OF LIVER!
First I took a pocketful of Scout's favorite treats—freeze-dried liver— and called him to the front door. He was quick to respond and I rewarded him with one of the treats. To be sure I could continue to keep his attention on me and not the great outdoors, I snapped a leash on him. Then I opened the door. Naturally, my other two dogs ran past him, leaving him with the choice to go with them or stay with the treats. It was a tough decision (one that took him about half a second to make) and off he went with the rest of the pack. When he reached the end of the six-foot lead, I called him to come and, with little choice but to comply, he did. Once over the threshold and back inside the house (door still open) I praised him lavishly and gave him another treat. I repeated this several times until my dog knew that bolting out was OK, but coming back was better.
Once I was certain he understood the game (run out the door, turn around, come back into the house, and get a treat), I took the leash off. Then, over the course of the next several days, I opened the door, let all three dogs run out, then called them back for the treat. Whenever we went out for a "real" (off the property) walk, I was careful not to give any treats until we returned home and crossed the threshold of the front door. Whenever we had guests, I would let Scout out to greet them and reward him when he (and the guests) came in. Whenever a guest or family member was about to leave, I would again let Scout go outside with them, calling him back in as they left and (if he complied by coming in) rewarding him.
I'm relieved to report that, about a week or so after I began the "open door" experiment, Scout decided that he'd rather stay home than leave home. In fact, the other day, as I brought in bags of groceries, he walked past me, out the front door and I accidentally locked him outside. After several minutes of unsu-pervised freedom, instead of taking off, my boy was waiting patiently outside the front door for me to let him in and get his treat.

Jodi Andersen, a New York-based professional trainer, is the founder of TrainingWorks for Dogs and the author of The Latchkey Dog.