Dominance

Question
I have a 3 yr old Black lab rottie mix, he is well behaved when he is in the house or on a leash but when he gets out of the house without a leash on or without being hooked up to his run he will not listen to me at all. I was wondering if you knew of anything that I could try with him to get him to listen to me. A few people told me that it is a dominance problem but never told me how I could establish that. So what should I do?

Answer
Bethany, without seeing how you and your dog interact, I cannot tell you whether dominance plays a role in this or not, but I CAN tell you that you are not alone. Dogs do not generalize. That means that just because they know what 'sit' means when they are on a leash in your house or in your yard does not mean that they know what 'sit' means when they are off leash in your house or in your yard, or on leash out in public, etc. This is why it's important to train your dog all over the place, and around all kinds of distractions, so that he understands that 'sit' means sit, no matter where he is or what is going on around him.


If he listens very well in your home and on a leash, and does not ever ignore your commands or 'blow you off' in those situations, then I would not be so quick to say that dominance is the reason for his misbehaving when off the leash. Instead, he simply needs to learn that he still has to listen to you even if he is not wearing a leash.

There are many different ways of training a dog to behave off leash. One way is to gradually lengthen the leash you currently use, so that it feels more like being off leash to him, but still allows you to be able to control him. For example, if you are currently using a 6ft leash, then you will need to start using a 10ft 'long line,' as they are called. I am unclear as to whether he will listen to you when he is off leash in your yard, but if he >>does<<, then you will need to take him to a place where he normally listens when he's on the 6ft leash, but not if he is off leash, and this should be a place where other off leash dogs cannot come running up to him. This is training time, not play-with-other-dogs time. If he doesn't listen to you when he's off the leash in your yard, then you can begin there.

As he becomes more obedient on the 10ft lead, you can increase it to a 15ft lead, and eventually you can just let him drag it rather than you keeping ahold of it. If he refuses to obey a command then, you can simply go to the end of the line, pick it up, and correct him and make him follow the command. Then release him again.


This method can be tricky, and mastering the long line is not an easy task! I would encourage you to find a local trainer that can work with you one on one (vs a group class, which I don't feel would be beneficial since your dog already obeys commands when he's on leash), at least for a short period of time, until you get the hang of it.