2 year lab climbing out of 5 acre yard

Question
Hi there!  My family adopted a 2 yr old chocolate lab the day before Thanksgiving.  He has the most precious temperment.  He is a true love bug.  Problem...... he is an inside dog, but spends a lot of time outside during the day with our other dog (Welch Corgi) and our children.  He seems to be quite the escape artist. He has escaped from our yard (2 acres) 3 times already.  We have been lucky enough to have found him all 3 times.  Today, I finally figured out his escape mechanism.  He actually climbs over the gate.  I am so afraid of him running away for good and also fear for his safety.  Any suggestions?  We have considered putting him on a dog run while he is outside, but that defeats the purpose of bringing him into the family.  We wanted him to enjoy the yard like our other dog.  What can we do to break the running off.  He does like to run.  Thanks for any advice you may have to offer!!

Answer
Hello Kelly,
This is a common issue with hunting dogs.  They tend towards find the prey rather than hang out and protect the territory.  The approach I take to this is twofold.  Part will be training the dog to understand its boundaries.  The other will be reducing the desire to wander.  My first question however-is he neutered?  Because an unaltered male will go searching for a female in heat if he can smell her-and there isn't much short of very aggressive techniques to stop that.  So if you do not plan to breed him, and he is not fixed-do so.

Ok, for the training.  Start walking him on a long line/training lead (about 20 ft or so) around the perimeter of the yard.  You do not need a training collar for this technique as a plain buckle collar will work.  When he gets about 2 ft from the fence, stop his movement.  Some trainers will give a light leash correction and sharp "no".  If you don't need to add that, we won't.  Start with just stopping him 2 ft away and after doing this a couple of times a day for 3-4 days, you should see him stopping himself before hitting the end of the lead. When he does, reward heavily.  Big praise, treats, throw a toy-things like that.  As he gets the idea that staying 2 ft from the fence is a good thing, start walking him on a regular leash in a good heel.  He will then begin to build the association between that area or "line" you have drawn for him and obedience work.  You can add distractions while he is on lead such as people, other dogs, even work during times when squirrels and other critters may be moving.  By doing this while he is on lead, you will proof the behaviors for when he is off lead.  That is the next step-start working with him dragging the leash and no distractions.  Then add distractions.  Then a very short (1-2 ft...can be made by cutting an old lead or dollar store lead) lead called a tab with no distractions, then add distractions.  By the time you are doing this in your yard off leash, you will be pretty much able to work in many off-lead situations outside the fence.

Now for diminishing his desire to escape.  I already mentioned the neutering.  So I want to paint you a mental picture.  You walk in the front door of your house every day and nothing is changed.  Do this for a couple of months.  Now one day you walk in and someone has left a book on the couch, a glass on a table and moved a chair.  What are you drawn to in that room?  Just the things that have changed, right?  Well, your yard is like that for your dog.  He knows that whole yard and looks for the things that are different.  So he discovers a couple of different things-not much has changed, and that is boring or there is a new smell because some critter has been in the yard and that new exciting smell leaves the yard.  Then there is the activity outside of his boring, humdrum life in the yard.  He wants to go play with kids or other dogs, or whatever strikes his fancy.  We want to make his yard exciting again.  Hide toys and chew things like rawhide, bully sticks or nylabone edibles around the yard.  Kongs filled with stuff are good too.  If he is rewarded for investigating his yard, he will have less desire to leave it.  Watch him to see when he is trying to escape-if it is after he has been in the yard for an hour, bring him in after 45 minutes and go hide something.  If it is after 3 hours, go out at 2 hours and bring him a new toy or kong.  You get the idea.  Another thing that helps tremendously is giving your dog the ability to run free and explore.  Large dog parks with different terrain (woods, field, even water) are great because they are fenced.  Here in Michigan there is a huge amount of state land open to hunting which is an excellent place to run them.  You can usually get far enough into the land that you are away from main roads.  If you have something like that in your area, take advantage of it.  Do not try obedience work though-let the dog run, and reward for checking in, or coming back to you on his own.

Wishing you much success,
Erica Slomka
Jumpin JACS Dog Training
We Train YOU To Train Your Dog

visit us on the web at http://www.jumpinjacs.com