We live on the second floor and getting Troti out of the House 4-5 times a day was a real nightmare. He was always too active and willing to get out as soon as he could so pulling me down the Stairs each time we went out was a regular practice. He did great efforts to stand still while we put his collar and leash on and then as soon as we opened the door, he started running down the stairs without caring too much about us shouting at him or pulling the leash back. He did only what he wanted to do and we realized that this was happening because we gave him too much affection and not so much discipline.
I decided that something had to be done. I started reading all sorts of articles about discipline and dog training and we realized that allowing him to walk in front of us, allowing him to eat when we did, and allowing him to sit on the couch with us and to drag us all over the place while getting down the stairs was WRONG.
I found a great exercise on the internet for curing the bad habit of the dog of running in front of you down the stairs and pulling you so I decided to take the time one morning and do it. The idea was not to allow the dog to get in front of you and turning back into the house each time he did so or each time he had the smallest tentative of getting in front of you no matter if running or just walking.
So I prepared my patience and the leash and I started the exercise. I can confirm to you that it worked like a charm and after about one hour Troti was “cured” miraculously. I told him to sit and put his collar and leash on. He obeyed since he knew we were going out. The moment I opened the door he rushed out without allowing me to even make one step. I pulled him back, took the collar and leash off and went to the living room leaving him alone in the hall waiting. He was amazed and couldn’t understand what was going on. He came to the living room to ask me to go out with him.
I waited for a few minutes more and started again. The moment he wanted to rush out, I pulled him back and told him no. I took the collar off again and let him wait alone in the hall. After doing it twice he started thinking that something must have been going on for my new and strange behavior.
We finally went out of the house and when we wanted to get down the stairs he wanted to start his routine. I got him back into the house over and over again and in about 30 minutes we were only on the first floor. Troti was tired already of climbing up and down so many stairs and he was a lot more obedient.
We managed to get down to the outside door in about an hour. We went out, he did his number one and two and then back into the house as we were both very tired of climbing up and down so many stairs. Amazingly he got the idea and since then he forgot the routine one or twice only and only at the beginning after learning it. He never runs in front of me again being afraid that we might go back over and over again as we did on the first day.
And to test him even further, I stop from time to time when going down on a different stair step, just to make sure that while going down he is careful about me and my speed and not about getting outside. Also, getting him to walk behind me down the stairs all the time allows me to control him better outside as he is more submissive.
Also read:
http://training-troti.blogspot.ro/2012/01/tips-for-dog-owners-for-well-behaved.html
Take care,
Geo
