I was busy unloading the boys from the car earlier and I got thinking. How do dogs view coming home, often it is the signal fun is curtailed, walk is over etc etc and do we really praise them for entering the house well?
I live on an estate towards the end of a cul de sac, despite speed limiting bumps people really motor along and all our drives are open plan so not ideal when getting multi dogs out of the back of a car.
Of my four dogs three can be let out of the car and they will run straight to the house and in the front door. From puppyhood for Brice and Chase and from the beginning of him getting here for Mugi I have deliberately trained a fast entry from car to house without a lead on (obviously I don't open the car to let them out if I can see moving traffic). So one at a time they are let out of the car (puppies lifted down onto the drive) and then they follow a tasty treat until they get to the front door when I lob a treat into the house, give the command house and then they get their goodie in the house. I make sure that dog is safe then go repeat the process.
Today my oft naughty pup demonstrated how well he has learned this as I opened the crate, commanded "house" and he hurtled out of the caging bending his body in midair to run into the house passing the neighbours cat (ok I don't normally risk a cat encounter but she had hidden herself well ), he slid along the hall floor and was in the garden with his fav toy in his mouth asking for a throw within seconds. Needless to say his toy was thrown. Brice then sauntered in pausing for a pee on my poor abused shrubbery and looked for a biscuit and then the reason for my post - out came Freddy and me being dippy I hadn't popped on his lead (I thought I was getting Mugi out ) and a gleeful spaniel legged it up the road without a backward glance .
It may sound silly to train (with high reward value) for your dog to want to leg it into the house but I would rather my boys found the inside and back garden more exciting than the unsafe front garden, after 6 years I don't think my silly spaniel will ever get rid of his desire to leg it at the slightest opportunity though - reward or not, mind you catching him within two minutes is so much better than the hours it often used to take.
Just a thought..................
Victoria
Sue, our house has a front door facing the East, two French doors opening onto a patio facing the North, then the back door facing the West. The dogs know the doors...I just say...around the front...or around the back...if I am inside and they are wanting to come indoors, they will stop at the French doors just to check they are going in the right direction
Liz
This is one advantage in living on the main street of the village, on a bend, with no vehicle access to the house, and parking restricted to the opposite side of the road. Dogs have to be on leads getting into and out of the car.
When we first had dogs 30 years ago there was much less traffic, and it was safe to open the back of the car and the dogs (we had 2 Weimaraners at that time) would run across the road, jump the wall into the front garden.
Couldn't do it now with the amount of speeding traffic about!
), he slid along the hall floor and was in the garden with his fav toy in his mouth asking for a throw within seconds. Needless to say his toy was thrown. Brice then sauntered in pausing for a pee on my poor abused shrubbery and looked for a biscuit and then the reason for my post - out came Freddy and me being dippy I hadn't popped on his lead (I thought I was getting Mugi out 
) and a gleeful spaniel legged it up the road without a backward glance 
