Too Much Freedom?

Too Much Freedom?

I have noticed that many people who have new puppies tend to give them too much freedom too early on. For instance in my basic obedience class I had a member say. “My Golden has learned the fine art of counter surfing for food. She is tall enough now that she can go into the kitchen and surf for food on the counters. If there is anything close that she wants she’ll snatch it.”  The implied question was. “How do I stop this behavior?”

While practicing ‘leave it’ commands are great they only tend to work when we are present.  So management tools like baby gates are better for this. A lot of times these things become problems because we are giving the dog too much freedom to early. We want our dogs to have happy lives so we let them run around and do things that please them.  The problem with this is that they have no structure, anything they want to do will seem to be okay to them. Instead we might let them gain more freedom as they show themselves to be trustworthy.

No one would think to let a toddler run around a house where there are a lot of fragile glass figurines standing within reach. Yet somehow we think puppies are born more responsible – and they are not. The dog that has learned to counter surf may always have the tendency to counter surf whereas if he had not been in the kitchen when younger he might never learn that behavior.

My favorite example of this was my cat Roadie.  I have a plant that I like to bring inside in summer because I like the extra oxygen in my closed up house. It’s a rather large plant and when we got the kitten Roadie he quickly decimated it because it was such fun to play with the leaves.  The only thing I could think to do was to place some small baby gates I had for trick training around the plant.  He could actually still get to the plant but now it was too much trouble.  So I left the gates there most of the summer even though it was a pain because I had to mop and sweep around it. At some point, months later, I forgot to put the gates back into place yet it did not occur to him to try playing with the plant again.

The idea with restricting the freedom of the puppy is so that they will learn a structure of behavior that is acceptable because they have never had anything else. Instead of them wandering around saying “Oh what’s this?  What’s that?” consider how you can create good house manners. “Okay puppy you have shown that you are house broken so now you can use this room unattended.  Okay you’ve shown you won’t chew up the kid’s toys so now you can play with the kids in their room. Okay now that you know not to get up on the furniture you can be in the living room when we leave.” Let them earn their place in the family so to speak.

Also, there is nothing wrong with letting your puppy learn to drag a leash with them around the house. This way you don’t have to chase them around… you just pick up the leash and take them to another area. You won’t make it into a game of chase to retrieve your dog.

The same idea goes for rescue dogs. I know we feel sorry for the rescues but we tend to say. “I know you were in jail poor thing so here’s my house you can have it all.” That’s not a good idea.  He’s gotten a get out of jail free card. He should earn his place in a family by demonstrating good behavior. Treat them just the same as a new puppy.

This is similar to another common problem. Owners say. “My dog doesn’t come when I call him.”  Many times this is because we have actually taught him not to come. “But I went outside and called and called and called him and he wouldn’t come.” So you’ve taught him to ignore you.

I suggest putting your dog on a fifteen to twenty foot leash and let him get used to running around with it outside. Then when you need to get your dog you can simply pick up the leash and you’ll prevent him from not coming.  A puppy especially shouldn’t be out there running around having a great time unsupervised anyway.

You wouldn’t let your toddler run around unsupervised that way and it’s not a good idea for the puppy. You don’t know your new puppy or your new rescue; Do they dig? Do they jump fencing? Attack the neighbor’s cat?  If you find them doing something you do not want them to do, just grab the leash and walk them away to find something else to interest them.  It’s the easiest way to teach them, “How we do things around here!” In the meantime you can practice “come” training in a way that you know they will succeed. You start by rewarding the dog for coming at short distances.  Then add more distance and even distractions as they become more successful. 

I have found that dogs that “earn” their freedom in increments end up with a lot more freedom in the long run.  They also have a more successful relationships with their owners.