#29 - Behaviours to teach your trail dog
Prepare your dog for hiking adventures
I’m a planner. As soon as the days started to visibly grow longer and the first snowdrops peaked out of the ground, I looked towards the outdoor adventures I want to go on with Bucky during the warmer months.
I started wondering how I can help my senior dog stay injury-free over the summer: physical conditioning and PT exercises are on the menu. I started including cardio exercises in my own daily routine so I’ll have fewer exertion migraines. And while Bucky had become an increasingly better trail dog in the past 5 years, I’ve also been wondering what behaviours I can teach him or practice so we can have an easier and more enjoyable time outdoors.
Let’s walk through the useful behaviours that we can teach our dogs before we go hiking. Today I’ll focus on ones that you should ‘put on cue’, meaning you train your dog to perform that behaviour when you say a certain word, or give a hand signal. That is not to say that automatic / default behaviours like loose-leash walking are less important. They just deserve their own article.
Recall
Know what you are actually training for! When you say a cue (e.g. Come!), your dog stops what they are doing and walks / runs back to you, near enough that you can grab their harness. Once they are near you they can stand, sit, or heel, as they wish.
Having a strong recall is ESSENTIAL if you are going to let your dog off leash on trail: for your dog’s safety, for wildlife’s safety, and for other users’ enjoyment of the trail.
When teaching a recall it’s especially important that you start in an environment with few distractions (e.g. your home) and slowly increase the distractions and distance. When you are transitioning from indoors to outdoors you can use a long leash to prevent your dog from running away.
Sometimes you recall your dog with the goal of putting them back on leash. That’s perfectly fine. You’ll need to watch for a common pitfall: your dog starts avoiding the leash, gets in the habit of running to you, catching a treat, and dashing back. There is an easy solution to that issue. Most dogs don’t like hands reaching out above them so make sure to desensitize your dog to having his collar or harness grabbed, then incorporate the harness grab in your recall. You call your dog, she comes to you, you grab her harness, you give her a treat (reward!), you let go of the harness and give her a release cue (double reward!). That way having her harness grabbed will become part of the routine.
Don’t poison the cue! Be careful not to overuse this cue, or to accidentally lower its value for your dog. Call your dog once; if she ignores it do not repeat the cue, otherwise you are teaching your dog to ignore that cue.
Wait!
Know what you are actually training for! When you say the cue, your dog stops and stands still until you use another cue (eg a release cue).
Wait is there a great behaviour to use whether you’re on or off leash.
On leash it can help you navigate obstacles (if you’re crossing a boulder field for example) or make going down a steep slope safer.
Off leash this behaviour can be useful when:
you’re getting close to a road,
you want to let mountain bikes pass,
you want to stop your dog from greeting other dogs,
you come across obstacles that your dog shouldn’t attempt on his own, e.g. the roots and rocks are too high and your dog would risk falling if he attempted it alone (ask me how I know),
you are about to ford a river and you want to choose the right spot to cross instead letting your dog cross wherever he wants.
This way!
Know what you are actually training for! When you say the cue, your dog looks at you and changes direction towards where you are pointing and/or your body is facing.
This is a great behaviour to use both on and off leash.
On leash I will sometimes let Bucky decide where we are going, especially if we’re on a neighbourhood walk. However, it is handy to be able to let him know when it’s my turn to choose directions. This allows your dog to smell the sidewalk without keeping a constant eye on you, and quickly respond without you having to jerk the leash. Off leash this can be used to redirect your dog if he is about to go off trail, or if he is heading down the wrong trail. It puts less pressure on your dog than doing a recall every time.
This is a behaviour I teach without ever introducing treats -although you should feel free to do so. The reward in this case is moving forward, continuing to explore the sidewalk or the trail. I also tend to have several cues for this behaviour: a word, a mouth noise like a click, a hand signal. I use them interchangeably depending on the situation. An essential element in training this behaviour and others is consistency in the cue(s) you are using and in your behaviour. If you say ‘this way!’, your dog looks longingly in the opposite direction and you give in, he will learn that the cue is mostly meaningless. As you say the cue, commit to the behaviour.
Touch!
Know what you are actually training for! When you say the cue, your dog comes towards you and touches his nose to your open palm.
I’ve found this cue to be most useful around mountain bikes, when I want Bucky to step off to the side of the trail and let them pass. I also use it around on leash or reactive dogs as a way to keep Bucky at my side and give the other dog some needed distance.
And more…
With the automatic behaviours we’ll cover in a later post, The list above provides a good baseline for any trail dog. As you start hiking with your own dog, you will likely find that your situation require additional training to better manage interactions on trail or simply to have a more enjoyable hiking experience.
Here are some suggestions:
Wait before jumping out of the car
Leave it: teach your dog to ignore people, leashed dogs, poisonous plants, or that tasty sandwich leftover someone dropped on the trail.
Focus: teach your dog to look you in the eyes, while you let that scary horse, or dog pass. Great for reactive dogs.
Sit or down.
Settle: teach your dog to chill out on a mat or a rock, while you take a well-deserved break. She probably needs the break too, but doesn’t realize it.
Left/right: negotiate trail obstacles like a pro and guide your dog through sticky situations.
Stay behind: great to prevent being pulled forward when going down a steep trail.
Release cue.
Happy training!