When your dog escapes to achieve social interaction in the neighborhood, the owner must establish a very strong leadership role or you’re end up with dog behavior problems.
This tends to fulfill its need for socializing within the confines of its own home, a step necessary for complete correction. This can be accomplished through basic obedience command responses, practiced daily over a 6-week period.
Some problems of this type have been solved by installing frosted glass in the dog’s favorite escape window, eliminating its view of the outside.
However, several dogs have switched to other windows when this has been done, so the owner must be prepared to face this possibility.
The more important adjustment is to eliminate the social gratification formerly sought, such as “bumming around.” If neighbors are feeding or otherwise accommodating the dog, their help must be sought to stop this.
It is always necessary to determine when the dog jumps out of a window. If it occurs shortly after the dog is left alone, the owner must leave the house, sneak back to the premises and apply some strongly distracting stimulus as the dog begins to prepare for the freedom leap.
In every case, a period of initial anxiety behavior, such as whining, pacing or barking, precedes the actual leap.
If the jumping occurs just before the owner arrives home, the owner should arrange to come home earlier than usual to apply the corrections.
Just as in barking cases, the distracting stimuli should not be painful, but should take the dog’s mind off its anxiety.
This may involve a rap on a door some distance from the escape scene, and even stomping on the roof while monitoring the dog behavior problems by listening through an air vent.
If jumping is associated with fear of surroundings, it is necessary to change the area in which the dog is confined (the simplest method) or to switch the dog’s emotional association with the area from fear to contentment.
This may be difficult because the fearful response usually occurs when the pet is alone; conditioning requires the presence of the owner or some other intervening factor.
However, if the dog has been severely punished in the area, especially at homecoming times, it is often practical for the owner to stop the punishment and virtually ignoring the dog behavior problems when arriving home.
Any interaction between the owner and dog at other times should consist of play, training work for command responses and quiet activities, such as just sitting around.
This sort of dog behavior problems correction takes several days to weeks.
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