Another thing I’m going to start working with them on is how to behave when it comes to loading up. Right now I have to leash each individual dog and walk them to the back of the truck and tell them “load up” and they’ll jump in. I would like to be able to open their kennel, say load up, and have hem go straight to the truck and get in the box without me walking them. Right now they wanna take off and do laps around the yard and have me cussing at myself for trying it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it, other than my own slackness in training. My other pet peeve, that is also my fault due to lack of training, is that every dog tries t dump when I open the box. It’s an hour ride to my land, and there’s a gas station 5 minutes from there that I collar up at. It’s always a pain because when I open the box every dog wants to bum rush out. Like I said, this all comes down to me not doing what I need to do on my end.
You should have no problem doing both of these things. I have my dogs trained this way already. I go open the tail gait and the dog box doors, then I walk around and open the side gate, then I just go open the kennel doors to the dogs I want to bring and tell them to load up and they haul backside around the side to the front drive way jump straight in the box and lay down waiting for me to come and shut the door. Same when I am collaring up, I go to the dog box door, open it up and call the name of the dog I want to collar and only that dog will come out, i will collar it and then call the next. My dogs caught on to it real quick so I am sure yours will too.
What was your method of teaching both of those things?
For them to box themselves, I always start by opening the tail gate, dog box door, and side gate before I go and get them. I do it one dog at a time in the beginning to lessen distractions. Then I lead them straight around and straight into the box and pet them up. After a while I start doing it without a lead though I am still walking around with them to make sure they do it. If they start to run off I immediately call them back over and when they load up I pet them up. Then once they can be trusted to do it off lead then I start doing it with more than one dog at a time. Then before you know it you just open the kennel doors and they will box themselves.
As for letting them out only when they are called you need to make sure they know their name first, then I start using the box door for reinforcement when they come out when they are not asked and I pet them up when they do it right. Just a little tap with the box door is usually all you will ever need. After a while they will learn to wait for you to tell them it is okay. I do the same thing when I feed, they all sit back while I fill their bowls and will not move until I tell them okay. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
