Road Sense

Hi People, Does anyone one have any idea on instilling road sense into a Staffie? We live in a very built up area and, although the suburb is quiet, the roads are extremely busy at times. We walk at all times with the rules of the road in mind and he halts before crossing the road (Always on leash). I was hoping that my behaviour would be absorbed somehow by osmosis over time or is this just wishful thinking?

I would like to have peace of mind in the event (God Forbid) that he gets loose/out someday.

If, every time you come to a road, you make your dog sit before crossing, then eventually he'll do it automatically. Most of my dogs have been trained this way, although the show dogs weren't because I didn't want them to sit as soon as I stop (in the show ring they have to stand still every time you stop!) so I taight them 'wait'.

Also, if you're teaching your dog to walk to heal, then every time you stop, no matter where you are, make them sit & this will reinforce the sitting at the kerb.

Having said that, I don't think many dogs have any road sense whatsoever. They don't reason, they just 'do', so if they see something they want on the other side of the road, they don't stop and think "Are there any cars coming?" they just go.

Thanks for your advice Caryll. We do a sit with halt command at each curb before crossing streets (in fact whenever we stop) as he learned this at training. I guess I was sort of hoping that he would learn by observation to avoid/respect moving vehicles at least in situations where he is not zoning in on something else. I will never walk him in busy areas off leash but anything can happen and I was hoping to be prepared.

Unfortunately I don't think there's a dog alive that actually has road sense as such. Some may look as though they do, but as i said, they don't reason, so they wouldn't look to see if traffic was coming. They might become conditioned to stopping at the kerb, but then they would probably just wait a few seconds & cross anyway!

The ironic thing is I see so many Staffy owners walking their dogs round my estate with them off the lead, everytime I see it I think there is no chance of me doing that with Lola, not that I would want too, but the thought of her being that obedient is great, but I know if I tried it as soon as she saw a cat or a dog she would be gone.......

I've walked my collies & shepherds off lead in town, but not my bullies. They're far too wilful!

Caryll wrote:If, every time you come to a road, you make your dog sit before crossing, then eventually he'll do it automatically. Most of my dogs have been trained this way, although the show dogs weren't because I didn't want them to sit as soon as I stop (in the show ring they have to stand still every time you stop!) so I taight them 'wait'.

Also, if you're teaching your dog to walk to heal, then every time you stop, no matter where you are, make them sit & this will reinforce the sitting at the kerb.

Having said that, I don't think many dogs have any road sense whatsoever. They don't reason, they just 'do', so if they see something they want on the other side of the road, they don't stop and think "Are there any cars coming?" they just go.

Exactly this!

Good pointer's here i started this all ready that' one of my big worries as it's kinda busy where we are too. Treat's at hand and training clicker SIT,STAY,COME that's the command's i use when im out near the busy road's, also i got Teeva to give a paw he has been doing this for about 3 week's now of topic (HE HAS JUST DROPED A SMELLY ONE) open window.

Violet knows 'wait' when we're at the edge of the pavement, and most of the time she just does it now without being told, but I'm positive that if she was out with no leash and saw something interesting on the other side of the road, she would just go for it, whether cars were coming or not. I see so many staffies just cruising the streets with no leash, but I don't think I could take the risk

Funny enough there was a good example of this today. I was walking Dempsey along the road going to the park & a flash guy on the other side had a staffy off lead. He (the guy) was swaggering along, every so often saying "heel" loudly as though he wanted everyone to know how well he'd trained his dog.

His dog looked across at Dempsey & just bolted across the road & wouldn't listen to the owner no matter how much he shouted at him! Luckily there were no cars coming, and both dogs liked each other!

I had a quiet ( ) word with the guy when he caught up!