Dog Running Outside

If Your Dog Keeps Running Away, Try These Tips
Here’s how to stop this frustrating behavior.Show more

Melissa Smith By Melissa SmithFeb 11, 2016
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Don’t chase after your dog and yell at him if he takes off — it may only make him run farther away. By: tambako
Isn’t it always the second you accidentally drop the leash or open the door that your dog runs off? Seemingly deaf to your frantic calls and whistles, he’ll cause a scene straight from vaudeville — in which you are the bumbling fool chasing after him.

But the real problem is that dogs who get loose are often injured. They chase cars and get hit, fall into ditches or even get into fights with other dogs. It’s our responsibility to ensure that doesn’t happen. One way to do that is to invest in proper training.

To learn about best practices, I talked with Jonathan Klein, CDBC, CPDT-KA, who is also a writer here at Petful.

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Why Does Your Dog Run?
Dogs will run off for a few reasons, including:

Another dog/animal to challenge or investigate
Fear
To chase cars
Food/other temptations
What it really boils down to: There is something much more interesting or less scary “over there” than “over here.” “If running away gets him somewhere he’d rather be, he’s likely to run away,” says Jonathan.

As responsible dog people, we must be aware of the lures in our dogs’ environments and prepare to combat them with good training through positive reinforcement.

Indoor Voice, Please
Our first instinct when our dogs take off is to chase them and yell — we know they could potentially run into danger, and we want to avoid that at all costs. The problem is, our dogs don’t understand that. They only know that we’re mad and we’re chasing after them — which scares them, so they run faster and farther.

Jonathan puts it this way: “Humans are thinking, ‘Oh no, you’re going to die, you’re my dog and I love you and I don’t want you to die!’ but dogs don’t understand that. Dogs are thinking, ‘Oh no, the longer you chase me yelling, the farther I’m running.’”