Category: Common Problems ¤
  Author: Shirley Chong ¤
   Title: More on Barrier Training ¤

Barbara Smith wrote to ask about a problem she has with her dog going
into the front room. Since she's gotten a new puppy, he's gone into that
room three times when Barbara took the puppy out for a walk. Barbara
said "He knows he is not supposed to be in that room.  I put his leash
on and pulled in gently that way and he planted all four feet to
resist."
   Actually, Barbara, all that test tells you is that he resists going
into the room if you have him on lead and are trying to pull him in. It
doesn't tell you if he knows he should stay out of the room under
totally different circumstances--such as when you aren't physically
present. 
   If you want to use punishment to keep him out of the room, you have
to punish him for entering the room--punishing him after he's in there
will eventually get the job done, but it will be slow (so lots more
punishment will have to be used). I wouldn't imagine that's the sort of
thing you want to have to do to him.
   Why not teach him not to cross a barrier--even when you are not
physically present? I have used a target stick laid flat on the floor to
temporarily partition off part of a room. I started with teaching the
dog to touch the target stick, just so that I knew the dog was aware of
the stick and that the stick was an important thing--that interacting
with the stick would get a lot of reinforcement. Once the dog could
touch the stick when it was laid flat on the floor without my hand
touching it (for a dog, the target stick can be a totally different
object when you're touching it vs when you are not touching it), I
started barrier training.
   What I did was lay the stick on the floor between Bidge and I, told
him to touch and then clicked him BEFORE he touched it. I threw the
treat in back of him, so that he left the stick to get it--that way, he
had the fun of whirling and hunting for the treat, plus he got to have
the treat AND he was set up for the next trial automatically. Pretty
nifty for one Cheerio! <G>
   After getting several clicks before touching the target stick, he
knew that touching the target stick wasn't the object. I think he really
didn't know what was going on, but was automatically pausing when he got
to the target stick. I started delaying the click ever so slightly to
prolong the amount of time he spent standing over the stick. If he
turned away from the stick, he got clicked. If he stepped over the
stick, I gave him the "Oooops!" signal that means he won't get a click
for that.
   Pretty quickly (two sessions of about ten minutes each), he was
staying on his side of the stick. That's all I wanted--the reason I
taught him this was because he kept laying behind my computer chair and
I wanted him to quit (I felt he could stare at me from a greater
distance--staring is in the Belgian standard, but it's not required that
they be within eighteen inches to do it).
   It would be simple to teach him to stay on that side of the stick
while I wasn't present. In fact, he already does--I can go in the
kitchen to get something and he's still on his side of the stick when I
come back. In your situation, however, I'd plan on teaching him formally
to stay on his side of the stick even when I'm not present.
   An alternative would be to teach him to settle on a mat (or a leash),
even while you're gone. This is a variation of the obedience down-stay,
but it's easier to teach for most dogs because the tast is better
defined ("stay on this mat").

M. Shirley Chong
The Well Mannered Dog