Enough to change behavior?

playyardI often pacify myself by studying behavior, obviously dogs, but people too and I’ve noticed recently a change in driving behavior in Durango. There’s a light when you leave the Humane Society and head west into town (also known as the Wal mart light) that has recently changed, and caused a subsequent change of behavior. A little bit ago the light was reprogramed and instead of having the north/south traffic independently navigate the intersection, they now go at the same time with one change. The two lanes turning left toward town are given a blinking yellow (when there’s a car coming across the intersection) which then turns to green after a minute. This initial blinking yellow has caused a major change in traffic. Instead of taking off quickly from that light and getting up to the posted 50 mph, many people are now coasting along and going much slower both out of the intersection as well as down the subsequent block.

It made me wonder, could I cause a similar behavior change with my dogs. Our recent moved placed us on 20 beautiful acres but without fences and lots of neighbor dogs pulling my dogs in different directions. After 6 weeks of being exceptionally good, two of my kiddos went on a walk-about. They were gone for 90min before I had to leave for work. I arrived home to them hours later but the experience left me unhappy. Although I’m comfortable giving my dogs some freedom, I expect them to be home and secured before I leave and I never want them so far that they don’t respond to a whistle. So I decided to employ this idea.

Instead of letting them out to do their morning circle around the property, I leashed one and had the other two walk with me. Toward the end of the walk I gave them all freedom but again made them hang pretty close by. After breakfast I kept them in the house until completely digested (typically they are let out immediately after meals for 15-30min). By keeping them in for 15min instead of letting them out, I noticed a different behavior. They all stayed around. There was no rush to get out. Just like the drivers drove a slower pace on the next block, the dogs tended to go slower and not as far as previously when they bolted out. Obviously more studying to be done…..but one of those interesting behaviors that may be a wonderful and subtle way to manage our pups.

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