Sooner or later, at some point in your dog’s life, she is probably going to need to be kept confined. There was a time when “confinement” pretty universally meant shutting your dog in a crate just big enough for her to stand up, turn around, and lie down. Times have changed. Welcome to the new world of creative canine containment!

There are many legitimate reasons why your dog might need some degree of confinement. These include:

• Housetraining 
• Medical (incontinence, dementia, restricted activity following surgery/injury)
• Management of unwanted behaviors (counter surfing, chewing, getting in garbage, etc.)
• Managing behavioral issues between household companions (dog-dog, dog-cat, dog-bird, etc.)
• Respecting the comfort of non-dog-loving visitors 
• Protecting fragile family members (or visitors) from unwanted or overly vigorous attention (seniors, small children)
• Managing aggression/reactivity toward visitors
• Your desire for some quiet time away from your beloved canine pal

CONTAINMENT OPTIONS: ALTERNATIVES FOR INDOOR CAGES FOR DOGS

The crate is still an option, of course. My preferred use for these is now for medical recovery that requires more restriction than other options, for safe travel in vehicles, and for brief periods of confinement and convenience (a quick stash while the workman walks through the house to the backyard). I frequently use a crate for brief moments of confinement for our newest Kelpie, KC, who can bound over a traditional baby gate without batting an eye. 

Crates are also frequently used for housetraining. Given that it’s rare for a dog to eliminate in such a small space, the crate is used to confine the dog between frequent trips outside, where the dog is encouraged to eliminate and richly rewarded for doing so. Elimination outdoors earns the dog a brief period of house freedom before she is again contained for a short time in the crate, to await the next outdoor elimination opportunity. 

Housetraining aside, you can safely confine your dog using another option for any of the confinement reasons listed above, while giving your dog more freedom and a better quality of life. Consider using one of the following methods or tools:

• A leash

While we tend to think of leashes as a tool with which to take our dogs for a walk, they can also help you keep tabs on your dog in the house, for management of housetraining, counter surfing, and other house manners issues. Clip the leash to your dog’s collar, slip the handle over your wrist, and happily watch TV, check your social media, do your laundry, or sit down to play Parcheesi with the family. Your dog is confined but still with you.

• A tether

This is essentially a leash that attaches the dog to something other than you. Wrap it around the leg of a heavy piece of furniture, run the clip through the leash handle and voilà! A tether! 

Given enough time on a tether, however, many dogs will chew through a leash. In this case, purchase a commercial plastic-coated cable tether with clips on both ends – one to clip to your dog’s harness and the other end to fasten to something solid. 

Some people don’t mind screwing an eye bolt into a stud in their wall and clipping the end of the tether to the eye bolt. A less home-damaging option is to screw an eye bolt a block of wood, and clip the other end of the tether to the eye bolt. Slide the tether under a door, close the door with the block on the far side, and the door will hold your tethered dog in place. 

Pettethers.com is a great commercial source for tethers of various weights and lengths for various sized dogs and different situations; they also offer the block-end tether. If you’re handy (that would be my husband, not me), you can also make your own tethers from plastic-coated cable available at any hardware store.

A few tether cautions: 

1. Spend some time helping your dog learn to be comfortable on the tether. Stay close, feed her treats, and only gradually move farther away from your tethered dog.

2. Consider giving her a snuffle mat or a Lickimat to keep her content while tethered. Food-stuffed toys such as Kongs or Toppls may be pushed or roll out of the reach of the tethered dog, leading to increased frustration.

3. Never leave your dog unattended when tethered, even if just for a few minutes. Things can happen.

4. We recommend using a harness when you tether, rather than a collar, to avoid injury to your dog’s neck should she jerk on the tether.

For more information about tethering, see “Tethered to Success,” WDJ November 2020.

• Exercise pens

Originally, these useful tools traditionally came in the form of a utilitarian folding fence, usually with six or eight panels. One could clip the ends together to create a wire hexagon, or stretch it across a room or opening (in those open floor-plan homes) to give your dog a larger space. 

“Ex pens” come in varying heights, from 24 inches high (useful mostly for young puppies and very small dogs) to 48 inches high; they also come in various weights. Some dogs learn to push the lighter-weight pens across floors or knock them over; the heavier models, made of thicker gauge wire, help prevent this. 

Happily, more and more pet-product manufacturers are coming out with freestanding barriers that are both sturdier and more attractive than plain old ex pens. They are made with a variety of materials (wood, plastic, hollow metal tubes, solid metal bars, etc.) and in a variety of finishes to match nearly any décor. 

For example, Carlson Pet Products makes a wide variety of pet barriers, including a “Super Wide Pet Gate” which is 10 feet long with flexible hinges that allow for a variety of shaping options. The ends of the fence can be mounted on walls or attached to each other to create a pen. One segment of the fence has a walk-through gate. You can also purchase additional attachments to create any length you want or need. (See carlsonpetproducts.com/gates.)

These barriers are terrific for keeping dogs apart and yet still integrated into the family’s environment. We’ve used them to keep a puppy or pesty adolescent dog from bothering an arthritic old-timer and to prevent canine family members who are prone to squabbling from laying claim to the same sofa or spot by the wood stove.

Here’s another ex-pen option: How about putting the human in the pen? Don’t want your dog jumping on you in your recliner or on your 90-year-old grandmother in her wheelchair? Put your ex-pen around you or grandma! 

• Door barriers

If you have an entire room that’s dog-proofed sufficiently for confining your dog, you have several options for doorway barriers. If there are doors to the room, you could just close them, and that may be the wisest choice if you need a visual barrier as well as a physical one. However, that isolates the dog completely, and there are many occasions where it’s helpful to allow your dog some access to household activities so she can habituate to what’s going on. Here are some other door barrier options:

• Baby gates

Again, a long-standing dog-management tool with lots of new options. Carlson Pet Products, mentioned above, also has a wide selection of gates, including retractable, expandable, auto-closing, extra-tall, extra-small, designer, small-dog door built into the gate, pressure-mounted, screw-in, and freestanding, in a variety of materials.

If you have an athletically gifted dog like our KC, you may need to look for an extra tall gate, such as the 72-inch-high Kitty Gate from Roverpet (roverpet.com/dogs_cats/tall-cat-gate/).

• The Dutch door

In my days at the Marine Humane Society, several of my coworkers and I were fortunate enough to be allowed to bring our dogs to work with us. Our maintenance supervisor “Dutched” all of our office doors so we could keep the top half of the door open with the bottom half closed, and conduct business while keeping our dogs safely contained. You can purchase Dutch doors or “Dutch” your own. If you want to Dutch your own doors, be sure to get solid (not hollow-core) wooden doors! 

• Fireplace screen

If you have dogs who are barrier-respectful, you can re-purpose an easily movable decorative fireplace screen to block off a door or stairway. 

• Whatever you happen to have handy

Last but not least, a couple of trainer friends shared their “just make do” stories with me. Marnie Montgomery of Joyful Dog LLC in Leesburg, Virginia, said, “My personal favorite was a phalanx of bar stools, which were high enough to prevent jumping over, with spaces between small enough to prevent a mid-sized dog from passing through. Coupled with kitchen ‘islands,’ we found them to be an effective temporary solution.” 

Alexis Bond from Dog Only Knows in Annapolis, Maryland, says, “Whenever I see a used crib free or on the side of the road, I pick up the side rails. I can move them around or double them up for wider spaces. They are easy to block different areas. Obviously for some dogs I may have to find a way to hook them or slide them behind a piece of furniture.” 

Jackie Moyano of Behavior United in Wheaton, Maryland, shared, “At an Airbnb in Vermont, I placed a high-backed chair on the deck sideways in order to block off deck access to the unfenced yard. Probably wouldn’t work for all-sized dogs, but it kept my low-rider Dachshund-mix from unauthorized walkabouts.”

IF THE BARRIER FAILS, DOUBLE DOWN

Mature dogs who have been trained to accept confinement will likely go along with whatever arrangements you make for a barrier. However, young dogs who haven’t yet been securely confined might see any barrier that can be moved or scaled as a challenge. Your initial efforts to contain young dogs will be most successful if you use a barrier that can’t be pushed aside or knocked over. Gates and indoor fences that are secured with hardware (rather than pressure-mounted with springs, for example) will help discourage escape attempts. 

Use maximally secure barriers for puppies or dogs who are prone to separation anxiety or isolation distress, or dogs who exhibit aggression toward other household members (human, canine, or other). Once a dog has gotten reinforced with freedom by scaling or pushing through a barrier, he’s likely to try extra hard next time he’s confined. Don’t try using the exact same setup the next time you need to confine him, but “go big” with a hardware-mounted, extra-tall gate, for example. 

So, be it a leash, a tether, a gate, a door, a pen, whether purchased, found, improvised, or homemade, you have lots of options for keeping your canine companion safely and happily confined. 

Ever hear of force-free gundog training? Neither have most of America’s 3 million duck, pheasant, and migrating bird hunters, but what’s new in the world of hunting dogs can improve your training methods, your dog’s behavior, and your relationship with your dog – even if you don’t have a gun or any interest in hunting. 

Positive-reinforcement or force-free training methods were revolutionary 40 years ago, but now they’re familiar in obedience, agility, the show ring, and even the dog park. In contrast, force-free methods are seldom used by hunters in the U.S., where the use of ear pinches, choke chains, prong collars, and electric shock collars are still the norm. 

However, change is in the air. Some trainers specialize in force-free gundog training, and their classes attract family dogs as well as prospective hunters. That’s in part because gundog trainers are attuned to the behaviors of spaniels, pointers, retrievers, setters, and other dogs bred to flush, point at, chase, or retrieve birds or small game. 

Jo Laurens, author of the book Force-Free Gundog Training, notes that most people who live with dogs from hunting breeds don’t work them. “Due to their genetics and pedigrees, these dogs still have the instincts and desire to hunt but, unlike working gundogs, they have no structured outlet for this,” she says. “It’s a mistake for people to assume that if they don’t plan to hunt, they don’t need gundog training. This belief leads to out-of-control dogs and in turn to a restricted and impoverished life for dogs who aren’t allowed off-leash at all.” 

Dogs find their own ways to pursue what they find reinforcing. “This,” she says, “leads to dogs who are more interested in the environment (scent, game, critters) than in their handlers’ reinforcers (praise, food, toys) – which means that many handlers struggle with control issues and with dogs who ignore recalls, chase after animals, or pay no attention when they find something interesting to sniff.”

Laura Hill, author of Advanced Retriever Training, agrees. “I advocate working with the dog’s natural abilities and instincts rather than against them,” she says. “The techniques and exercises I describe in my book will help owners understand the dogs in front of them, their motivations and desires, and it will also guide people to help their dogs manage their own behaviors rather than us imposing our will onto the dogs. Nurturing impulse control and self-control is important so that the dogs learn to manage themselves and make appropriate choices.”

Because dogs are genetically programmed to hunt, the same reward-based training methods are appropriate for all dogs with hunting behaviors, not just the breeds most associated with that activity. 

FORCE-FREE DOG TRAINING

Force-free or positive-reinforcement trainers focus on well-timed rewards for incremental improvements in exercises designed around the dog’s interests and abilities. They don’t use punishments like scolding, hitting, ear pinching, electric shocks, rattle bottles, lead jerks, dragging, lifting, pushing, pulling, nose tapping, or other “corrections.” 

Still, ear pinches and shock collars are so entrenched that most bird hunters are reluctant to abandon them. In field trial and hunting circles, positive-reinforcement training is perceived as unproven and too permissive to be reliable, resulting in soft or spoiled dogs who don’t perform well. 

 In his book Absolutely Positively Gundog Training, Robert Milner describes how he was asked to help Tennessee Task Force One rebuild its search-dog program after 9/11. Milner’s first training results were disappointing, so he looked for the cause. “The people were motivated and smart,” he explains. “The dogs were motivated and smart. I was an experienced and successful trainer of dogs and people in other areas. The compulsion-training model appeared to be the culprit.”

To change their approach, he and 15 search-dog handlers attended a three-day Karen Pryor Clicker Training Conference. Clicker training instructors followed up with individual coaching. “The resulting training progressed rapidly,” says Milner. “We reduced the initial projected 18 months for compulsion training to six months for positive training. That was a 300-percent reduction in learning curve for novice trainers. That told me that positive training is three times easier for a novice trainer to master.” 

By 2015, Milner had proofed his positive-training model on over 200 gundogs with good results. He applied the same training methods to disaster search dogs and scent detection/explosive detection dogs with equal success, establishing that with reward-based training, dogs learn quickly, perform well, and retain their skills over time.

FORCE FREE DOG TRAINING FUNDAMENTALS

Introductory gundog training is like basic obedience, though gundog trainers provide different descriptions and explanations. For example, anyone carrying a loaded shotgun will want a hunting dog to remain calm, steady, and in a safe position on the handler’s left. 

While novice handlers are often inconsistent in their voice commands (from the dog’s perspective, “come” is not the same as “here,” “here now,” or the dog’s name, which many owners use interchangeably), gundog trainers emphasize consistent verbal commands, well-timed whistle blasts, and hand signals that improve handler-to-dog communication. Fundamentals include:

• Sit or Hup. The dog sits and stays beside the handler or partway to the object being retrieved. A prolonged single whistle and raised hand give the same instruction.
• Come or Here. The dog comes to the handler. Multiple quick whistle “pips” are a recall signal.
• Heel. The dog walks beside the handler.
• Place. The dog returns to a board or elevated plank, sits, and waits.
• Release. The dog’s name, “okay,” “done,” “go,” or another release word lets the dog return to hunting or another activity after completing a task.
• Fetch. The dog retrieves a ball, bird, or other object and returns it to the handler.
• Deliver to hand. The dog drops the picked-up item into the handler’s hand.

REWARDS FOR DOG TRAINING

Rewards are essential in force-free training, and the definition of a reward depends on your dog. A reward should be something you provide instantly, not after several minutes, and it should be something that satisfies and motivates your pup. Common rewards in gundog training include food treats, tug toys, retrieves, games, attention, praise, and actual hunting. 

“We’ve met many dogs who aren’t interested in training because it hasn’t been enjoyable,” says Elsa Blomster, co-author of Retrieving for All Occasions. “But when the handler finds the right reward (usually something really yummy such as minced meat, soft cheese, or a soft, fluffy toy), the dog doesn’t want to stop working. 

“One of my online students struggled with the stop whistle because her dog didn’t respond at all, just continued sniffing the ground. We decreased the distance and had her put some kibble on the floor. When the dog finished sniffing, the handler blew the whistle and rewarded the dog for sitting, then she put some new kibble on the floor and let her sniff again. 

“After a few repetitions, she blew the stop whistle just before the dog was finished, and this time the dog lifted her head and sat straight away. For that she received some cheese, which was a higher-level reward. We gradually increased the distance and did the same thing with other distractions, such as with game scent or whatever the dog found distracting.”

USING PLACE BOARDS

Trainers who use them swear by place boards, which can be anything from a piece of plywood to an elevated deck with a non-skid surface. A place board acts as a safe “home base” that is itself a reward, one that helps the dog develop patience and steadiness while learning voice, whistle, and hand signals. 

When Jordan Horak, designer of the Cato Board, was introduced to place boards nine years ago, he was struck by how quickly his dogs gravitated to the boards. 

“I began adapting the place board training and developed drills that the dogs not only enjoyed but that gave me a rapport and control that I’d never experienced before,” says Horak. 

In 2018, Horak and two of his Cocker Spaniels won American Kennel Club Spaniel Field Trial National titles, for which he credits positive-reinforcement training and board practice. “Although I initially expected Cato Boards to be used primarily by gundog owners, most of our customers use them for family dogs or dogs involved in agility, basic obedience, tricks, police work, or the military,” he says.

ONE STEP AT A TIME WHEN FORCE FREE DOG TRAINING

An essential part of force-free training is breaking tasks into small pieces, presenting those pieces one at a time, moving slowly and staying with each item until the dog understands it, rewarding the dog for each success, and reviewing steps in future sessions. Short rather than lengthy practice sessions, gradual progression from simple toward more challenging behaviors, and patience help as well. 

Is your dog having fun? Are you? If not, reconsider your methods and put fun back into your sessions.

We’ve compiled a long list of instruction books, online resources, and videos that offer step-by-step guidance through every phase of force-free gundog training, from the basics to blind retrieves, directional work, reliable whistle recalls, water retrieves, advanced instructions, field trials, and more.

When I get an email asking for help with a 6-month-old puppy who’s still not house-trained, I’ll bet you this: That puppy’s owner doesn’t live alone. There’s probably a spouse, or maybe some teenagers in the household.

How do I know? Because, in a single-person scenario, the one person who wanted the dog in the first place is setting and following the rules. With messaging that is 100% consistent, puppies learn quickly. 

In contrast, as wonderful as a “village” of loved ones can be for a dog, it often comes with a negative impact on training. This may sound counter-intuitive (shouldn’t more helping hands make things easier?), but the more humans in the household, the more likely it is that there is a saboteur in their midst!

Here are some classic situations where saboteurs confuse the family dog and delay his understanding of a trained behavior:

• POTTY-TRAINING. Because of the relentless nature of early potty-training, that’s where sabotage first shows up. Sure, maybe there are a few days where everyone’s on board. But inevitably, the teenager is in the middle of a potentially high-scoring game, or the hubby’s on a Zoom, and there it is, the killer thought: “Oh, whatever. Who in the world could keep up this outside-every-30-minutes thing? I’ll just clean it up later and nobody will know.”

Ack! The bright line has been crossed; at least one member of the household has given up on getting the pup out in time. Puppy now learns that relieving herself inside offers an immediate reward – “Ahhh! That feels better!” That’s the definition of how to strengthen a behavior! Days, weeks, and even months later, the committed member of the household is mystified that potty-training is taking so long. 

Household frustration starts to build. Ideally, it is not directed at the dog, who is simply learning what she’s taught. 

• JUMPING UP. Similarly, teaching a dog not to jump up takes tremendous consistency. The humans must anticipate and prevent the moment of the jump (which prevents the paws-on reinforcement that feels so good to the dog) and consistently reward a different behavior, such as sitting to greet. It’s a ton of work, over and over again all day. 

That’s why it is infuriating when the household saboteur comes home after a long day away and reverses all of that learning. The door’s flung open and a glorious full-body, paws-on greeting ensues. The dog is thrilled to learn that jumping is just like the lottery – you have to play to win! 

Household frustration starts to build. Ideally, it’s not directed at the dog, who is simply learning what he’s taught.

• THE FORBIDDEN COUCH. In the quest to get a “yes” from a reluctant spouse, let’s say the dog-seeker has made promises. “Okay, the puppy won’t be allowed on the couch!”

Months later, while the reluctant spouse is out of the house, the dog lover figures what they don’t know won’t hurt them and encourages the couch cuddle. The snuggling feels so nice it happens again and again. Two weeks later, the reluctant spouse is shocked when their dog happily – confidently – leaps onto the couch to settle in. 

Household frustration starts to build. Ideally, it is not directed at the dog, who is simply learning what she’s taught.

EASY FIX: TALK IT OUT

I’ve highlighted three common sabotage areas here, but the list could go on and on. No matter what you’re trying to teach your dog, if somebody in his life is teaching the opposite, there’s going to be trouble. 

The solution starts with all the humans in the household talking it out. Here are the two key ideas to get across:

1. “Think how hard this is on our dog!” Often the guilty family member believes they’re giving the dog a happy time by letting the rules slide sometimes. In truth, it’s the opposite. The momentary happiness sets the dog up for future confusion and increased household stress. One of the kindest things you can do for your dog is to make this mystifying human world more predictable. 

2. “You matter! You play a key role.” Saboteurs usually have not thought through just how much their undermining is slowing the dog’s training. In their minds, they’ve simply been assuming that one day he’ll automatically be house-trained, or naturally grow out of jumping. Nope! That will not happen. You’re teaching the dog something whenever you’re around the dog, whether you intend to or not.

LOOK FOR COMPROMISE

That simple discussion might lead to everyone getting on board. But it also may reveal something more difficult: that the sabotage was not from thoughtlessness but was instead because of a lack of consensus. The truth is, we don’t all agree about how we’d like to live with our dogs. 

I received an email the other day from a woman who is about to move in with her boyfriend, whose dog “needs training.” She wanted me to work with the dog, listing a dozen behaviors she doesn’t want to live with. Hmm. The boyfriend was not the one to call me, nor was he mentioned as a key part of this training session. I suspect the boyfriend is just fine with the way he’s living with his dog. 

Here’s the thing: The first order of business is to accept that there is not a universal list of “must-have” behaviors decreed from on high. It may feel obvious to one of you that your dog shouldn’t sleep in bed with you – and just as obvious to the other that that’s the whole point of having a dog. Because it’s imperative that there is clear direction for the dog, it’s time for an official household meeting about what you each want life with a dog to look like. When there’s disagreement, dig deeper, because as you talk out the “whys” of each of your desires, solutions can arise. 

Let’s take the case of a husband welcoming the jump greeting, while the wife is trying to keep the dog from jumping on everybody else. That one can have a surprisingly simple solution: Put the jumping up on cue! 

We actually do that at our house because we are weirdly fond of our giant dog’s exuberant hello. Whenever we come home, we enter saying, “Wait,” and then once we’ve put down our groceries or whatever, we tap our shoulders and say, “Big hug!” George, our 90-pound puppy, happily does his thing at that time. The dog gets 100% consistent direction, and we get to enjoy jumping up when we want it and not when we don’t. 

With just a little thought, it’s surprising how many household training disagreements can result in a compromise plan that works for everyone.

• For the person who wants to feed his dog table scraps, who’s living with people who don’t want a dog staring at them all through dinner: What if you wait until you clear the table, and dish out that food by the sink? 
• For the person who wants to snuggle with the dog on movie night, living with someone who doesn’t want dog fur all over the couch: What if you make the couch by invitation only? Ask the dog to “stay” in a sit on the floor, then put the special blanket on the key couch spot and cue, “Couch time!” Alternatively, agree on one piece of furniture that’s designated as the “dog chair” that the dog snuggler can share. 
• For the person who loves to sleep with the dog, whose partner doesn’t want to feel squished in bed: How about if the early-to-bed person enjoys dog cuddles until the partner goes to bed? Or what if the dog jumps in for that last hour in the morning once the early riser is gone? I have many clients who do this, and whose dogs completely understand the drill!

Generations ago, most dog-training advice was more or less standard issue; there was one set of rules, as if every dog and owner were the same. But of course that’s ridiculous. Gather your household and decide what you want, then commit to teaching it. When nobody’s sabotaging the message, your dog can learn incredibly nuanced things.