How do you train road sense in a dog?

Strange, but my dogs are usually always walked on a lead, and have absolutely no idea that they shouldn't walk in front of the next passing car.

So how do you do it?

we taught my last dog, sam, to sit before crossing the road, he was never allowed to cross if he hadnt sat and been told 'cross'. on quiet roads he would walk offlead and if no cars were about we would make him sit and cross the road without telling him to cross, so we could see if it worked and everytime he never crossed he was a very obedient dog though. im going to try with jake as well so hoping it works with him too

I wouldn't even try to teach my dog to walk off lead beside a road . You just never know when a squirrel or something equally exciting will pop out and even the best behaved dog would have difficulty resisting

Not sure if dogs (except guide dogs) can ever have proper 'road sense' ??

Mine know to sit and wait by a kerb, so we can cross, but apart from that, they are always on the side of me that is not next to the road - no temptation to wander off the kerb then!

so the dog would walk if you told it to, even if a car was coming?

I think mine are far too stupid (in the nicest sense of the word) to understand, so would never do it.

Impressive if you can do it though.

I don`t really understand why you`d want to. Since dogs don`t read the Highway Code they need to be on lead around traffic.

Not sure you can. Even guide dogs behave differently when they don't have their harness on and know they're not working.
A very well trained dog will walk beside you and if you always get them to sit at the kerb it becomes a habit. That's not the same as road sense and I wouldn't want to risk a dog's life off lead near roads. You just never know when the unexpected will happen.

I hate seeing dogs offlead around traffic. Even the best trained dogs can have a momentary lapse and we all know it only takes a moment.

My shop was on a very busy road and there were a couple of people who would always walk their dogs offlead up and down the road. It drove me mad.

One guy had a terrier that would walk a few paces behind him all the time, he'd wander into the shop and the dog would wander in after him then he'd go out and the dog would follow a couple of seconds later and walk down the road just behind him, watching him intently the whole time. Whilst I would love to have that sort of attention and interest from my dogs I just wouldn't do it.

That guy couldn't even see his dog when it was following him - how did he know it wasn't running into the road??

I hate it! Can't see any reason for it - if your dog is so damned good at walking with you, clip his lead to your belt strap if you have your hands full, at least then you have the added security!

afaik even guide dogs dont know their green cross code
they sit by the kirb but the handler tells them to cross

i agree i wouldnt want my dog offlead by a road, but teaching a habit of sitting and waiting at the kirb can be lifesaving if a dog gets loose

not necessarily, sam never an interest in anything like squirrels or the like and had a non-existant chase drive... might have just been laziness though so that was never an issue with him

it all depends on the dog though. i always knew sam would never go into the road. the one and only time he did was just after i got him and he escaped out of the garden (my sister forgot to close the gate), we realised straight away just to see him run across the road to meet my sister coming home from school, luckily there were no cars about. this was the reason my mum and dad decided to teach him never to cross a round without being told. sam was a perfect dog, so well behaved and very obedient. some people know what their dog will and will not do, we knew sam would never go on the road, and all the time we had him he didnt. we lived on a very quiet estate so he would go through there off lead, and we tested him not crossing the road many times and he never did. it all depends on the individual dog