Teaching wait in the car

[Muddy unicorn]

My younger dog has started to jump out of the boot as soon as the door opens. I’m having to be very careful about where I park/when I open the door as he leaps first and asks questions later. My older dog waits quietly for me to help him out which is one blessing. Younger dog has a rock solid wait when he’s out of the car but he doesn’t seem to connect the command with the action as soon as the car’s involved. Any ideas for training this? It’s tricky as it’s (now) usually just me taking him out.

 

[Jenko109]

Can you clip the dog in by attaching to the dog guard or something?

Then the dog cannot self reward when the boot is opened and you can wait until you have achieved a solid and calm stay before unclipping.

Might be enough just to break the cycle.

 

[CorvusCorax]

The best thing would be a physical barrier like a gate or guard or crate/box, then you can teach wait once a door is open rather than having to manage a tailgate.

If that's not possible try teaching it with lots of repetition in the parked car, somewhere safe, with no chance for him to endanger himself.

The problem is if he ignores you, rushes out and you take him for a nice walk **anyway** you are reinforcing the behaviour. Although I appreciate it's not entirely practical to put him back in and drive home, but he'd soon learn.

 

[paisley]

Practice at home, so there’s no anticipation of a walk, then trips in the car with no walk and do more practice waiting to get out at home to build a solid foundation. Second the clip to attach the dog initially but it would have to be short enough so the dog doesn’t have a go anyway and maybe hurts himself. Any sneaky leaps and just pop him back in with a wait command until you’re happy he’s actually paying attention.

 

[meleeka]

I used a harness and clipped the dog to the back headrest. Current dog I just went to open the boot, then quickly shut it again until she waited nicely. I only had to do that a few times.

 

[Muddy unicorn]

Thank you for the suggestions - I’ve ordered a short double ended lead to clip onto the dog guard and will try to practise at home.