How do you build boundaries with a dog?

Understanding the Basics Before you begin any training like this, whether it’s recall training, retrieval training or boundary training, it’s essential that your dog already understands and responds well to basic commands. Teaching your dog to sit, stay, heel and leave are the usual starting points and all will prove to be great tools for boundary training. Your dog also needs to recognise you as the dominant one – if your dog thinks you’re a pushover, they are much less likely to respond to commands. To begin your training, you need to have complete control over your dog. If you are confident they will respond to voice commands, you can leave them off-lead, if not, put them on their lead to ensure control. Remove your usual barriers to off-limits areas, and tell your dog to ‘heel’. If you are in the garden make sure your dog doesn’t go out alone for a while, and stays close by at all times. If you are in the home, whenever you enter the room that has access to the off-limits area keep them to heel. If he stays away from the areas – reward him! After about a week of staying away from the desired area, you can slowly begin to let your dog explore and enjoy more freedom. But keep an eye on them from the top of the garden or the next room. So long as they continue to stay away from the off-limits area, reward them. You can slowly offer the dog more freedom after about one week of showing your dog that staying away from the location is a good thing and gets him rewards. If the dog goes past the boundary you have set, use a method of correction that has worked for you in the past, so he knows that it is unacceptable to enter that space.