Board and train for door dashing and boundary training

The AKC's guide to door darting is blunt about the stakes: dogs that run outside unsupervised can get lost, be hit by a car or get into conflicts with other pets and people. Gloucester's dog regulations add the legal side. Dogs must always remain under the control of their owner or keeper, and at the time of writing the city lists fines of $300 per violation. A dog loose on the street is out of anyone's control.

Cape Ann's calendar raises the risk at predictable times. Route 128 ends in Gloucester, so city streets carry through traffic as well as local cars, and summer events such as St. Peter's Fiesta in late June and the July 3 fireworks bring guests, open doors and loud noise. The AKC notes that the Fourth of July is among the most active times of year for pets getting lost, and that a terrified dog may bolt through a screen.

A day in our building passes through many doors: the suite door, the yard door, the lobby, the training room. Waiting at doors is part of Foundation's impulse control, so each one becomes a repetition, practiced with different handlers so the wait belongs to the door rather than to one person. Boundary training grows out of it: the threshold becomes a line the dog does not cross until it hears its release word.

Vehicle doors deserve their own practice, since the AKC lists car doors among the doors to train. If your dog rides the Pup Van, which runs in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea for $10 each way, ask at the consult whether a van door can be part of the plan. At home, practice the same wait at your own car's back door, leash on, long before you open the hatch at a busy beach lot in October.

Some dogs bolt because they are frightened. A dog that flees fireworks or thunder needs a safe room and a quiet plan on noisy nights, and the AKC advises keeping dogs indoors during fireworks, holding the leash even in your own yard and making sure a microchip backs up the collar. Others bolt to chase a squirrel, a cat or a passing dog, and those dogs need the distraction proofing and recall work of the two-week Advanced stay.

The daily updates during the stay should tell you how long your dog held a wait and at how many doors, which gives you a baseline for home. The go-home lesson hands you the open-close routine and the release word. For continued help at your own front door, private sessions start from $94, and our board and train page sets out both programs. The free evaluation, on weekday mornings between 6:30 and 9:30 AM, comes before any stay.