Why would anyone in their right mind walk a dog WITHOUT A LEASH across a busy traffic light?
This was my original thought (to myself) before I started going full speed into my everyday life of being a dog trainer. Before I started on this path, I was traveling from Colorado to Texas. This was a normal vacation travel route for me at the time.
During one of my last trips to Texas, I was passing through Albuquerque New Mexico. And I hit the 5 O’clock traffic on the highway and cars went from going 55mph to around 35 mph. That may not seem really fast because we drive those speeds everyday but if you’re walking by the highway, those cars are still moving!
What I remember most about that specific day was seeing a truck with a camper shell a few miles ahead of me on the right side of the highway. There was a family hanging out while a man was changing a tire. I saw 2 kids playing with what I am guessing was the mom and laying down next to the man changing the tire was a dog. The dog was a doberman pincher. The dog did not have a leash. And the dog was not moving. The Dobbie appeared to be in a “down” command and held that position very well while the kids were playing. The man was changing the tire. And the traffic was zipping on by.
As I got closer, the dobbie never moved. I was thinking to myself that the training the dog received from whichever outfit the dobbie went to was very good. And I kept getting closer as the highway traffic kept on moving. I moved from the fast lane to the middle lane hoping I could get a closer look and maybe wave to the person changing the tire and signaling some sort of thumbs up gesture showing they did a great job. Some serious time was passing because the man was still in the process of changing a tire.
As I got to the area where the family was at, the guy was still changing the tire, and the dobbie was holding the “down” position. Then, that doberman pincher jerked his head, got up, and darted across the highway traffic! The initial cars in front of me in the far right lane swerved missing the dog. I had moved over in the lane closest to the right hand lane at this point. I swerved and avoided hitting the dobbie head on. I looked in my rear view mirror and I saw the dobbie get rolled over by a car that wasn’t able to avoid the impact.
As I was trying to watch the cars in front of me while still looking in my rear view mirror, I saw the dobbie pop back up after being run over and still running. This was a couple of cars behind me at this point. Then the dobbie got hit by a big truck. I couldn’t look anymore. I knew at that point the family lost their dog and the cars behind me where going to be stuck in traffic while they sorted out any traffic accidents that may have caused. There were at least 2 cars and a couple of dozen surrounding eye witnesses impacted. I felt sick to my stomach.
This is why and how my traffic light video became a part of my everyday dog training. That poor dobbie did what they were trained to do. And the initial results showed the owner did their required part by continuously reenforcing those commands which is why that dobbie was able to hold that command as long as they did. I say that because dog training is similar to any other learned applicable skill. Here’s an example. If you take the time to learn mixed martial arts and continuously practice what you learn. You will get pretty good at knowing when to do certain movements and you will also be good at executing them.
If you are a hobbyist and practice when it is convenient or worse only at the time it’s needed, you will get seriously hurt. Same thing for people who rig parachutes. Do you want someone to prepare your parachute who rigs them while trying to make a few extra part-time dollars or do you want someone who rigs them because it is their normal everyday job?
Going back to what sparked my traffic light video work. I certainly DON’T blame the outfit that taught the dobbie all the commands. And I’m not blaming the owner for all the command reenforcing they did. However, I do blame the owner for placing their dobbie in an unneeded situation to justify to themselves that their dog was awesome for holding that command. This was completely an unneeded situation. And I know that there will alway be some pin head who will try and push their dog’s obedience training to the max.
That’s what sparked my traffic light training…
In a nut shell, my traffic light work is;
High level dog training work that helps a dog become familiar with moving cars (big distractions, loud noises, high prey drive
avoidance) and the ability to perform multiple commands (sitting, walking) at a busy traffic light before they go home. This is my way of giving every dog I train a real fighting chance to survive a bad situation that any future owner may place them in.
I can tell you right now…
I wish I could remove that vivid memory that’s ingrained in my brain.
Other trainers either don’t know how, don’t want to invest the 
time, or don’t want the potential risk associated with doing traffic light work. If you want traffic light work, you have to enroll your dog in one of those national schools and pay about 4 times the amount that I charge to do it. And it’s all part of my normal training process in case some other owner knucklehead tries to place one of my graduates in a bad situation. I don’t know if I will ever get rid of that image but I do know my dogs will have a fighting chance to survive an owners bad decision.
I’m also sure that one day I will have a dog who won’t be able to perform this training because it is a lot to learn for a dog. And I will have to let their humans know that their dog is a well trained dog but they could not mentally process the traffic light training portion.
Dogs are like people. If they are over loaded with information, their brain shuts down and they resort to what they know. Just like that poor dobbie. That dobbie held that position as long as possible and their brain shut down due to over stimulus.
And we know how that story ended.
Think for your dog. And remind them that you are the pack leader. Letting a dog assume the pack leader is creating an unhappy home where your dog jumps on everyone. Where a dog blatantly follows their preferred dog drive. And it allows your dog to build courage over time that could resort to biting or becoming mouthy if that’s their go to response. Especially if it’s left unchecked. Along with so many other issues that take too long to list.
So get your dog properly trained.
Call me when you do!
Share the crap out of my Social Media!
