Now that all of the previous training steps have been completed, it is time to remove the flags. You wouldn’t want them to keep sticking out of the ground forever.
If everything has been done correctly thus far, your dog is now respecting the containment boundaries. In addition to this, your dog should have learned to leave the safety zone with you and a leash on him, when going out for a walk.
Now all that there is to do is get rid of the flags. Here is how you can do it:
- Wait until 4 weeks have passed after the final phase of your dog training has been completed, to make sure that your dog has learned all the training
- Start to remove the flags, beginning with every second flag around the border, and then wait for 5 days
- Take out every other flag from what is left. Wait for another 5 days.
- Remove all of the remaining flags
Good news. Your dog is now able to play around safely in your yard!
What Should I Do If My Dog Starts to Leave the Safety Zone When the Flags Are Gone?
If at any time during the flag removal process your dog goes outside of the boundary and begins to ignore the correction, put the flags back around the border. Follow this with another 10 days of training, with the help of Steps 2 and 3 from the training guide. With that being said, this situation only happens very rarely, so there is no need to worry.
Can’t all of the training flags be removed at one time?
While you certainly can do this, it is a better idea to take things slow when it comes to dog training. If you take the flags down abruptly, your dog might become confused, leading to undesirable results. You have already spent a lot of time training your dog to respect the boundaries, so there shouldn’t be a need to rush taking out the flags at this point.
Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash