How to teach a dog not to cross the street

It's not impossible, of course you will need to have your dog on a leash while you are teaching him not to run away, you have to re direct his attention away from the situation that is making him escape (aka squirrel), how? well other people here will tell you to use treats but sometimes i feel that the fixation the dog has is too strong that the last thing the dog is thinking is food, if it works for them thats fine, for me it doesnt
 
Timing is the key, you have to stop your dog looking at the squirrel for more than a second, you are able to notice he is paying attention when his ears are up and looking to a place like if he is on a trance, at that moment you can just pull the leash (not too hard to hurt him but firmly enough for him to notice) and realease it quick, is just like if i grab your arm and say "hey pay attention to me", your attitude and body lenguage also need to be like if you are serious, you can do it as many times as you want but if you dont project the right attitude the dog will notice and wont take you seriously
 
After a while you wont need leash anymore and with a simply "hey" the dog will know he is looking at something you would not like

ORIGINAL: espencer

It's not impossible, of course you will need to have your dog on a leash while you are teaching him not to run away, you have to re direct his attention away from the situation that is making him escape (aka squirrel), how? well other people here will tell you to use treats but sometimes i feel that the fixation the dog has is too strong that the last thing the dog is thinking is food, if it works for them thats fine, for me it doesnt

Timing is the key, you have to stop your dog looking at the squirrel for more than a second, you are able to notice he is paying attention when his ears are up and looking to a place like if he is on a trance, at that moment you can just pull the leash (not too hard to hurt him but firmly enough for him to notice) and realease it quick, is just like if i grab your arm and say "hey pay attention to me", your attitude and body lenguage also need to be like if you are serious, you can do it as many times as you want but if you dont project the right attitude the dog will notice and wont take you seriously

After a while you wont need leash anymore and with a simply "hey" the dog will know he is looking at something you would not like

 
with all do respect "give a pull on the leash" Uh no! Teach your dog to heel, that is your first step. My girl knows to stop everytiem we reach a intersection or street and wait for my command or to follwo my lead. Why do some people think its ok to train a dog in such a way? I mean if they can teach a gazillion ound killer whale to do back flips without a choke chain or "a lil yank" I'm sure we can learn to teach our dogs to walk properly without force, ha ha!

Well because a pull from the leash is NOT painful, as easy as that, is just like saying "grab your friend from the arm and say hey? uh no, why?" grabbing my friend from the arm and say "hey" is painful? so why do you think the leash is? not even  pulling a leash that is on YOUR neck would be painful, even less if a dog's neck i way stronger than yours, unpleasant yes, painful no, you dont pull up, you pull to the side

well, it might be possible to teach this, but the effort and time involved is tremendous and the risk to your dog's life if he makes a mistake is very high. That's why fences and leashes are so popular. If I were you, I'd install a section of either real or electronic fencing along the street line.

In most dogs, I wouldn't trust this either. If you are doing gardening or just hanging out you can use a harness and a tether with about 20 feet of play area. Most dogs don't mind this a bit and they are useful if you go camping.

I like the tether idea. I never really thought of tethers as safe but with us right there with her it makes sense.

I work in a park, so my dog is tethered most of the day near my work area. Tethering creates a little frustration in dogs that is good for them (it's good for dogs to learn that they cannot have everything they want), but may need to be managed and built up to a little bit.

It's a lot like crating. Start slow, ignore whining, and reward the dog for a period of being settled down by going and playing a little bit. Build up over time if necessary, don't set your dog up to fail.