Ever since I’ve moved to the country, I’ve lived on houses with busy roads and fast trucks and cars.

I’ve never had a dog that was drawn to the street, and have never had once hit by a car. But my dogs are often outside and moving between the farmhouse and the pasture, so I’m very conscious of teaching them to stay away from the road.

Some dogs are fine until they see a rabbit running, or a dear near the road, and then they just take off.

Rose and Red were the kind of dogs I could just talk to, I just said to Red “don’t cross this line” and pointed to a mid-point in our driveway and he never once crossed it unless I asked him to.

Rose was always focused on the sheep, she had no interest in the road.

Zinnia is a gregarious, curious, and active dog, I wasn’t sure about the road. I started my road training program, it only works if a dog has a reliable sit and stay.

I walk towards the street and she follows me, as Labs often do. When we get to the edge of the front garden, I ask her to sit and I stop. I hold up my hand and walk backward facing her and moving to the road.

The first few times, she moved, and I walked back to the original place and asked her to sit until the got it, and stay. Then I hold up my hand in my “stay” signal and also say “stay.”

In two or three days she got it and walking backward to the road, I could see if she moved an inch. And if she did, we kept going back and starting again.

She’s got it now, I think. Today I walked out to get the mail, she sat at our agreed spot, I said “stay” and held out my arm and walked out facing away from her.

When I get to the street, I turn and look to make sure she is sitting where she should be sitting, and she hasn’t budge an inch for five or six days now.

Then, silently (I don’t want to reinforce the wrong thing, I walk towards her and when I get to her, I  say “good stay” and give her a treat.

Labs are easy for me to train because they are such good hounds. I think we’ve got it now. Zinnia has never gone to the street, and I doubt she will now. Still, for the next few months and until I’m 100 percent certain, she won’t be out front without me.

I like to see at least 1,000 repetitions (trainers say 2,000) to be sure. This was a great start, but there is more work to do.