You can't see me, but I'm shaking my head.

I'm just off a call with a woman who's having some trouble with her 3-year-old Labrador. Her family resides on seven beautiful acres, and their dog chases birds and squirrels with the joyful zeal we would expect from a Lab. She wants him to respect the property boundaries.

Did I mention she refuses to put up a fence?

"Can't you just train him to stop chasing birds and squirrels," she asked me.

"Impossible," I said.

"Why not," she demanded.

"What's his last name? ... Retriever?"

She wasn't impressed. At that point she told me that her previous dog had the same habit of "ignoring" the property boundaries, and he eventually was hit and killed by a car.

It was my turn not to be impressed. A dog ignoring boundaries he doesn't know exist is understandable. A woman ignoring danger of which she's acutely aware is not.

I get that it costs a lot of money to securely fence seven acres of land. How about a dog run or some other fenced-in area within the property? She shot down that idea, saying a dog run is "cruel."

Cruel?

Cruel is willfully ignoring a dangerous situation and essentially going for two for two dead dogs.

"You don't know what you're talking about," she said. On many things, I would agree with her, but not on this.

More than one million dogs are killed by cars on American roads every year, and most of them were chasing something — a ball, a squirrel, a cat. A dog's drive to chase is natural, as natural as breathing. It's an instinct, and it's virtually impossible to train away instincts. It's like calling a dog trainer and asking him to train your dog to stop sniffing.

Part of responsible dog ownership is training. With commitment, perseverance and know-how, we can train our dogs to respond every time to commands like "sit" and "stay" and "here." That would help in situations like this one, as long as we're physically present and giving the dog our full attention.

But what about when we aren't around? What about when we're off running errands or washing dishes in the kitchen or running to answer a phone call or taking a quick shower?

The other part of responsible dog ownership is prevention. This is the area of leashes and fences and securing the dog in the house.

The combination of training and prevention is powerful. It'll keep our dogs safe and sound under most circumstances. Absent real and thorough training, prevention becomes absolutely vital — it's all that stands between our dogs and disaster. Without either, we're just playing the odds.

Woof!

Dog trainer Matthew "Uncle Matty" Margolis is co-author of 18 books about dogs, a behaviorist, a popular radio and television guest, and host of the PBS series "WOOF! It's a Dog's Life!" Read all of Uncle Matty's columns at www.creators.com, and visit him at www.unclematty.com. Send your questions to dearuncle.gazette@unclematty.com or by mail to Uncle Matty at P.O. Box 3300, Diamond Springs, CA 95619.

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