Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Help!
The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, right? Well, I have a problem. My dog refuses to come to me when I call her. Guy and I live in a townhouse, so we don't really have much of a backyard, and what we do have is definitely not fenced in. Lily has become friends with our neighbor's Goldendoodle, Winnie, and we occasionally let them run off-leash in our yards to let them burn off some energy. They get along swimmingly, and at first, they were very well-behaved, staying relatively close to the houses. Well, as time has gone on, Lily and Winnie have become more and more adventurous and less and less obedient. They now enjoy chasing each other up the hill that lines our backyards and eventually flattens out into a grassy area frequented by deer. While Winnie usually listens to her Mom and comes back, Lily just keeps on frolicking on the plateau until I climb up there and grab her. Today she was especially bad, as she ventured into the woods and into some of our distant neighbors' backyards before I was able to get her. It really bothers me that she totally ignores me when I call her. I yell and yell, and she usually glances at me and then keeps going in the direction she wants to go. I don't want to have to stop letting her run with Winnie because she really enjoys it and it's a good way for her to release pent-up energy, but I also don't want her to run away and never come back or get hit by a car. I've tried rewarding her with treats when she does come, and I never act mad at her when I finally get her, because that's what I've read, but does anyone have any other suggestions for fixing this problem? It seems like it's going to be tougher since she's older and already used to having things her way. I love my dog, but if there's one thing I know, it's that she's an independent woman (translate: stubborn).
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4 comments:
OMG, I am going through the same thing with Jonny. My boyfriend just moved out to go back to school and Jonny is about to turn 1, so I was thinking it was because the change in house and growing up. Just today he trotted happily down the street while I yelled for him to come back.
I don't know how to fix it, but I know what you're going through!
No joke: Lily thinks / knows she's boss. She'll come when she wants to. You gotta show her who is boss in the house and that should be Manager - Tarbert household.
Sally can be very bad though. Today, I came home to find Sally surfing on the internet. Later she tells me she pledged my paycheck to Ron Paul. I wasn't even mad.
I was at a dog seminar once and the host talked about clicker training. Instead of the normal way, you get the dog to realize clicker means treat. To start, you just keep loading them on treats...clicker, treat...clicker, treat...etc. That is supposed to work better than calling them. I've started trying it with Jonny and he's been coming most times...though there was something under the tree that turned him deaf for a few minutes...
i know when they are puppies you teach them to come by ALWAYS having them on a long lead and attaching it to you (both inside and outside) ... say "come" and reel them in ... in no time at all they will learn what the word come means ...
but, if you try to teach them and not have them attached to you, and they don't come, and you have no way of making them come to you, then they do not understand that they must obey every time ... only when they feel like it ...
if you don't make them obey your command EVERY time you give it, they will just get confused and do their own thing ... an untrained dog is an accident waiting to happen ...
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