danenloe12

Update. This AM we went out off leash. I waited until she was not dragging around a stick or her nose was not in the ground for her recall. She did much better. 100% recall. Thanks for the advice. :)

Thanks for all of the advice. When outside sniffing or otherwise destracted, it does seem like she wants to come but is just going for one more sniff before she moves....that one more sniff sometimes expands into two. So, maybe the "come" command is taking a minute to be precessed.... She does regularly check in when off leash. Sometimes it is just a look, other times is a gallop back to where I am, with or witout a recall. If she can't see me, she tends to run toward the house until she sees me, then straight to me. Today, I decided to do some jumps for training (off leash). She did OK. She came, sat, jumped, repeat 3 times. That was it. No more coming. Smells and sticks were too much. I also took my flirt stick when out and about. This is her favorite toy and responds pretty well to it. 3 of 4 times she came, the forth time a stick was just too much. I'm going to try the boiled chicken treat and see how that digests. I may try bread again. I think peanut butter and my purchased treats were the main culprets, but now that she has had consistent poops for a few week, I'll try it again. Thanks for the encouragment!

Thanks, I know I need to work on it more. Surprisingly, my dog's name was Gertie from the people who gave her up. We changed it to Sohpie when we picked her up from the shelter. I have not tried much different in her diet. I have the same treats as you mentioned above, but they cause issues as does peanut butter, apples, etc. I have not tried boiled chicken. Plain crackers are OK and she seems pretty content with her kibble. Since her weight continues to be fine, I do not adjust her normal feeding amount, although I did when she was younger. When we are out off leash, she does a fair job of keeping an eye on me. She will run toward me if she feels like she is too far away....once her nose leaves the ground. I give her lots of free time to sniff. I guess I need to make our outings more training and less free running around. Surprisingly, today was the first day that she ventured all the way to my neighbor's house before running back to me. I was concerned that my original come training may have made her think that come was being associated with the tug she felt when she did not come when called vs the praise she received when she arrived. She is also a champ at indoor fetch, but cannot do it outdoors at all. She has learned to jump over a few jumps that I've made and the tire jump fairly well about 3 times before she is more interested in smelling stuff then treats or toys.

I am becoming frustrated with my dogs recall. She is one year old in mid July. She is a rescue that is supposed to be a golden/poodle mix, but looks like a lab. I have never played chase or done anything bad when she came. Like all goldens I've known, she is very food motivated. At the same time, she can only really eat her kibble or it will cause diarrhea. Luckily, she likes it and will do many things for kibble. The issues I have: 1. Inside a. She understands but seems to take a moment to decide to come. b. ...but she still seems to stop 2-3 feet away from me. 2. Oustide: I have 10 acres with distant neighbors. a. she just won't pay attention to me for more than 30 seconds when off leash. b. She does a great job staying around me when off leash. She typically will not venture more than 50 ft from me. And she will mostly come near me when I call her. But not all the way to me 90% of the time. I have a long lead and I spent most of my time training her outside on a long lead (30 ft or so). Our come practice with this lead felt like I would call her, if she did not respond, I would start to pull her to me can call her somewhat excitedly, and give her a treat when she made it to me. She is easliy distracted by everything. Grass, sticks, mud, bushes, trees, bugs, you name it. Most of the time, when I call her, she has her nose in something, but that is her normal state really. Even in the basement, where we really started our training, she constantly smells stuff. I know this is normal behavior. She always wants to be near me, but wants to be smelling instead of participating in most training. Pretty successful training so far. Heal, sit, down, stay, wait, no, leave it, touch, find it (find hidden food), three cup food montee. She is weak at watch me, although sometimes she will watch me intently, just not on command very well.

Thanks to both of you for your comments on the verbal stuff. I'll continue to work with her. On the peeing (going out) issue. I'm starting to think that she wants to go out just to go out. For example....today....I'm watching basketball on TV. Starting at 1406, I took her out...she pee'd (a 7 on my timing scale). 1416 she asked again...I ignored it. 1419....asked again, when this happens so close together, she will walk right in front of me as if to say..."Hey look at me, its time to go out". I took her out thinking maybe it is a poop...she eliminated nothing. Asked again at 1434 and 1440. I ignored both. It just so happens that today I took her on a 1.5 ish mile walk. And spent ~20 minutes with her specifically training her on different tasks. I'm also starting to use a "gentle leader" because my wife is not a very good master and gets pulled a bit. Sophie is now 60 pounds and can pull if not controlled. We used this on our last dog (80# golden) and it worked well. She is still getting used to this new collar. Thanks for your advice. Dan

Adrienne, Thanks. They did send her urine to a lab to find out the best antibiotic after two rounds of antibiotics did not cure it. The third round worked. And she was checked a week later and 3-4 weeks later when I thought she had it back again, although the urine was not sent out. One more piece of information. When she had her UTI, I developed a habit of counting to myself every time she pee'd. In my mental counting, a 5 is a short pee and anything greater than a 10 is a long pee. Most of her pee's are 5's, but sometimes during the day, she will have a 7 or 8 with an occational 10 (usually, after a nap). I am concerned about diabetis, but I think it is a learned behavior really. Another question. My dog seems to have difficulty with verbal commmands. She does much better with hand signals. She clearly has no hearing issue based upon other behaviors. Right now, I'm assuming it is just more repetition. She is only 7 months, and I'm not the best at training every day..... :( Is it just more repetition as I suspect? Thanks, Dan

Thanks for the last piece of advice. Now I have another question. My dog is potty trained. She is 7 months old. She seems to think she can only hold her urine for a short while during the day. She usually asks to go pee at least once an hour, sometimes more frequently. For some history. After I got her from the rescue she had a really bad UTI for about 12 weeks. The last two checks about a month apart were clean. How do I teach her that she can hold it longer? She does fine at night. She can hold it all night (8-9 hours). I'm afraid that if I ignore her signal to go out, she will think that her signal does not work anymore (she sits by the door and waits, and if I don't respond, she walks to me, looks at me and walks back to the door again). She's doing it right now! :) Thanks, Dan

Hi, My 7 month old golden/poodle mix has a couple of related issues. When outside, she is constantly on the prowl for something to eat. She will eat almost anything. The most troublesome item she eats is sticks. Sometimes, I'm able to get her to trade the stick for a treat. Sometimes, I go into her mouth and pull it out. Sometimes, a quick tug on her leash will get her to drop it. Sometimes, she swallows it before I can do anything (or the above did not work). She also eats leaves, grass, large weeds (she will pull them out and eat the stem or root), dirt...... So far, the only thing I can think of that will eliminate this issue is to put a muzzle on her when we go out. I frequently walk her on a long lead to give her more freedom and to give her more excercise. This also gives her more opportunity to find sticks. If a muzzle is the best approach, what is the best way to select one for her? In an obedience class, we did some muzzle training, so I think I can get her used to it, but advice here would be great as well. Thanks, Dan

Hi, I'm not quite new to training. I'm going to take it up a notch with this dog. I'm actually studying your lessons for the rescue dog I am going to get on Nov 14. It is a golden/poodle mix. My last dog was a golden so fetch was easy for her. I'm thinking this dog will have it in her as well. Thanks for the advise.

Hi, I have not been able to see anything on how to teach a dog to fetch and return the toy. Am I missing it? Or can you develop it? Thanks, Dan