mgossett89

Thank you for your advice and tips. I'll start reading those links you provided. As for her "selective hearing," as I call it, today, for example, we just got back from the park. There weren't too many dogs there so it was great to play fetch (today she was strongly play motivated) and work on her heeling at my side before I threw the ball. She was very attentive and still being social with some of the other dogs and coming back quickly on cue. However, on the exit out of the park(she wasn't leashed), she wanted to say "hi" to a few of the other dog owners which I was fine with. After about 5 minutes I decided to leave and called her to me. She heard the command, ears perked up and made eye contact and then proceeded to run off for a bit. I got her to come back with the ball and leashed her. So the ball worked during distractions but I'm concerned that if I continue to use that method that eventually she'll begin to make the connection that the ball means leash. As far as the food problems, it's been hit and miss. Sometimes she'll eat right away and other times she'll do as you said and ignore the food.It's on the recall that she does the "guilty dog" walk and get under the bed. She has a plastic bowl as well. She's 4 years old now and I've had since she was a pup. About 8 weeks would I have been my guess when I got her.

Typically, my dog (female Amstaff) is well behaved and attentive to my commands. She is play and food motivated(mostly). The problem is, when she is distracted, she ignores both her ball and any treats when we're in a active enviroment such as the dog park. I've been trying to correct this behavior but since she can ignore any motivational device I use, it makes it really hard to zero in on getting her to ignore these distractions. I should note, she doesn't completely ignore me and run off, it just takes muliple commands, much more than we we are home. At the park she genarlly likes to stay close and observe other dogs. On a another note, she has recently begun ignoring her food. She used to be really good about coming over to her bowl (when it has food) and sitting in front of it unitl I give the okay to eat. Lately, as soon as she hears the food hit the bowl, she's scurries into the bedroom and slides under the bed. This has been happening for two weeks now. Could it be she is just sick of her food now? She has eaten scraps before, but never when I'm eating or from the table but I'm thinking that just the few times she has had scraps has caused her to be so stubborn. Has anyone else seen these behaviors and how to correct them?