Dog doesn't want to come inside

[BENJAMIN REISER]

I have a 3 year old Great Pyr who I adopted a little over a month ago. She very much enjoys being outside and has started to refuse to come inside by sitting down and then laying down anytime I move towards the door to bring her inside. She does not like to play a lot inside, so while we work on training, she gets fed inside, and I use puzzles to feed her I think it's going to take some time for her to enjoy inside as much as outside if she ever does. In the meantime, how do I get her to come in the house without reinforcing her bad behavior (sitting down with her back turned), dragging her in etc. I have tried to use treats to lead her slowly inside and she'll follow part way and then lay down.

Worried about leaving her outside without supervision given the type of fencing we have and her breed interest in exploring.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there!

Welcome to the forums!

Now, with this breed coming inside is not an easy task as with some other breeds. We need consider the history of this breed (being selectively bred for staying outside with livestock) and how they may perceive the indoor environment versus the great outdoors.

Since you recently got her, we likely don't know much about her history. There are chances she has lived and slept outdoors most of her life and perceives being indoors as something not as rewarding. 

Sometimes, in order to convince a Great Pyrenees to stay inside, we may need to be quite creative. However, keep in mind that, there may be chances that, no matter the effort, a Pry may never be persuaded entirely that inside is better than outside. Their love for the outdoors, cold weather and snow, topped with that instinct to patrol and keep everything under check, is very ingrained in this breed, however, here are some tips.

-Avoid Getting Frustrated

No matter how frustrating the situation is, it's important for us avoid showing signs of frustration or feeling angry. This will only convince a Pry that outside is far better because of our negative energy. Sitting down with the back facing us can be a calming signal prompted by them sensing out frustration. 

-Avoid The Bribery Trap

Showing your Pry tasty food to get her to come back inside and then closing the door right afterward, may work for a few times. However, unless your Pry is very food motivated, day after day, a time may come when your Pry may understand that it's all a trap and may refuse to come in no matter what food we show her.  

-Take Her For a Walk

If you need to take your Pry inside for the night, you can try to create a routine where she is walked prior to going inside. After the walk, with your Pry still on leash, you can just walk her inside which is a win-win situation since you'll avoiding weakening your recall or your Pry playing hard to catch.  

-Offer a Window View

Many Pry like to rest on a cot by the deck or some other other outdoor spot from which they can easily survey their territory.  You can simulate this natural tendency by offering your Pry some indoor window or glass door view of the outside so she can always be aware of what is going on. 

-Keep Her on a Cable

Make a routine of keeping your Pry on a long cable nearby the home (always under supervision) a while prior to needing to take her inside giving her something to chew there for the time being. Then, once it's time to take her inside, you can just lead her indoors with a tasty treat to reinforce following you. 

-Condition to a Collar Grab

Many dogs struggle being grabbed by the collar especially if the collar grab leads to something unpleasant such as taking them inside. It’s therefore a good idea habituating Pry to collar grabs even for the case in which we need to get ahold of them in an emergency situation.

So work on this and equip yourself with high-value treats. Call your Pry and slightly touch the collar, feed her a treat while you are touching the collar, remove your hand the moment your Pry is done eating the treat. Repeat several times, until upon touching the collar your Pry looks at you for treats.

Next, start raising criteria: put your fingers under the collar, feed a treat, once done eating, remove your fingers from under the collar. Rinse and repeat until your Pry seems happy when you hold on to the collar.

Next, grab the collar and feed a treat, once done eating, remove your fingers from under the collar and release. Rinse and repeat.

Next, grab the collar and gently let your Pry walk a step, while you feed a treat, once done eating, release. Rinse and repeat.

Next, call from a distance, call your dog and when she arrives, grab the collar, make her walk a few steps and give a treat. Once done, release. You can even use the collar grab daily to "lead" your Pry towards her food bowl if she loves eating. 

As seen, the goal is to make great things happen when your Pry is grabbed by the collar. While many dogs swerve when you try to grab them by the collar, with this training dogs are actually eager to be grabbed; which makes it tremendously helpful in case of an emergency. Aim for a conditioned emotional response: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/conditioned-emotional-response-cer/

It goes without saying that you should avoid grabbing your dog by the collar to correct her or do anything your dog in general finds unpleasant.

-Use High Value Foods

If your Pry likes food use that, but make sure to use it strategically to prevent your Pry from recognizing it as a trap. It sounds like she is already aware of the fact that food leads to the door closing and her feeling trapped inside.

To leave a strong impression, call your Pry (or use a silent whistle as explained below) and when she reaches you, say "find it!" as you toss several high-value treats indoors for her to chase and search for. 

As you close the door, keep tossing treats around and then lead her to a shelf where you have a Kong stuffed with goodies (prepared in advance) or a portion of her meal mixed with something enticing like some canned dog food or some peanut butter or cream cheese. Make this a routine she looks forward to every day. 

-Use a Silent Whistle

A silent whistle offers the advantage of relying on a tone that doesn't carry emotion. This way your Pry can't sense any frustration on your side. To work well, practice creating great associations with it, aiming for an enthusiastic response. Every whistle blow needs to be followed by several treats fed in a row for about 20 seconds. Then, start using the whistle in lieu of a recall cue as explained above. 

-Keep Your Home on the Cooler Side

As humans, we like to keep our homes warm and cozy in the cold winter months, but with a double-coated breed like a Pry, it may be way too hot. This can really put a dent in how they feel about being trapped inside, causing them to pant and feel uncomfortable. 

Keeping your home on the cooler side may help attract them more and so can allowing them in rooms layered with some cool ceramic tiles. One of our favorite guests is a Pry who loves to sleep at night in the bathroom "hugging" the toilet bowl. 

-Make the Indoors Reinforcing

Do everything you can to make your Pry enjoy being indoors. Feed her food inside (I see you are already doing that which is great!), provide a comfy place to sleep, toys, treats and edible chews. Play games with your Pry, do fun training sessions, praise god behaviors, and offer food puzzles to keep that mind busy. 

I hope this helps!

Keep us posted on how things go.

Happy Training!

Best,

Adrienne

[BENJAMIN REISER]

Thanks Adrienne! The last few days I have been using a leash and recall (command, mark, give her a treat repeatedly for small distances) to get her near the door and using scattered treats to get her inside. I'll let her come in and out to get treats a few times and then close the door one of the times that she comes into get treats. I do think she still feels trapped on the last one, so I'll definitely try your suggestion of scattering treats while closing the door to keep her occupied then rewarding with a Kong.

One follow up question - is using treats to get her near the door still a bribery issue that she'll eventually get wary of? Otherwise, she stands too far away to care about the food inside. Would it be better just to leave her outside until she wants to come close to try and scatter treats for her to chase inside?

[Adrienne Farricelli]

You're very welcome! 

I like your approach of letting her come in and out, so she doesn't feel abruptly trapped, a little like we do with helping dogs enjoy the crate.  https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/love-the-crate/

Sitting with her by the door area as you toss treats letting her in and out may further help her as she's likely used to seeing you standing when you close the door. The sitting can therefore have a reassuring effect. 

You asked:" is using treats to get her near the door still a bribery issue that she'll eventually get wary of? Otherwise, she stands too far away to care about the food inside.

It really depends on how she perceives the food versus how she perceives being indoors. If she really, really likes the food and is learning that indoors good things happen so that she no longer feels strongly about being "trapped" I wouldn't worry too much about it as long as she is showing signs of being less worried about going inside each time and starts getting more and more comfy once inside. 

If instead, once closed in, she starts panicking, whining back and forth, I would worry that the food may become a predictor of being "trapped" which could impact how she perceives the food. So I would do as much as possible to persuade her that indoors a lot of great things happen, she has access to her food, water bowl, a comfy bed, toys, games, food puzzles etc and would make a happy routine. 

You want to turn getting into the home as a super duper surprise, like Disneyworld for kids with different attractions and so many good stuff happening. Surprise her each time with different things so that she'll look forward to it. 

 "Would it be better just to leave her outside until she wants to come close to try and scatter treats for her to chase inside?"

Giving her choice of doing things on her own is always the best choice. So if you have her on leash, I would avoid using the leash to pull her inside, unless she voluntarily follows you on a loose leash when you go inside and give her treats for rewarding her cooperation.

If she'll voluntarily approach the door area and enter when you toss the treats, you can try to skip the treats by the door area, but I don't see harm in using them this way as needed as you're basically teaching her to associate the entryway with good things and are taking steps to help her feel less worried about staying inside.

A way to raise criteria once she's more comfortable is to reinforce her for voluntarily approaching the door area by tossing her a few treats right *after* she has approached.

The difference here is what she's associating the treats with. If there are treats by the door, when she approaches and eats them, she's learning that there are good stuff happening there, in that exact location. If we specifically toss her treats *after* she approaches the area on her own, she's more specifically associating her behavior of approaching the door area with the treats (on top of with the area) which will make her more likely to approach on her own in future. 

At some point, if things progress well, you may no longer need to toss treats to let her go inside. When that happens, you can praise and toss her treats right *after* going inside on her own. You can fade the treats gradually, by pretending to toss them inside and as soon as she goes in,  praising and rewarding with a jackpot of treats (several treats tossed at once, rainfall style) as you close the door, and then heading together for the stuffed Kong prepared in advance.

[BENJAMIN REISER]

Hi Adrienne, had another follow up as unfortunately while a few of these techniques worked for about a week or so she was smart enough to realize that one of the times that she came into get food that the door was going to close and has really started avoiding doors if I am near them even if there are treats around. In order to not spend two hours outside every time we go out (morning, post-walk, and night) I have had to resort to using a tense leash to keep her from moving back into the yard and letting it slacken when she moves in the direction I go when we're near a door. 

While this is somewhat working for the time being she'll basically lie in the open doorway until she gets tired of the tense leash and slowly works her way inside. Of course once inside, she immediately tries to turn around and get back out. This definitely doesn't feel like the best solution, and I have to imagine that this is giving her negative feelings around the doorway despite the fact that I try to give her a unique reward when she comes in (peanut butter, large piece of chicken etc). Recently those unique rewards have even lost interest and she will just immediately go into a room by herself.

Acknowledging that it has not been that long since you gave the original advice, maybe I haven't been patient enough. But with her not seeming to be enjoying indoors anymore than a few weeks ago and wising up to going near a door when I am around it, I again feel likes its hard to find a happy medium between being patient with her getting comfortable inside and hopefully wanting to come in more easily and getting her inside in the near term without reinforcing negative feelings she might already have about coming inside or having to be outside for multiple hours every time she goes out!

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi Benjamin, this is tough one, because these dogs are so outdoorsy and since they are selectively bred to be livestock guardians, there may be good chances that her previous owners kept her outdoors all the time, so we can only do so much to persuade her that the indoors is the best thing ever. 

Is there any chance you can erect a secure fence? I think that would allow the best compromise, so that she can spend time outdoors and be free to come in and out as she would like and just be.

Other ideas that come to mind is keeping her on tie-out cable/trolley tie out with the door open and playing the treat/retreat game, where treats are tossed her way and then behind her with the door open so that she can come in and move away as she pleases without feeling trapped. The biggest reinforcer in this case is allowing her the freedom to go back outside. 

 https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/how-to-play-the-treat-and-retreat-game/ 

However, even with these supervision is always recommended, as no tie-outs are entirely dog-proof. Stakes can work their way out, trolleys may snap, and dogs may get tangled.

So ultimately a fence seems the best option if she doesn't seem to like being indoors no matter what. Some Pry don't make good indoor pets (as much as we would love them) and trying to force them may backfire and sometimes lead to behavior problems. 

Editing to add, that a fence will need to be Great Pyrenees-proofed. If the fenced area is not large enough, some of them are able to figure their way out (even out of 6- to 8 feet barriers) because, not only they want to stay outside, but they want to go on "night-time patrolling missions." 

Something else that Pry owners have had some success with is, as mentioned, providing an indoor "lookout spot" where she can watch over from a window the entire home, door and outside area, or maybe looking out from the top of a staircase. Some Pry like to keep vigil in these areas and may spend quite some time napping there.