2 year old dog not listening like she used to

[AdaramolaRedmond]

I have a 2 year old poodle that’s very smart. However I can’t let her go off leash anymore outside the house because she won’t come back to me when I call her, like she used to. Especially when she sees or smells another animal or something that she wants to pursue. It worries me and I would like to take her camping off leash.
Also, we have a 8 month old (big) puppy that plays rough with her and vice versa. At some point he stops playing, but she’ll keep going so I’ll tell her to stop and leave him alone but she won’t listen.  The 8 month old doesn’t stop when we tell him to a lot also so it’s exhausting getting them to settle down. Help. I feel like she hates me!

[JMFS]

Recall is the one thing all trainers seem to agree on.  It has to be reinforced throughout their lives.  It's Really tough for we boring humans to compete with that rotting plant, or those squirrel droppings, maybe a bird looking for worms that we can't see (but our dogs sure can), etc . . ..  I remember Adrienne telling me how the Same spot smells different to them day-to-day.  Our dogs have a couple spots they investigate every time they go out.  My human brain is going, "there's nothing there!"  Adrienne's dog-tuned brain goes, "ahhh, but it Smells new to them each time."  They are ruled largely by their noses, with sound and sight coming in close after.

I have two who play rough, and I have to recall them often to get them to settle down.  My Momo was good about coming to me during play, so Gertie learned.  Then Momo passed and we got Esther and had to start all over again.  My first caution - take the collars off.  They can get caught in each other's collar and break or dislocate a jaw, or worse.  Collars also give them something to grab on to, which means one dog ultimately gets dragged around by the other.  Not My idea of a good time, for sure!

When I call them in from play - I Try to time it just before it gets too amped up - the first one to me gets a jackpot of treats and the other gets "a treat."  If neither of them comes right away, then inside we go and play time ends.  If they Do come within an acceptable length of time, I have them sit and wait before I release them to play again.  Rinse and repeat.

The other thing we do is separate play time.  If they can't listen, they don't get rewarded with play time.  They have to play with me and me only.  Boooooring!  Sometimes I'll take Esther out first, run her around for about 5 minutes, then let Gertie out.  Gertie is the calmer of the two so discharging some of Esther's energy is helpful.

Adrienne will likely give more in depth details, but those are some ideas to get your brain working around how to implement things until she does.  🙂

If I think of other tricks I'll comment again, but otherwise I leave it to Adrienne's more-than-capable hands.  ❤️

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there, welcome to the forums!

I have a few questions:

What have you used so far to reward your poodle for coming to you in the past? 

Is she spayed or intact?

Do you have access to any securely fenced areas?

How rough is the play that has you concerned? 

If you remove your puppy from her when she plays rough, will he try to trot just right back to her to play again? or does he seem relieved and happy that you intervened?

Is this play happening in the house? or outside in the yard?

Have they ever hurt each other? or gotten into a fight?

Have you noticed any body language or behaviors that concern you? like for instance, your puppy with his tail in between the legs trying to get away and your poodle continuing to chase him?

Thanks!

[AdaramolaRedmond]

When I last worked on recalls she was around 7-8 months old and I gave her treats.

She’s spayed 

When they play they tend to pull each others ears and occasionally bite the neck/head area. The biggest problem is when 1 is tired of playing the other isn’t, so the one that wants to stop gets more aggressive. And I can tell when she’s irritated by her bark and bares her teeth a lot.

When I remove the puppy from her, the puppy trots back and wants to go back at it with her. She can be the same way when she’s tired of playing with the puppy.

This always happens in the house. They never had a real fight or hurt each other…yet.

Her tail is always up, in general and in play. Both of them try to lie down when they’re exhausted but get interrupted when the other trots over and starts mouthing them.

Thank you so much!

[AdaramolaRedmond]

I also forgot to mention the constant rough housing is a concern because they get loud and the barking is pretty distracting especially if we’re trying to relax and watch tv, or taking naps.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Thanks for the extra details, very helpful!

So let's start with the ignoring during the recalls. In this case, we need to evaluate why that may be happening. As Jennifer pointed out, we need to constantly compete with the environment and find ways to make ourselves more salient than anything else. This is a life-time training ordeal and it has also a lot to do with relationship-building. 

Here are just some pointers to evaluate (not all of these may apply to your dog)

-Too Many Distractions 

Dogs are blessed with strong senses and a natural curiosity which causes them to become easily distracted by things in their environment.  We can't blame them after all: if we look back into our dog's histories we will notice how most of them were selectively bred to work along with humans for some sort of task such as using their eyes, ears and noses to hunt down animals or alerting us about the presence of intruders. 

Poodles were selectively bred as water retrievers. This means they were very attentive to the sight and scent of waterfowl.  

In the past a dog's overall alertness and attentiveness to her surroundings were extremely prized attributes, whereas, nowadays, we want our dogs to ignore just about anything and pay attention exclusively to us. It is therefore not an easy task to have dogs tune out things after selectively breeding them for the total opposite!

This paradigm shift from worker to companion seems to have negatively impacted how we relate with our dogs, instilling in us higher expectations that can lead to frustration and resentment. We therefore need to give our dogs some credit for struggling to pay attention to us when there are birds, squirrels or rabbits scurrying around!

-Fear and Anxiety 
If a dog doesn't feel safe and secure in his environment, he may be too over threshold to pay attention to you. This is a survival mechanism. When your dog is scared of something, he is fearing for his life, and therefore, a good portion of his brain will be focused on what matters the most: getting out of a situation safely. 

For sake of an example, getting your dog to listen to you when he's is uneasy about his surroundings is like asking a person who is phobic about heights to solve a math problem when on the last floor of a skyscraper. Cannot compute!

-Playfulness
Some dogs are so absorbed by their playing that they filter out their owners because they are having too much fun. This is often the case of dogs who are having a bout of zoomies as they're sprinting around the yard or dogs who are engaging in rowdy dog play with other dogs. 

It's like children who don't hear their mom calling them to let them know it's time for dinner when the kids are too focused outside playing a game of soccer. 

-Lack of Trust 
If you have called your dog in the past for things that your dog didn't like, you can rest assured that your dog will become tentative about approaching you. For example, if every time you call your dog at the dog park, you put the leash on him and leave, your dog will come to associate his recall with leaving which is perceived as punishment if he loves playing with his friends. 

If you call your dog only to give him a bath or trim his nails (and he hates those things), you also risk him associating these often negatively-perceived activities with his name.  

-Lack of Training 
One of the most common reasons why dogs ignore our recalls is because the dog has not received sufficient training. 

Coming when called is something that must be worked on for the dog's lifetime, as mentioned, it's a relationship building skill that gets better and better, the more you build a bond with your dog. 

It must be started from a young age ( ideally before the dog becomes adolescent) and trained in a variety of different settings and scenarios using the highest rewards so as to help the dog generalize it and become as responsive as possible. 

-Lack of Generalization
If your dog listens to you at home and comes to you immediately when asked to, but then puts on his deaf ears at the dog park, she's likely not engaging in stubborn selective hearing. Most likely, she just hasn't learned the cue to come to you well enough to apply it to the park where there are loads of distractions going on.

When you train a dog, in order to learn to respond to the cue well, it's important that she is taught to do so in a variety of places and around different distractions. The process is called proofing and once we have fluent responses to cues it's known as "stimulus control."

In order to attain all of this, you need to gradually incorporate challenges such as adding distance and distractions. 

When a dog is trained to come when called or any other cue, it's important to initially start in a quiet area at home, then in the yard, then in fenced area, and then at a park with no dogs around/prey animals around before expecting the dog to respond in a park full or dogs are where there are critters. 

 All this is done very gradually. If you just go straight from training in the home to the dog park, you would likely set your dog for failure.

When you notice that your dog has difficulty responding to cues in a certain area, it helps to do a little troubleshooting. 

Maybe the dog isn't ready for that level of distraction, so you need to increase distance from the distraction, until you get more reliable results from that distance. Maybe you need to rely on higher value treats for that specific scenario.

-Stuck in the Bribery Trap
Does your dog come when called when you are waving a cookie or holding a ball, but ignores you when you don't have those items with you? If so, you may be stuck in the bribery trap.

When we are waving a cookie or ball, we are sort of telling the dog, "Look what you get if you come here!" This is really not a biggie until that day we are caught for some reason without the ball. 

The same goes with presenting food, if we are stuck showing food to get the dog to come, we may be in deep trouble that day if we forgot to carry food. This is why we always want to fade lures such as food and toys gradually.

So it's important to build up a strong recall where the dog comes when called, and then once he reaches us, we can then grab that food out of our pockets or show the a new toy or bully stick we hid behind our backs.

Sometimes, we might not have anything with us to reinforce, but can use lots of praise, pats, let the dog chase us for a bit etc. for those occasional times we are caught off guard.
As seen, there are several reasons why your dog may ignore you when you call her. Doing some troubleshooting to identify the underlying issue is important. Following are several tips for more successful recalls. 

1. Start Easy 
Start by working in areas with little distractions. Your home's hallway may be a nice place to start. Gradually add distance and distractions. Baby steps. If your dog ever gives signs of struggling, she might not be ready for training at that level yet. Take a few steps back. 

If you primarily struggle with when critters are around practice setups that stimulate some prey drive, but in controlled settings. For example, you can practice recalls as a friend bounces a ball around, as  a friend tosses rocks in field (mimicking the sound of critters in the fields), as your friend drags a stuffed animal tied to a string, as your friend manipulates a remote controlled car. You may have to run around a bit too to grab your dog's attention and make it fun to chase you and then reward with treats once she catches up. 

2. Never Scold Your Dog!
Let's say you call your dog, she doesn't come at first and then she finally does. You are mad at her for not listening the first time, so you scold her upon coming to you. This basically is the easiest way to teach your dog not to come anymore.

Another common instance is when you catch your dog doing something bad and you call her to you in an upset tone of voice. 

The dog reads your anger or frustration and feels afraid to come to us. These are examples of the easiest ways to adversely affect your recall, in some cases even permanently. 

You do not want this to happen, keep your recalls always on a positive note.

3. Leave a Strong Impression 
Call your dog with an enthusiastic tone of voice and praise her lavishly as you offer a jackpot of treats tossed to the ground or feeding them one by one.

If your dog loves her meals, let her out and wait for her to get a little bored of sniffing around. Then call her inside and let her find his food bowl already on the floor for her.

When you have a new toy or a bone, hide it behind your back and call your dog  to you and then praise and give the toy or bone. 

Be generous! Stingy rewards lead to lukewarm recalls. Find what your dog loves and provide it to reinforce your dog's recall.

 You want your dog's name to become music for her ears, hopefully to the point that she'll keep her ears always ready in hopes that you will call her to you.

4. Keep it Sweet and Fun 
Don't make your recall training sessions too long, as dogs can get drained out and be unable to focus for too long. 

Recalls should be fun and never tedious.

 Doing some short, but high quality recall sessions is far better than doing longer sessions with so-so responses.

5. Avoid The Bribery Trap 
You can show your dog what you will provide as a reward initially, but you then need to start hiding what you use from sight (a process known as fading the food lure), otherwise, you may be stuck with a dog who comes when called only upon seeing something he likes. 

What will you do if one day you're caught unprepared and don't have anything to offer?

Keep your treats in your pocket or a toy behind your back.

 You may need to initially pretend to hold a treat in one hand when you call your dog,  but then feed the food from your other hand by reaching for the treats in your pocket.

6. Call When You're Sure Your Dog Will Come
Call your dog when you sense that he'll come to you. Pick times when your dog is more likely to pay attention to you. 

For example, calling her when she's actively sniffing with her head following a trail or when she's looking at a squirrel climbing up a tree, is not likely to work if you haven't practiced at that level of distraction yet. 

Your dog may also be spaced out when she is tired, thirsty or may have to relieve herself.

Call your dog after she has gone potty, sniffed around, explored and is getting a little bored by the whole scenery. 

Alternatively, you can call your dog, give her some treats and then reward her by sending her back to explore if you think she'll enjoy that. 

7. Run Away as Needed
If you really need to call your dog in an emergency situation, resist the temptation of chasing her. Your dog will think it's a great game and will likely run away further.

Instead, try grabbing her attention and running away.

 Most dogs can't resist a game of chasing their owners, especially if after running you start dropping treats on the ground and entice your dog to search for them up by shuffling your feet and pointing at them. Pretend you just found a buried treasure!

8. Practice in Fenced Areas 
Practice off leash recalls in safely fenced areas. If you dog not have access to a fenced area, you can rent some fenced spaces on SniffSpot.com. 

Start with some easy exercises such as rewarding your dog simply "checking in" with you. In other words, if at any time when your dog is in the fenced area, she approaches you, praise and reward with a tasty treat. 

Afterward, in the following sessions, you can start practicing recalls.

 When you must leave the area, make sure that, after you put the leash on your dog, you feed several treats in a row as you walk away and have a stuffed Kong or a bully stick to chew waiting for your dog in the car for the ride back home. 

If a fenced area is not an option for you in your area, you can always use a long line to train your dog recalls and reward voluntary check-ins.

9. Take Advantage of Other Dogs
Since you have another dog sharing the household, you may find it helpful calling them all together. 

Although it may seem challenging calling two or three dogs at once, it actually may be easier considering that dogs are often eager to come when they see other dogs are getting rewarded for it. 

Their fear of missing out and a little competition may act as a very strong incentive.

Of course, avoid calling your dogs together if they are prone to fighting or resource guard foods from one another. 

10.  Consider it a Big Investment
A recall can be a lifesaver, it can literally save a dog's life! Commit to training a strong recall with your poodle enthusiastically rushing to you.

Think of your recall in terms of piggy banks. Each time your dog comes to you, and you reinforce those recalls with things your dogs loves, you reinforce the recall and add coins.

 Every time you call your dog and he doesn't come to you, or you give little or nothing, or worse, you do something that your dog dreads, you'll weaken that recall and start removing those hard-earned coins. 

If you happen to do more withdrawals than deposits, at some point your dog's recall will be at peril. Don't let that happen!

[Adrienne Farricelli]

OK, I can see why you are concerned about the rough playing behavior. If this happens when you would like to watch TV/take naps, it may help shifting your dog's routines, where TV-watching time/nap time is coordinated with your dog's quiet time. Have both dogs in an area to chill (separated from one another) with a stuffed Kong so that they aren't roughhousing around the house. 

I am glad to hear that there haven't been any fights, and that your puppy goes back to play if removed as that tells us he's not particularly intimidated by your poodle's play style. Yet, you are right that we don't want things to escalate. 

In regards to the rough play, you will have to work on a good recall, just like Jennifer pointed out, catching them *before* things escalate too much as which point they may be too focused on each other to listen.

This of course will take some point to master to reach this level, however, you can also practice having your dogs attain a fluent response to the smacking sound https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/the-airplane-game/the-smacking-sound/ that tells them to rush to you for some tasty treats. You can give then give them some chill time in the yard, by tossing some of the treats around for a fun treasure hunt game. 

Sometimes, providing the dogs with a long tug toy can make for a calmer play session (less chances for grabbing ears).

If one dog is lying down and the other approaches to start mounting, then a firm "leave it" https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/ possibly enforced by you body-blocking (getting in the line of his/her approach to prevent access to your other dog) can help.

You may need to be very repetitive in this (in other words, more "stubborn" than the dog), especially at first, but eventually the message should come across that when a dog is lying down no further play/interaction or pushy mounting is allowed. 

With some dogs who are very persistent, I use "off" rather than leave it as it has a bit more of a salient sound (sort of like a woof!). 

Of course, consistency (though close supervision and swift intervention) is paramount as if we allow the dog to sometimes approach/mount and other times not, the behavior will be put on a variable reinforcement schedule which means we have not only allowed rehearsal of the problematic behavior, but also persistence to pay off.