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help with training

yorick

My 8 month old schi tzu has been to puppy class and does several of the commands pretty well, sit, down, shake, drop it (usually), wait, stay, and in class he did come really well. However when we are at home or outside now just about anywhere... he completly ignores me. I say his name and he won't even look at me. I have used treats, clapping, high pitched noises, yelling,running one way then the next.. I'm out of ideas. I'm running around and making crazy noises and my dog is either completly ignoring me or looking at me like I'm a moron. Do you have any ideas? I don't want him wandering off and i worry for his safety and I can't take him to a dog park because he won't come when called.

Symptoms: Behavioral

•   Dennis Fehling says:

  January 29th, 2009 at 10:57 AM

  hello here, when most basic obedience classes teach come they do it in a very distracting environment.  The come command should never be tought in this kind of environment.  What I teach my clients is never i repeat never call your dog if you do not think your dog will come 100% of the time.  Set your dog up to succeed 100%.  I recommend playing games with your do inn the house like hide and seek this makes it fun for your dog to come to you.  Start out with totally ignoring your dog in the house.  Have his morning meal in your hand, you can make this training his or her meal.  Call them by name if they do not come on the forst time just wait it out.  Give it a little time and try again.  they will finally come but you have to make it a game for them.  As soon as they get to you drop as many of the best treat you have in your hand and make a really big deal out of their performance.  When you get this behavior 100% of the time in the house then take it to a fenced in yard whare they are safe.  dogs love to play games so make all your training a game and you will have their attention.  Also a very important note.  never and I mean never punish your dog after they have come to you.  what do  i mean by punish.  Lets say you want to give your dog a bath and your dog does not like water.  Well you have now realyl messed up your recall by punishing your dog for coming. Instead just go get your dog and give then give them the bath.  Also I don't care if you have been screaming for three hours and your dog does not come for you.  When he finally comes and i know this is hard but give a lot of praise and treats.  If you punish your dog 1 time for coming then it will always be harder the next time you call him.  This is one behavior that has to be rewarded everytime to really work.  I hope this helps.

  Dennis

  www.friendsforlifedogtraining.com

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•   cathy crosby says:

  January 29th, 2009 at 01:01 PM

  What you are experiencing is really common. Your goal is to make sure that coming to you is always a good thing. Your dog is quite young still so it is going to take some time. My girl had a terrible time learning the recall when outdoors. She would just ignore me or look at me and run the other way, and it wasn't because I had punished her when she ran but then came. She just wanted to be boss. I ended up getting a very long retractable leash (26 feet) and hooking it up. I took her to the park and let her run around on the long lead. Then would randomly call her. If she didn't come the first time I called I'll give a little tug on the leash to remind her and reward her when she got to me. Maybe just 3-4 times during the session. If I did too many times she would act like I was the 'Boy who cried wolf,' you know? She just needs to learn that 'Come' means come, regardless if you are inside or out, or if there are other dogs around or wonderful things to sniff!  It can take a long time and a lot of patience, hard work and problems. My experience with Shihtzus is that they can be pretty hard headed, but they ARE trainable, so just keep working at it. It will happen in time. Oh and one more thing...dogs are their own people. They have a free will and don't always do what we want. Our goal is to encourage them to make good choices and to not reward the ones we disagree with.

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•   cathy crosby says:

  January 29th, 2009 at 01:08 PM

  What you are experiencing is really common. Your goal is to make sure that coming to you is always a good thing. Your dog is quite young still so it is going to take some time. My girl had a terrible time learning the recall when outdoors. She would just ignore me or look at me and run the other way, and it wasn't because I had punished her when she ran but then came. She just wanted to be boss. I ended up getting a very long retractable leash (26 feet) and hooking it up. I took her to the park and let her run around on the long lead. Then would randomly call her. If she didn't come the first time I called I'll give a little tug on the leash to remind her and reward her when she got to me. Maybe just 3-4 times during the session. If I did too many times she would act like I was the 'Boy who cried wolf,' you know? She just needs to learn that 'Come' means come, regardless if you are inside or out, or if there are other dogs around or wonderful things to sniff!  It can take a long time and a lot of patience, hard work and problems. My experience with Shihtzus is that they can be pretty hard headed, but they ARE trainable, so just keep working at it. It will happen in time. Oh and one more thing...dogs are their own people. They have a free will and don't always do what we want. Our goal is to encourage them to make good choices and to not reward the ones we disagree with.

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