couple of questions re my 6 (ish) month old dog

matildajane

Hi, We got our - god know what breed she is - terrier when she was around 7 / 8 weeks. She was found straying. We have her nearly 5 months now. We are having difficulty teaching her to come when called which means it can take ages to get her to come in from outside. Even when she wants to come in you have to leave the door open and walk away from it before she comes in. She doesnt seem to crave being stroked and petted like most dogs. We have loads of space and i dont want to have her on a lead all the time and its impossible for us to totally secure our garden so when she is outside with us we want to ensure she doesnt run out. Any tips on teaching her to come to us all the time when called. We are trying the treats but she wont come right up to take it from your hand unless she is already indoors. Also should I get her neutered now? She is a lovely little dog. Picture attached if anyone has any ideas re breed I would be grateful! Bit of Jack russell I think.

matildajane

anyone??

elius

She probably still doesn't quite no her name yet. Is she obedience trained ie sitting...

tazwaz

I had a springer that was so good at recall etc but with my 19 month terrier I seemed to be getting nowhere with him, he had selective hearing!! He started to go to doggie day care and the girl running it told me to try clicker training and it really has helped. She did say that terriers are a totally diff dog to train cause they so independent :-)

Vince32

Just seen this, there are some basic exercises you can do to teach the dog its name, and sit / stay / come.

Ground Rules:
Never hit / punish / get angry with your dog. it is a dog, not capable of complex thought process. If the dog doesn't do what you want it too, or something else entirely, just turn your back and don't reward the dog with your attention for being a "bad boy"

Training sessions are 10-15 minutes per / 5 hours, if you can't teach the command in that time, wait until the next session. A frustrated or bored dog won't want to learn, don't force it too.

Training is a slow process to build, and requires infinite patients, if you find yourself upset, angry or frustrated, just give yourself a time out, training will be alot more effective if both you and the dog treat it like a game the dog can win over and over.

1. Dogs name: Grab a handful of treats and sit on the floor with the dog, hold the treat in your left hand and get the dog focused on it, now say the dogs name and wait for it to look at you, the second it does, even if it's only a flick of an eye say "YES!!" and give the treat immediately. Rinse and repeat always waiting for the dog to look at you before treating it. - This will teach the dog its name means "look at me" and it's the preferred method of teaching the name.

2. Sit : with the dog in a standing position, hold a treat or toy 2 inches from its nose, in a diagonal direction move the - currency - treat / toy - from the nose -> above the eyes -> over the head. The goal here is to make the sitting position the natural place to keep his focus on the treat. As soon as his butt touches the floor "GOOD BOY!!!" treat him celeb for a few seconds 10-15. and repeat until his does it 3 times in a row, then add the word for a further 3 times in a row.

3. Stay: - with the dog sitting, stand on its right side, the dog's natural position is on the handlers left side typically. With your hand, cup some air, and from 10 inches away, push the cupped air into the dogs face slowly as not to startle the dog, stopping at 3 inches or 3 fingers away. This creates an imaginary wall the dog is behind, and won't pass until given permission. use a release word like "ok" or "yes".
You will need to build up stay time, aim for 5 seconds to start with, and work up 5 seconds a week until you have a 1 minute stay.

4. Come With the dog in a sit / stay, say the word stay, and slowly walk backwards one or two steps at a time, if the dog moves or follows you (and it will) just bring it back to the start position -without speaking or looking at it- and start over. Release the stay and say "come" when the dog is calmly at your side, treat it and repeat.

Let me know how your getting on in a week

matildajane

Thanks a mil. Vince I have made a start on the training. I'll let you know how it goes. She is quite clever (dont I sound like the proud mummy..). We housetrained her in no time and if you say dinner she goes to sit by her bowl. Once I get the recall working I have to do something about her cat hatred! Any ideas of breeding from the photo?

Cherry Blossom

I have a terrier and I have to tell you that I don't think it's possible to ever reliably train a terrier recall 100% - I've been working on it non stop for a year and a half and got best results from whistle training. 100% effective in the house, 95% effective in the garden and doing agility (she is inclined to wander off mid-course or decide she's just going to make up her own course now), 80% effective in the woods and fields, 0% effective anywhere else (ie. walking on the road, at the beach, park, etc). Close to home is the worst as she knows where she is where home is.

I've heard people say that you need to do 10 repetitions to 100 repetitions with the dog coming back successfully every time to consider it trained. It was into the thousands in my own house before I could confidently say her recall was 100% just in the house. Terriers are deliberately bred to basicly do what they want to a certain extent, they are very reactive to slight movements and have very high chase, catch and kill instincts so I don't fancy your chances with the flying leaves to be honest, they're clearly just begging to be hunted down

DBB

matildajane wrote: »

Any ideas of breeding from the photo?

I think there may be a Puggle or Pugalier in her near-past. Google a pic of them, and see can you see a resemblance! Hard to know what else is in there, but the docked tail would suggest her mother was one of the traditionally docked breeds, Jack Russell maybe? That would have brought the longer muzzle to the mix too.

LucyBliss

I have to agree with adrenalinjunkie. I have three terrier crosses and if they get the scent of something in the garden, they are determined to get to the bottom of it, even it means standing at the fence at the end of the garden and sniffing through the slats for ten minutes. Things must be investigated, don't you know!

Mine are very much led by their nose. Their noses are always twitching when outside, either up in the air or down on the ground. They can find treats hidden anywhere - unless they know I have a few in my pocket and then their attitude is why go looking for treats thrown around the garden where there are clearly some there for you to hand to us, silly human!
So I, for my peace of mind and because I walk them around the city, don't let them off the lead on walks. They get plenty of gallivanting around the garden. I just know in my heart and soul that if I were in a park somewhere with them off the lead, they would be gone and they'd get so excited, they wouldn't know how to get back.

We have one who was ridiculously bad for getting him to come back inside. If something outside took his attention and he got so focused on it, I could have thrown a whole chicken at him and he wouldn't bother with it. Indoors, we use the command 'bedtime' when I need them to settle down and go into a specific room and I started to use that command when I'd put them into the dog run in the garden. Now down the garden, I can tell them "bedtime" when it's time to come back in and all three will come up to me and in we go. It was not an overnight process, it took a lot of time and patience and a lot of treats to get them initially focused on me in the first place.

If she's a stray, she might be finding it hard to really trust people because of past experiences. My grandmother's dog was like that; she was a stray too. It took her a long time to warm up to being petted and once she did, she was real greedy about getting attention!
Give her time and be as cheerful about the whole thing as you can. If you're not stressed, she's not stressed and she'll figure out what you want. Right now, she could be just so delighted that she's in a safe place with people who care about her that she's only now getting to form her personality and at 5 months old, pups are very crazed and prone to getting sidetracked and only sometimes give a hoot about what you're telling them.

Best of luck and good for you for taking in the poor girl and giving her a chance at a better life!

matildajane

LucyBliss wrote: »

I have to agree with adrenalinjunkie. I have three terrier crosses and if they get the scent of something in the garden, they are determined to get to the bottom of it, even it means standing at the fence at the end of the garden and sniffing through the slats for ten minutes. Things must be investigated, don't you know!

Mine are very much led by their nose. Their noses are always twitching when outside, either up in the air or down on the ground. They can find treats hidden anywhere - unless they know I have a few in my pocket and then their attitude is why go looking for treats thrown around the garden where there are clearly some there for you to hand to us, silly human!
So I, for my peace of mind and because I walk them around the city, don't let them off the lead on walks. They get plenty of gallivanting around the garden. I just know in my heart and soul that if I were in a park somewhere with them off the lead, they would be gone and they'd get so excited, they wouldn't know how to get back.

We have one who was ridiculously bad for getting him to come back inside. If something outside took his attention and he got so focused on it, I could have thrown a whole chicken at him and he wouldn't bother with it. Indoors, we use the command 'bedtime' when I need them to settle down and go into a specific room and I started to use that command when I'd put them into the dog run in the garden. Now down the garden, I can tell them "bedtime" when it's time to come back in and all three will come up to me and in we go. It was not an overnight process, it took a lot of time and patience and a lot of treats to get them initially focused on me in the first place.

If she's a stray, she might be finding it hard to really trust people because of past experiences. My grandmother's dog was like that; she was a stray too. It took her a long time to warm up to being petted and once she did, she was real greedy about getting attention!
Give her time and be as cheerful about the whole thing as you can. If you're not stressed, she's not stressed and she'll figure out what you want. Right now, she could be just so delighted that she's in a safe place with people who care about her that she's only now getting to form her personality and at 5 months old, pups are very crazed and prone to getting sidetracked and only sometimes give a hoot about what you're telling them.

Best of luck and good for you for taking in the poor girl and giving her a chance at a better life!

Thanks for your reply and tips. We have decided to put a pen outside for when we are not outside with her. She seems to be increasingly an indoor dog though and definitely getting more affectionate. My kids are at an age where they are willing to spend time teaching her too. She is a great addition to the family and we couldn't imagine not having her now. You are right about that nose. She is forever sniffing!