Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

I have a female Golden Retriever, Ginger. Ginger is six years old. She's spent most of her life as an outside yard (we lived in a house with a large fenced area) but we moved six months ago to a home that is not fenced in so she's an inside dog now. She loves being inside and I love haveing her inside too. I can't imagine leaving her outside all the time now!

Gingers a really good dog. She's housebroken, doesn't chew things she's not supposed to (at least not much) and is good around other animals, children, etc. This dog adores me with a passion. If I leave the room, she follows and lies down next to me. If I leave the house, she lies next to the door I went out of and waits for me to return. I once told my husband that if I were to walk over a bed of hot coals that dog would walk right over them after me until her feet burned off.

She has one problem, but it's a big one. If she ever gets outside off of her leash (and that only happens accidently) she will run & run & run but will NOT come back to me when I call. If I call her, she stops, looks at me, grins and runs off again. I'm really worried that she'll get hit by a car, shot by a neighbor (we have neighbors who keep horses and probasbly don't want a big dog chasing their horses - Ginger likes the horses!) or any number of things that could happen to a dog that is running loose.

How can I teach her to come to me when I call her even if she doesn't want to? She makes it pretty obvious that she doesn't want to come.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Lisa

I purchased a 50' check chord and have never once regretted it. It works great for recall training (it's nice because ultimately you are in control) and to teach the command, it also comes in handy for the times you want to give them a little exercise but don't trust their recall yet. Winston responds very well to the "come here" command now, still not 100% perfect (every once in a while he gets a tiny correcttion...I use a E-collar now) but coming (no pun intended) along nicely.

I would reccomend using a food reward (if she is motivated that way) when she comes (I didn't but only cuz it was winter and too inconveint to be pulling off my mittens and freezing my fingers *laughs*) just make sure that she also get lots of praise too so you can eventually wean her off the treaties, sometimes when I am rewarding with food I can forget about the petting and praise bit

A couple other tips are

-Try not to let her think she can ignore you!!!

-Say command once and then reel her in - do this about a gazillion times over a few weeks *laughs*

- Always make coming to you rewarding (with praise treat etc.)

-Make your dog wait to be released again after she has come

-Call her often enough throughout play/exercise time so she won't come to think that "come" means the fun is over.

-Touch her collar every time and don't hide the lead until it's time to go home...*laughs* our first dog caught on to that too well and as soon as the lead came out of the pocket he didn't want to come.

Come is definitely the most important command so when you start to feel insecure because Joe down the road has a dog that can sit up, fetch, bow, speak, and other wise, just be glad that you can take your dog to the park and have her come right away while Joe is chasing his around!! *laughs* that's what I try remind myself when I am constantly working on the recall! It will click for them eventually so hang in there!

My Diamond

When I REALLY want my dog to come, I don't use the word "come." I use the word "treat" or "cheese" (in a happy voice). This has come in handy the few times she's gotten loose. You have to make your dog want to come to you, so even when you're scared (because your dog is loose) or annoyed, it's important to sound happy and make your dog think coming to you is the best thing in the world. (Of course it's hard to compete with the big outdoors!)