Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Got a beautiful German Shepherd/Husky mix (about 2 years old) from a Rescue group. I've had him about 3 months.

He's very loving and affectionate. Very handsome (see photo at bottom) and well-mannered most of the time. Would make a good therapy dog.

He's very smart. Maybe too smart for me.

Learning his sits, stays, downs pretty well. The 'come' is harder. And this is the one I'm having particularly a hard time with. Tried treats. He works better for hugs. But he gets an attitude sometimes and here's where it's gotten complicated.

I live in orchard country and take him for walks on the leash, but then started letting him off the leash to run in the orchards. He's out of sight in less than a minute. Comes back home in 30-45 minutes all happy and wet from plopping down in some puddle. He loves the run and seems like he's in his element and why I think he's more 'husky' than shephard. I would have hoped that he'd be happy with a good 30-60 minutes every day.

However....unless I tie him up immediately after this run or contain him in the fenced area, he will take off a 2nd time when I'm not looking and don't give him permission. The second time he'll be gone longer - sometimes almost 2 hours.

So I thought I shouldn't let him go loose anymore and try to exercise him more creatively...maybe get a bicycle and let him run beside me. Create an obstacle course to exercise his mind and body.

But after Day 2 of not getting his run, he's got a bit of an attitude and is pouting. I got a whistle to try and train him to 'come' from a distance (thinking that if he learned this, I could release him in the orchard again).

First day of whistle training I gave him small bites of hot dog
which of course he liked. Day 2 of whistle training, he runs and hides. What's up with that? I've got great treats! But I think he's mad because he's spoiled for his run.

I'm so perplexed now. My only options seem to be:
Option one: leave him in the fenced area and wait for the attitude to pass?
(what are my chances of that?) I read that Huskies need an hour of hard exercise a day, so I'm not sure he'll get over this.

Option 2: Take my chances on letting him run in the orchards. My worries are that he will run too far, or maybe get hit my a car on a country road.

I've had 2 dogs before, but never one who was so complicated emotionally it seems. Yikes. Am I in over my head? (a note:
I'm physically fit and an outdoor garden-type person, but I'm going on 60 this summer. I love his dog a lot! but I'm worried that I don't know how to deal with him.)

Hope someone can help us. Here's Rio. He's cuter than me.

Your dog is adorable! I don't let my dog off-lead outside of fenced/contained areas (too afraid of her getting hit by a car), so I don't have a lot of advice, but I'd keep working on recall in small ways until your dog is trustworthy to always come back. Have you taken classes with your dog? Positive reinforcement classes can help develop a bond and make your dog more attentive. It's hard when you're competing with freedom (Run or hotdog? Most dogs would rather run free.), but if your dog know he won't get to run UNLESS he listens and comes back, he might be more attentive. I hope others write with advice too.

Thanks for the feedback!

Yes, we've been to one 8-week positive training class. I signed up right after I got a call from our local grocery store about a mile and half away telling me that Rio was in their parking lot!

That's when I put him in the fenced part of our property (he's an outside only dog). He's got a pool and a gazebo and it's right out our bedroom door. Not too shabby! and I'm spending a lot of time out there with him as I've been planting flowers, etc. We're pretty bonded I think, except that he has a mind of his own at times. It's like having a teenager again!

Was wondering since you don't let your dog off-leash, how do you cope with exercising her?

Also, if we have a good day today (like he comes when I use the whistle and give him hot dogs bites) should I reward him by letting him go for his run?

Very conflicted about the free range running.

You have an incredibly smart active dog. Nothing wrong with that. "Come" is one of the hardest commands ot teach such a dog.

Dr. Ian Dunbar's book 'You Can Teach and Old Dog New Tricks' would probably help you out a lot with this pup.

Overall, the biggest thing I see you are doing "wrong" (poor word choice, but you get the idea) is that you call your dog to you and the fun and play time stops. A smart dog picks up on this very fast and soon stops coming. There's no point. Hot dogs are much less fun that romping in large fields. So, instead when I train my dogs to come I give them the command (I start when they are on long lines to teach the word) and when they come to me, I release them back out to go play about 80% of the time. They get a treat for coming to me AND they realize that I'm just checking if they are ok. Fun doesn't stop all the time. ONce my dogs get the idea when on long lines, I "proof" this behavior in safe places like closed in tennis courts.

Also, I have two "come" commands. The first is basically "come" and the dog should come to that on the first try, but if that word doesn' twork for whatever reason, I have my backup command of "want to go for a ride?" Both my dogs LOVE to go for car rides and if they come to that command, we go get a treat from a drive through (Dairy Queen or somethig similar).

I personally would not let my dogs off leash in the situation you described, but that's my dogs and their level of training. I'm also paranoid and don't believe my training can call them off when chasing a rabbit or squirrel across a busy road.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

(Hope this doesn't post twice. Just lost my first reply somewhere in cyberspace.)

Thanks Chelle for your thoughtful advise.

Your were right on target when you made the observation that a smart dog picks up on what your doing and stops coming when it's not fun. That's Rio!

So, keeping your advise in mind, I took him out on a lease to an old unused horse corral and let him off-leash. We played around being silly for a while and he would willingly come to me in this situation.

What I don't have any confidence in that he would come to me
off-leash just out in my unfenced 2 acre 'yard'.

What I am struggling with is how to know how much exercise he needs. His 30-60 run in the orchard is a serious 30 mph pace and there's no way I can give him some alternative to this.

How do I keep him happy without running the Iditarod with him on a leash? )

I've tried Frisbee and tennis balls and all sorts of games and he's totally not into it. Won't take even take a rope in his mouth for tug of war.

Rio, the mystery dog.

>>What I don't have any confidence in that he would come to me
>>off-leash just out in my unfenced 2 acre 'yard'.
>>
-My older dog is 8 years old and I won't let her off leash no matter what in unknown places. My 5 year old is fairly reliable- we even do agility together off leash- but he too I won't trust off leash. Translation- no matter how well trained my dogs are I don't trust them off leash. And yes, that makes my life harder.

>>What I am struggling with is how to know how much exercise he needs. His 30-60 run in the orchard is a serious 30 mph pace and there's no way I can give him some alternative to this.
>>
-OK, I can think of 4 options- 1) backpacking (he wears a pack weighed down with water bottles) while you walk a few miles. 2) Bike riding- there are wonderful devices you can attack to a bike to have a dog run safely next to you. 3) Teach him to pull (buy a harness and get one some roller blades or skis). 4) Train him to do tricks- tiring out the mind wears out a dog more than physical exhersion. Sometimes you have to do a bit of physical before you can work mental stimulation, but overall, I can tire out a dog FAST teaching a new behavior. The sport of tracking was ideal for my older physically challenged dog. It wore out her brain, nose and body! She'd sleep for days after working a great track.

>>How do I keep him happy without running the Iditarod with him on a leash? )
>>
-See above! You have to be creative with these hard wired dogs. If you are up to the challenge. they can do amazing things.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

Thanks Chelle for your creative suggestions.
I have ordered a cool old fashioned 1-speed bike (which is about where I'm at with speed ) and got Rio a harness and
very adaptable leash - it has various lengths you can adjust it to and a swivel. He's cool with it too! Sometimes he doesn't like to try new things, so I never know.

Also, I put up a horizonal pole in the corral that I can raise and he likes to jump over it.

I'd like to know more about the tracking you do. One game Rio likes is me hiding a dog biscuit and letting him find it. However, when I tried it with a non-food item, he was NOT interested. He won't pick up anything in his mouth, which I view as a good thing for the most part, except when I want to PLAY!

Anyway, tracking sounds neat, so any suggestions here would be good.

Thanks,
Rahma

There's a book called "Enthusiastic Tracking" or "Teaching Enthusiastic Tracking" (I don't have the book in front of me right now for the exact title, but it's available from DogWise). It goes through the steps to teach a dog to track a person. You can actually teach a dog to track anything, and actually there's a professional pet searching service that uses huskies to locate lost cats

Shibas (what I have) tend not to be too toy motivated (especially in public). So I have to train and work with food. Kita loves parmesean cheese goldfish crackers and I put those on the track and track articles and she happily works a track for crackers. She also is a bit of a cleptomaniac so she enjoys finding the end articles. She will put an article in her mouth- or at minimum pounce on it to indicate she found it. Taiko doesn't put anything but food in his mouth. I can't get him to play with toys for any reward. I have pretty much chosen to not press the issue with him and we use food exclusively. I also use a clicker so I can mark behaviors I like and not have to feed a treat immediately.

Now realize, I love training my dogs so for me, we do fun things every single day. I actually want to get into weight pull with Kita as well and there's some books offered by the American Weight Pull Association that I need to check out. There are literally over a dozen or more organized events one can do with their dog. I've run out of time to add another event, but find a school in the area and ask around. You'd be amazed what's available.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

cool. thanks Chelle

Mix, I looked at once. He was a sweet dog, very dominant to others, but a great dog, Im glad he found a new home from the shelter. Yours looks like he wants to play.