Rescue dog mysteries

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One of the challenges of adopting a five-year-old rescue dog with an unknown past (he was rescued from a shelter) is trying to figure out what kind of training he's received. Here's a case in point: Zorro has pretty lousy recall, only responding to "come" about half the time. However, if he's in the yard and I call him to come in, he will lie down until I leash him and bring him inside. Sometimes he'll go all the way to the other end of the yard first, but he always lies down. I never have to chase him. I assume a former owner taught him a down/stay. Should I just accept this or continue to work on getting him to come? We've had him about a year but have yet to let him off-leash because of his unreliable recall.

[JohnLloydJones]

Zorro has pretty lousy recall, only responding to "come" about half the time. However, if he's in the yard and I call him to come in, he will lie down until I leash him and bring him inside. Sometimes he'll go all the way to the other end of the yard first, but he always lies down. I never have to chase him. I assume a former owner taught him a down/stay. Should I just accept this or continue to work on getting him to come? We've had him about a year but have yet to let him off-leash because of his unreliable recall.

I would work with what you have until you can get a good recall. I have a foster whose recall was non-existent in some circumstances. Oddly enough, he will freeze if I give him the signal. This allowed me to catch up with him so I just used that while I was working on the recall.

[alligande]

Brody was 3.5 when he came to live with us and had a pretty dodgy recall, I renamed it "here" and retrained and now he is fine unless instinct takes over and we yell come I should add it only took a couple of weeks to see a rapid improvement once we stopped using "come"

[urge to herd]

Brody was 3.5 when he came to live with us and had a pretty dodgy recall, I renamed it "here" and retrained and now he is fine unless instinct takes over and we yell come I should add it only took a couple of weeks to see a rapid improvement once we stopped using "come"

 

The first time I asked Shoshone to 'sit', she cowered away from me and froze. When I 'captured' her sitting, renamed it 'plotz' and gently tossed her a tidbit a couple times, she did just fine.

 

It's quite possible that her former owner yelled at her to sit, and then yelled again or worse when she didn't. Choosing a new cue fixed it.

 

Ruth

[mbc1963]

When I first got my dog, I noticed that if I put my hand up "salute-like" to shield my eyes from the sun, Buddy would come running. When other people did it, he ran to them. Go figure!

 

It would be fun to have a fast-motion movie of the dog's early life, to interpret the weirdness.

 

Mary

[njnovice]

Don't feel too bad. I've had Mick since 5 months (he's three now) and he still has a crappy recall. It's good if he has an incentive, like a ball, or if he's on his chain in the yard. But if he gets loose, all bets are off. I'm resigned to him being a runner at this point.

 

My other dog has an awesome recall. She basically decided since her first day here, she was going to attach herself to me like glue.

[Jedismom]

One of the challenges of adopting a five-year-old rescue dog with an unknown past (he was rescued from a shelter) is trying to figure out what kind of training he's received. Here's a case in point: Zorro has pretty lousy recall, only responding to "come" about half the time. However, if he's in the yard and I call him to come in, he will lie down until I leash him and bring him inside. Sometimes he'll go all the way to the other end of the yard first, but he always lies down. I never have to chase him. I assume a former owner taught him a down/stay. Should I just accept this or continue to work on getting him to come? We've had him about a year but have yet to let him off-leash because of his unreliable recall.

 

Perhaps he just doesn't want to go in? I would just continue working on the recall. What have you done to show him that coming to you is a really great thing? My last foster would lay down when he didn't want to go in his crate or come inside. He would lay down and sometimes role over, as I walked toward him to get him to follow through. My assumption was, that it was due to the pressure he felt of my walking towards him. Are you saying that you think he doesn't understand what you want, and thinks you want a down/stay?

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Thanks for all your comments. I assumed he was giving us a down/stay but maybe you're right: he's doing it because he doesn't want to come in. Although once I leash him, he comes in willingly.

I sometimes give me a treat when he comes inside but should probably do it more consistently. And I like the idea of retraining with a word other than "come." I think we've made the common training mistake of saying "come" so often that it no longer has meaning to him. So I will work on that.

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

lying down is absolutely a test of wills. We see it all the time at the rescue. It is a far site better than the ones that try to out run you. I've become a master dog herder.

[Maralynn]

One of the challenges of adopting a five-year-old rescue dog with an unknown past (he was rescued from a shelter) is trying to figure out what kind of training he's received.

 

I just assume that a dog has had no training and start from the beginning much like you would with a pup.

 

With going inside, I wouldn't give him the opportunity to try to resist. Just go leash him and say "inside". What you could do is right when you get inside do a short (1-2 minute), high value training session.

[Jedismom]

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002/recall.htm

 

This is a good article on teaching a reliable recall. Even if you've done it before, it's always good to review.