Bailey is driving me crazy!!!

[Gail Vinnal]

Bailey is now 4.5 months old and has been a calm, easy to train obediant pet.  Really she has  not given me a problem UNTIL NOW!!!  She loves to be in the backyard and has always come in when we call her.  For the past 2 days she will only go out if she asks to go (as opposed to me saying you haven't been out in a while lets go) and will not come in!  If I go to call her she races around the backyard and comes within inches of me but if I go to grab her she takes off.  I tried leaving the door open and she will come in then but if she sees me before I can shut the door she takes off into the yard and we start all over again.  The only solution I can come up with is only letting her out on a leash but she so loves to play out there I'm not sure thats a good idea.  Any suggestions?

[John and Finn]

I take it you have a fenced yard.  I use treats (carry at all times outside) and pretend to run from him to get him to come to me if he gets loose otherwise he will take off down the road.  

[Lynne B]

when a dog can get you to chase her it's the best game in the world! Just turn the tables and run from her, she will chase you, I promise =)

[Bonne Bouche]

Totally agreed, try this! Works for us every time. Great way to practice recall.

[Bonnie and Kona]

Bailey has reached puppy adolescence. It's a trying time! The suggestions other have made are great! I would add that you need to call her with a high pitched, excited voice. Sherri wrote an excellent blog about recall training. I've posted the link below. It is working great for our very "independent" Owen.

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/trainingmindsets/forum/topics/rec...

[Bob Johnston]

If your yard is fenced in I would do the same thing I do for sophie. We go out and its potty time until she goes. then she is aloud to play. I normally will play tag or fetch with her and if it looks like she wants to stay out I go in to do my thing and she stays out. after a few mins of her realizing im not out there she comes up to the deck and lays down. If you can leave bailey out there I would. that way they think it was thier idea to come in. It has also stopped sophie from wanting to go out a 1000 times a day.

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

When Hurley rings the bells to go out to potty we keep him on his leash and stay with him.   We usually don't let him out in the yard unsupervised.   But what Hurley is trained to do is come whenever called, which we accomplished while in training with his trainer.   We took him to a park and put him on a 50 foot very light weight rope.   We would ignore him, letting him go where he pleased as we walked in the opposite direction. Most of the time Hurley would stay within the 50 foot parameter following us.   If he tried to go beyond the 50 yards we did two quick jerks (he has his pronged collar on) saying 'no, no' and he would turn and follow us.  Next step in the same lesson was having him sit and we walk off holding our end of the rope.  When we reached the end of the line we turned around to look at him and yelled 'Hurley" (to get his attention, followed by 'Come' while clapping our hands and he always comes running in this happy go lucky way.  He picked up on that so quickly.   When he got to our side we would praise him, pet him and tell him 'Good come".   He picked it up in just a few tries.  We use the 'Hurley, come' routine followed by clapping our hands and he always comes right to us.  Sometimes, if we are at our son's house, he hesitates because he is playing with their dogs.  So we command him to come again and he turns and comes to us.    I actually think it is the clapping and excitement in our voice when we ask him to come that does it.  

Maybe that will help.   

I totally agree about a dog loving to get you chase them.  With Hurley, and with other dogs we have had, when the run away, we always turned and walked the other direction and they came back.  It was always a risk and it seldom failed us.

[Cherri Lynn Kading]

That is such great information. Just this morning Jacki slipped out the front door and I was able to catch up with her 5 houses down the block in their garage!!! We live on a golf course so I could use the 50 ft rope trick after the golfers are done.