stop her from running away

Hi

I have a 5 month old westy puppy, she has started to making me chase her whenever I let her out of my room, she doesnt always do this but sometimes (many times) she gets those crazy puppy moments when she will start running like crazy and even do I don;t actually chase her, I mean I try to walk after her instead of running after her she will still run like crazy and wont let me catch her...

this is a problem because I still dont allow her into the house freely and she usually gets into my parents room, the bathroom and and under any furniture as posible

She doesn't do any harm but its starting to get annoyin as she has seems to like it, you know, she gets in the "play" position before turning corners and stuff

What should I do about this? i would love for her to remain calm beside me when I'm walking around the house instead of running like if the devil was chasing her

Stop playing her game and don't go after her. That's the fun that she is having. Instead, run the opposite way, making squeeky play noises, have some tiny yummy treats in your pocket at all times. Try enticing her to chase after you. Don't use your "come" cue yet....just fun noises. You can even use a squeeky toy or some other favorite. When she is almost to you, give her a treat and loads of praise. Then run away in another direction and do it all over again. When she comes to you any time, whether you're enticing her to or if it's on her own, make it the best thing ever. Good treats, praise, a favorite toy. Save the toys for times like this instead of her having everything she likes 24/7. Save some of your affection for when she complies and comes to you. When she is coming to you regularly when you entice her with your fun voice or toy, start adding the cue word, but ONLY if you're positive she's really coming and in fact, just about to you. Praise and treat.

There will be other training tasks to teach her too. Obedience practice, when it's fun and rewarding will make her love to work with you and to comply, once she learns a skill.

Never call her to come and end the good things in her life. If she's having fun outside and you call her to come and all the fun suddenly ends, she is not going to want to come next time. If you call her to come and you clip her nails or some equally distasteful chore, you are adding little by little things which will undermine her wanting to come later on. So, be sure that when she comes to you, it's the most wonderful thing in the world.....always.

My puppy is only allowed in certain rooms of the house. So when she is out of her crate all doors are CLOSED! This ensures that she has far less trouble available for her to get into.

As suggested above: playing chase is a great game ONLY IF SHE IS CHASING YOU! At this point you should be picking up or closing off anything she shouldn't get into, and you should be making the game of chasing you fun fun fun! If she tries to get you to chase her, ignore her and go about your business. Trust me, most puppies HATE to be ignored!!

If she really wants to be chased, try to get some friends with dogs together at least once a week for a well-supervised and small doggy play group. There she can be chased by other dogs as much as she wants to so she can get that out of her system, but make sure she knows that you do not ever chase her, she only chases you. And when she does chase you she gets rewarded for it.

Also teach her to sit and stay at all closed doors. This will save you a lot of trouble in the future of having a dog who rushes any and all open doors.

Good suggestions. Also, when she starts chasing you, don't let it turn into a serious prey thing. LOL. In other words, don't get too wild....she is not to jump up on you, nip at you or any other rough stuff. If she does, end playtime for a couple of minutes and completely ignore her. After she gets onto following you or coming to you, start teaching her to sit for you when she gets to you. And then that behavior will be what you're reinforcing also. She comes and sits in front of you in order to get the things she likes; praise, attention, a treat, a toy. Don't give her all the things she likes for free. Show her how to do things and hold off giving her stuff until she performs something for you, like a sit or to come. Think of all the things she likes. Make a list. Does she like to go outside? Sit first before opening the door. Is she allowed on furniture? You can ask her to sit first and then invite her up. Does she want her food? Sit first/wait, then give her a release word. But first she has to learn those things.

You can do a search here for how to teach some of these obedience skills and you can just browse too. When she's had a couple of her puppy shot series, you should try to get her into an puppy obedience class, but make sure you get a trainer with a good reputation (get referrences) and make sure the trainer uses gentle methods...not a bunch of harsh stuff. That will just ruin a pup.

I actually LOVE it when Teeny is so exhuberant that she slams into me. It the beginning of a very enthusiastic heel. I don't see this kind of heel too often, which makes me sad because I think it is so beautiful, but I just LOVE when a dog is called to a heel, he comes running full speed, jumps and turns in the same move, slamming into his handler's side, and then sliding down into position tail wagging, ready to work. I am hoping to have this heel (you know, when we can actually focus long enough to heel . . . silly puppy) so I make sure that when she comes to me she is super enthused and I am super enthused. If she jumps on me, that's okay. If she nips me I DO NOT correct her for it at that time. I let it slide. But then again, she's not a super nippy puppy, and we do work in other respects that nipping isn't good, but I just never make coming to me a horrible experience, it's ALWAYS fun.

Another good one to play is "gotcha". Get a handful of really good food and let your pup have at it. While your dog is eating the food say "gotcha" while grabbing the collar. Make collar grabbing a good experience also.

Something to keep in mind with this one is to never attempt it on an unknown dog!!!! If the dog has any sort of food guarding tendencies he may take collar grabbing as a direct threat or invasion and may react with a bite.

I guess that's up to the individual...personal preference. I always encouraged a speedy recall and my dog would often mis judge his stopping and bump into me sometimes.... but I, being of fairly small stature couldn't survive a slam from my 90 LB Doberman who is pure muscle and heavy bones. LOL. It would really hurt and I certainly wouldn't like him doing that to a child. I like my dogs to have the kind of manners where they don't clammer all over me or jump up on people. For greetings, all four on the floor. I don't harshly correct for much of anything. You don't want your dog to avoid you. There are other ways to change behaviors.

Definitely make collar grabbing a rewarding experience. Click/treat when you take hold of the collar.

Plus, she is still just a young puppy. patience is a must.

wow, thank you for all your comments, I will do as you guys say and hopefully this wont be a problem anymore, she used to come to me whenever I called her name in a playfull way but that worked for the first two weeks only, now she knows her name but wont come to me, she will just look at me as to knowing I'm calling her but she just wont come. It only works when I'm holding some treats and she can see them or when I hold her food bowl, hehehe.


Wish me luck !!

We tend to use our dog's names a lot and not always before giving a cue. So, when you just say her name, she may not know what you want. Her name does not mean "come." So, if you're telling her to do something, you can say her name first to get her attention, but then tell her the cue also, like, (I don't know her name) but, "puppy," sit. "Puppy, come." However, don't give a command that you can't enforce. Half the time, new puppies don't know what the word means anyhow, so it's best, at first to get the behavior in some other way and once it becomes regular, start adding the cue with it, then later......just before. For example, get her to sit by luring her with a treat over her head and push back just a tad until she sits. Praise/treat and try.....before she gets up to give a release word, "ok" or "release" or whatever. Once she's sitting easily with that hand motion, stop holding a treat, but keep treats in your pocket to give her quickly when she sits. Then start saying, "sit" when her butt hits the ground. Do that for a while, then say, "sit" first, while you do your hand motion over head. That way, she connects the word, "sit" with the butt on the floor, not what she's doing prior to sitting.

Don't call her to "come" if you can't be sure she's coming. Again, only use the cue word if she's coming.........at first, until she gets reliable by enticement, squeeky fun voice, turning the other way, a toy tossed just behind you. Or.....use a long line or leash to help her come to you. But the less force, the better she uses her noggin. When she comes to you on her own, make sure to give her the greatest time....a game of tug, a high value treat, loads of praise. Whenever you see her coming on her own, throw in the word, "come" so she can learn what it means. Right now she may not know. You may have used the cue word when you were about to end a good thing (without meaning to) or start a bad thing, like clipping nails. (example) Soon, puppy learns that come means yucky things. So, keep in mind that coming, whether on her own or with you eliciting it with a squeeky toy or playful voice, running the other way like a game....always make coming better than anything else she was doing just prior.

Don't bribe. Don't show her the treat to get her to come. Reward ONLY when she comes. You can reward if she comes part way...with praise or even toss the treat to her. But......only a few times, then expect her to come a little closer before she gets the treat and closer still until she's right in front of you before she gets the treat. So, you shape that behavior by rewarding baby steps in the right direction.

If you call her to come or you leash her up to take her from the park, turn her loose again for a few minutes. Then go get her when it's time to go home. And give a little treat when she gets in the car. (that's just an example) Anyway...I'm really rambling, just thinking of things as I go. Practice, practice, practice....all fun and games.

Another thing you can work on here and there is attention training. Everytime she looks at you, praise/reward and say her name or, if you prefer a cue like, "watch me." Down the road, when she makes the connection between the cue and looking at you, you can start using the cue ahead of time and she'll look at you. Gradually, you can elicit longer gazes by not treating immediately, but only add second by second. She looks at you for one second, treat/praise. Do that for a while. Then see if she'll look at you for 2 seconds, treat/paise. Then 3 and so on. Set her up to succeed. Try not to ask for too much before the prior thing is learned. Then she won't tend to mess up so much. You want lots of chances for her to be reinforced with reward. That way she learns faster and better.

I was doing what DoberLuv advised. I was a bad trainer and beginner but I did not wait for too long until 99 have a pretty reliable recall. I can recall him him by calling his name while he is playing with strangers, nosing something new on ground, or even playing with another dog!!! Or at least everytime he comes back in less than 5 sec. I always feed him a kibble when he comes.

When we walk, I always walk in a distance (gradually increase) with my gf. Then he will keep coming to me and then my gf many times non-stop!!! We can practise recall in that way for more than 30 times in a walk. He can do a very good "heel" with excellent attention when I am holding a kibble. He even ignores a dog walk nearby : ) Just be patient.

As other professionals advised, never end the fun or blame him after calling "come" or his name. Making coming back to you mean fun/ food.

Remember to use leash unless it is 100% safe. We did have a dangerous momenet before. After he went to my gf, I tried to hide myself and wait for him to find me. Then he saw a man looked like me on the other side of the road and he went straight across the road. Lucky that we could recall him back immediately.