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adult dog training

19 14:04:33

Question
I adopted my 2nd dog about two months ago she is 2 years old and a golden retreiver, her name is Hannah.  she is fully potty-trained, but in her old home she was never allowed off her leash.  at my house she has a very large yard and another dog to play with.  in addition to the yard there are woods behind our house, so when she gets distracted by a squirrel or a bird she takes off into the woods for a good 5-10 minutes.  my 1st dog has been trained by an underground fence sincy puppyhood so she knows not to go into the woods (the fence has since been broken).  hannah knows the "come"command but is very careless and if she just doesn't want to pay attention to me she won't come... so needless to say it takes a while to get her out of the woods.  we can tell when she is about to take off b/c we can see her head perk up and see that she is watching something... so immediately we start the come command and it's like she can't even hear us.  what is the best way to get her to pay attention to my husband and i when we are trying to communicate to her?  in the house i can say her name and she will look at me, sometimes she will look at me outside, but then right back to whatever has distracted her and then takes off.  we want to be able to trust her and leave her outside with our other dog... they play great together when Hannah stays where she is supposed to.  help!

Answer
Well, you'll need to start over. Keep her on lease all the time. Put a training collar( choke chain) on her. When she is out in the yard have her on a long line. A light piece of rope or leather that is attached to her that your holding. Every once in a while( when she seems the least distracted) call her. Then start reeling her in. If she makes a step towards you say "yes!" in a high happy voice and keep calling her. When she gets to you play with her and get her all excited. Keep doing this until she is coming everytime you call her. When she is coming when you only call once, without distractions, try when she perks up. Again just reel her in and keep calling. NEVER punish when she gets to you, at any point, ever. This is going to take a while. But once she is coming to you (with the distractions) instead of running into the woods, try without the long line. If she realizes she can get away, put it back on. Sometimes dogs have it so etched into there heads, that they will never listen without a leash. Most can be trained to with hard dedicated work, so keep at it, I have hope. Just her looking at you when you call is a good sign right now. So keep at it until its bombproof.
Also take her to classes. Getting her trained in all areas will usually train her to be more attentive to you. Stay and heel are great for this.
I hope I've helped.

Emily