Dog wont come! Need help quick!

Question
Hi, my dog, Bella, is stuborn and won't listen-sure if I have a treat she'll come, but she just doesn't want to! She had some aggression problems when she was younger, but we got a trainer and everything is fine now. I want to do agility with her but she needs to listen. She runs away from me like it's a game, and I walk away and then she comes running back right at my heels and when I turn around she runs away again. She is pretty stuborn anyway but thats her major fault.
Any tips?
Bella is a Golden Retriever, and she is 3.
Thanks
~Emma

Answer
Hi Emma,
Recall problems usually stem from people trying to give the dog too much freedom too soon, and the dog learning that the person has no way to really make the dog comply.  Being chased is fun for some dogs, and they DO think of it as a game.  Recalls should be trained with an exceptionally high rate of reinforcement at the beginning, and in a very systematic way.  The two best resources I have found for teaching recalls are the DVD by Leslie Nelson, called "Really Reliable Recall' and the one by Pamela Dennison "The Whistle Recall" which I use to teach my dogs an emergency back up signal for recall.  You really need to teach this again from scratch.  I don't think the dog is "stubborn" she just doesn't get what you want.  I know that you can teach her, but you may want to delay the agility work until you do or you can't really progress beyond the basics on leash.  Leslie's method is one that I've successfully used for a long time, so I hope it is just as successful for you.