Psycho dog?

[dragondawg]

I have a Clover dog. (What the heck is a Clover dog they think?) She is 1/2 Great Pyrennes, and it is thought maybe a pinch of Lab. I got her at 3.5 months from a rescue org. From the first day on she has not behaved like a normal puppy. For example: I brought her home and she hid behind a table leg. After some coaxing, I got her out into the living room that first night, turned on the TV, and she ran into the kitchen scared. Well that was about 7 months ago, and in general she is spooked by loud unusual noises- except thunder storms. No, I have no idea what happened in those first 3.5 months. But all of this is not the problem. The problem is...

If we are in the house she behaves relatively well. If I tell her to come, she comes. If I take her out on a leach, and I tell her to come...she comes. If I take the leach off of her - zoooooom over the hill we go, running like an idiot out of the yard. I can yell: COME, STOP, NO, STAY, TREAT(!), &@%#$- all commands (except for the last bit of profanity) that she understands under controlled circumstances. She may disappear literally for all day. I usually get a call from a neighbor informing me that she has showed up at their house hours later. The neighbor(s) usually has a dog of their own. When retreived she has enjoyed herself running through the woods behind the house rolling in mud and deer doo doo. Needless to say her daddy dog is none too pleased. I could tolerate the messes, if only she would come within a reasonable time of being called!

I would have thought that she at least would be interested in staying home to play with her little brother Barney (Black Lab 5 months) who I got so that she wouldn't have the desire to climb out of her pen during the day when I was at work. The two play together, and get along very well, and she now seems content in the pen with him to keep her company. So exercise in a 20X22 ft pen during the day should be a release for some if not most of her energy. At least little Barney is tuckered out when I get home. He also is well behaved. On the weekends I take both with a neighbor's dog for a walk through the woods to a pond 1 mile away untettered. Even after this vigorous exercise, on the way back she may take off on me say about 40% of the time. Again it will be hours later before she shows up- somewhere.

It has reached the point where I expect one of two things will happen: 1. One of the neighbors will tire of it, and call Animal Control to throw her into doggy jail. I do not know how many times I would choose to bail her out again with this behavior. Or 2. She will get hit by a car.

Again, the fustrating thing is that she understands the commands. But left off the leach, and it's yippee over the hill we go. Suggestions on any new age training methods to get rid of this problem? Other suggestions?

[clara4457]

My first thought is to not let her off leash until she is 100% trustworthy. It is just not worth the risk. You're absolutely right - one day, she is going to end up gettin hurt. My dog Leo is pretty good off leash, but one squirrel and he would be off like a light.

That being said - if she does get off leash, the best way to get her back is to run away from her clapping your hands saying "come" "come" "come" and then when she does come to you PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE. The mistake a lot of people make is to correct the dog when they finally return. That teaches the dog that coming back to you is the wrong thing to do. Running away from her makes it a great game - running towards her will send her running more ahead of you.

When I was training Leo off leash, I started with a 100ft leash attached but loose. I would let him get about 20 feet from me, then I would turn in the opposite direction clapping my hands saying come, come, come. When he came back to me I would praise him and give him a treat. We would work on that everyday for about a week - then I would let him get 50ft away and do it again. I gradually increased the distance and got another 100 ft leash to let him go even further. Eventually I did it without the leash when I felt he was pretty close to being 100% reliable. But (and this is a big but) I only let him off leash in an area that was completely closed.

Even now that I trust Leo to come back to me - I never let him off leash in an area where he could run off. It is just not worth the risk to me.

Now I have another dog Penny Lane that would not stray more than 2 feet from me at any time. She was adopted about 8 months ago from a city shelter. She is a very nervous dog - even to the point that she is still on Prozac to help lesson her anxiety. I had a behaviorist come to my house and help us with a behavior modification program.

I would suggest contacting a behaviorist/trainer to access her behavior and help with her anxiety levels.

[dragondawg]

might be worth a try for it not all of the blasted trees on my lot. Yeah I know I could cut all the trees down on my heavily wooded acre lot.

As for the come come come- within a second of her taking off she ignores all commands, you can say or yell anything. Clap your hands, jump up and down, it doesn't matter as she's over the hill by then. Also she never looks back so running the other direction would accomplish only one thing- you get in a little aerobic exercise for yourself.

She knows what she is doing! For example when it's time for dog patrol (i.e. the Sat/Sun walks to the pond with the neighbor and her dog), I open the door, and zoom away she goes in a straight line of her vision directly opposite the intended direction. So I call out to her this way Clover, and she comes a tearing around in a loop headed for me and past me. Thus it's not as if she is totally deaf to my giving her a command. But during other non-dog patrol situations she ignores me. Now her little brother Barney who usually takes off after her, does hear me, and comes back. So I conclude I'm yelling loud enough. Basically all of the normal techniques of training just doesn't work.

[Karen]

Might she be part Husky? They lloooooove to run, to the exclusion of just about anything else. You could be holding a steak, and the husky'd still opt for running, 99 times out of 100.

Pyrenees do tend to be very independent-minded at times, which is why they were such good sheep dogs.

On the occasions when our ould St, Bernard decide to run, she'd invariably come back mud-covered from the shoulders down, smelling of swamp. She loved chasing frogs! Wonder what the frogs thought?

I would just never let her off-leash unless you're in a fenced-in area. Annoying, maybe, but safer for her physical well-being, as well as your mental well-being. Any big fenced in parks in your area you could take her to every once in a while?

[dragondawg]

Given her mother was supposively 100 lbs of GP, and Clover only got to 60 lbs there is something else in her. They told me Lab, and she does have webbed feet, but outside of that very little Lab temperment.

Don't know about frogs yet, but deer and kitty cats are fair game. I took her on the normal weekend walk through the woods today. She more or less stayed in visual range going to the pond, and played well around the water. But about 2/3 the way back she disappeared. Found her mucked up 40 minutes later in a neighbor's yard where she was after their cat. I'm glad they weren't home!

On the upside I got in 40 minutes of training for little Barney dog.