she isn't listening to me anymore!

She runs, runs, runs...then sniffs and digs, sniffs and digs...then finds some other random animal's poop and eats it. We were out for 25 minutes, and not only would she not come (even when coaxed with smelly treats that she loves), she ran like wildfire when we even approached her. How can I get her back to listening to me outside?

You call once, she doesn't come, she gets reeled in by the long line- then you show her the nice roast beef she could have had (but you don't give her any).

I like to practice before dinner when my dog is hungry, I'll toss a kibble or small biscuit  and he runs out to eat it. As soon as he picks it up, I call Bobbycome! and reward him when he gets to me with something better, like a bit of hot dog or cheese. The deal is he must run out to the cookie, and run back to me or I will put my food away and play later.

The only thing that I can add to spiritdogs advice is two words when you SHOW him that roast beef he isn't gonna get.....TOO BAD.  Calmly, matter of factly, just "too bad".  Works like a charm and those two words become the most HATED in that dogs vocabulary!

Great advice! You definitely don't want to chase her all over the yard. That's obviously the most fun game, so stop playing. Make her chase you instead, and start inside where it's not as exciting and distracting as the great out of doors. I have really velcro dogs, so ignoring them and walking away, leaving them alone outside, especially with a negative marker such as glenmar suggests, (too bad, oops!, sorry, or wrong), is very effective.  But not all dogs care that much about being with their owners, especially when there are more interesting things going on.

I play a recall game with my dogs from the time they are puppies. First I teach them "find it", which means there's a yummy treat on the floor. Very  simple - start with a handful of really tiny treats, say "find it", and drop the treat right at the dog's feet. Gradually make it more difficult so that you can toss it a few feet away and she'll go look for it. You want to eventually be able to call out the command anywhere in the house, and she'll come running like a shot to sniff out the treat. (Works great when you're in the kitchen and you drop food on the floor!)

Once she's got the idea, toss a treat a few feet away with the find it command, and then RUN to another room in the house, calling her name and using your recall command. She should run after you, and when she gets to you, mark it, (Yes!) and give her another treat. Toss a treat on the floor, "find it", "Misty, come!", and run away again. Repeat until you're both panting. My dogs have always loved this game, and it makes it fun for them to chase ME. By the time we're off leash outdoors all I have to do is run away, and they'll chase after me, never needed to use a long line. But it's probably good to try it with a long line the first few times to make sure you can get her to come to you outdoors, and that's when you want to do that jackpot of treats, one at a time, accompanied by happy, enthusiastic praise about what a wonderful/perfect/smart dogs she is.

Chasing your dog is a bad idea, even if it seems that is all one has left.....my neighbor's daughter was walking their dog , a little Terrier mix, somehow the dog got loose.....she must have chased that dog for about 20 minutes.....I was alerted by my dogs barking, and I went outside to see what was going on.....so, I watched.....and when it was obvious she wasn't catching the dog anytime soon I told her to clap her hands make some silly noise and run away from the dog.....it worked like a charm.

All great advise!  Most people make this mistake with their dogs.  They are not trained for off leash work.  You must train for this, just as you did with all of your other on leash work.  I teach my clients to do an "attention" exercise with their dog.  It teaches the dog to focus on the handler, which in turn can be used in situations where you need to break the dog's attention from something else.  This might sound gross, but works wonders!!

First cut up some hot dogs, lengthwise in quarters, then slice them about a quarter of an inch thick.  Put several of them in your mouth.  With your dog on lead, give the command "look".  I use a clicker, as soon as the dog looks at your face, click the clicker and spit a hotdog.  This does several things, later when the dog knows the command, they will always look to your face for direction and reward (hence breaking their attention on whatever it was on) and they always look to your face for the reward, NOT your hand.  Make sure you click as soon as the dog looks at your face.  They will quickly learn the treat comes from your mouth.  At first they will probably look at the floor when they hear the click, but just withhold the treat and make a sound with your mouth to get the attention back so they will see that the treat comes from your mouth, not the floor, lol.  This exercise can be used for soooo many different things.  It will help with getting that attention back to you and use your obedience along with it.  Good luck to you, if you have any other questions about this, please feel free to ask!!

depending on the sevarity of the situation, you might need an E collar. many people are against them, but if it is a matter of your dog getting into the street and things that are going to get your dog killed, you might want to consider it. my wife and i adopted one of our dogs and she was 1 and 1/2 years old. her name was Mia.(missing in action... we didnt put it together for sometime.) she ran away every chance she got and would be gone for one or two hours at a time, she always came back but what if she got hit or stolen or anything. after about 4 months of training she was showing absolutly no progress. she would intentionally wrap my wife up in the leash, and it was break my arm or let go so she would let go. i finally got a shock collar with a remote it has a button that made the collar beep and a button that shocked her. in the house she was a doll, outside if she got free you had no chance. she was just gone. so anyway, i took her outside and she went to take off, i said Mia come, as i said come i hit the warning buttongave her about 1 second and hit the shock button. she immediatly turned and ran back to me, i think i had to shock her a total of five times over the course of 2 weeks and she has not worn the collar since. once the habit was broke she has had a phenominal recall since. I SINCEARLY THINK THIS CAN BE A USEFUL TOOL IF USED CORRECTLY AND ONLY WHEN IT IS ABSOLUTLY NESSECARY LIKE IN MIA'S CASE... SHE COULD HAVE DIED/ BEEN HIT BY A CAR/ WHO KNOWS WHATELSE....IF YOU HAVE3 NEVER USED A SHOCK COLLAR CONSULT A TRAINER BEFOR DOING SO!!!

 sorry if some of you dont agree with me.

 JM

Your right JM, an E-Collar can be necessary sometimes.  And you are also correct in stating that people need guidance when using this training tool.  You can do more damage to your dog by using it improperly, than helping.  I use them in certain situations, but NOT as a part of normal training.  A "trainer" that has to use them on a regular basis is not a trainer at all. 

well put Firedog!

JM

A man after my own heart.  Well stated and welcome to the forum (didnt do that on your welcome thread)