Untrainable Dog or Clueless Human?

 I quickly wanted to reply to the comment about how he should be allowed to sleep in our room with us. We sleep with our door open and have an old quilt bundled up on the floor by the bed for him and he does come in and sleep there part time, but I would say in a typical night he only spends maybe two or so hours in our room and those are spread out through the night (I think he likes to switch sleeping spots often to stay cooler). He spends most of his time sleeping in the living room by his own choosing (alternating between his chair, the kitchen tile or the carpet). I guess he got used to sleeping alone in his previous life. I would not say that he seems to prefer it, but he certainly doesn't mind. Plus in a condo as small as ours when he is in the living room and we in our bedroom with the door open we are only about fifteen feet (or less) apart, so he probably doesn't feel alone even when he's outside the room.

I disagree, I believe he should be sleeping in your room, near your bed.  I also believe that it would be best if he is restricted in some manner, so that he stays in the room.  A crate or tether could be used.  Crate training (cant remember if you have done that) is a great behavior for any number of reasons (vet stays, travel, emergencies).   Building a relationship is supported by having a dog close to you. 

I'm curious, why is it so important the dog sleeps in the same room?  we discourage the dogs from coming into our bedroom, who wants to hear all that snoring, and they seem fine.

I personally let the dogs choose, so I'm curious about this as well. If a dog is housetrained and trained to not get in to stuff at night, I let them pick where they like to sleep. They go through phases I've found. Right now they're both in a phase where they sleep in the living room, Conrad on a chair (which is hilarious because the chair is small and he is huge and he could sleep in any number of much more comfortable locations, but he has picked the chair), Marlowe on the sofa. The bedroom door is open (and until recently, there was a dog bed in there too, but it went so unused for so long, I moved it to a more high-traffic location), they could come in at any time, they just choose not to.

However with both dogs for various reasons they did each spend a period at the beginning of their lives with us sleeping in our bedroom only.  Marlowe because he was not housetrained (in any sense of that word) and Conrad just because initially we lived in a house so tiny the only comfortable location for him to sleep was his crate, in our bedroom, or in bed with us. So is the "in the bedroom" thing only for new dogs? I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

 I think it's ideal if dogs can sleep with their "pack" but I don't think it's necessary. I totally understand why people don't want their dog sleeping in their room. When I'm dating someone regularly, and that person spends the night, Dakota always gets upset and it completely ruins the mood! (Sorry for TMI!)

The original post led me to believe that the relationship between dog and human was tenuous.  Hence the suggestions for hand feeding etc.  I have no problem with a dog choosing once things are well established.  However, this post suggested relationship building exercises could have a positive impact on the training issues presented.  Proximity at night may help in that area.

I have no plans on forcing Chip to sleep in our room. Our bedroom is very tiny and full of furniture. The only space for him is on his quilt and once that gets hot he would have nowhere to move to, which he enjoys doing. If he wants to sleep on his chair or on the kitchen floor I don't see why I should stop him. My husband and I live alone, so the door is usually open. We do close it sometimes (I'm sure you guys get the idea...), but we don't leave it closed. I appreciate the advice, but I don't think it's necessary to lock him in our room.

 I have started barricading the couch again anytime I'm gone. I praise him for getting in his chair and will start again soon trying to teach him to sit. And hopefully move beyond sit. I'll read the links on clicker training.

I forgot to reply to the person who suggested that I hire a professional dog trainer. Out of the question unfortunately. I have no idea how much that would cost, but I know without even researching it that it would be too much.

He did learn his name quickly. I will give Chip credit there. It was the name he came with, but he didn't seem to recognize it when we got him. We figured that we might as well keep his name the same and within a month probably he was responding to it everytime. Especially if you happen to mention him in the kitchen. Ha.

Thanks mrv. I don't know if our relationship is tenuous or not. He has been with us since July and he has some baggage as someone else said. I usually can't tell when my relationships with humans are hanging by a thread, so probably won't recognize the signs in a dog any better. Ha. He seems to like us and is very trusting (I think). At least more so than my last dog. He doesn't mind if you take his food away from him while he's eating or treats, toys, whatever. He never acts afraid of us unless we're doing something or holding something that he is afaid of (he is terrified of flyswatters, matches and cigarette lighters that we use for candles, tons of other strange objects).

I actually hadn't even thought of this before but when I train him I'll probably have to use a word instead of a clicker because one of the other things he is scared of are things that make a loud clicking sound. Well, some clicking he is scared of and some he isn't. He is a complicated dog. But anyway, I think the point was that I think he was a pretty good relationship for how long he's been with us. We just need to work on training him.

Definitely sounds like there's a high probability that he'll be scared of the clicker. It's actually not that unusual. Part of the benefit of the clicker is that it is kind of a weird sound that dogs don't hear normally. That's what can make it so effective, but that's also what can make some dogs afraid of it, at least initially. There's a few different ways to approach the issue. One is as you said to use a voice marker. I use a voice marker ("Yes!";) as well for times when I don't have a clicker (or am too klutzy to use one, like at agility class) and I'll tell you, it is hard to first pick a word that you can get out of your mouth quickly enough for it to be effective as a clicker (timing is everything), and then say that word the same way, every time, no matter what your mood. It takes practice.

There are some other options as well. Since clicker training isn't really "clicker" training, it's marker training, any sound can be used as a marker. Your voice is one of the possible sounds, but there's also doing something like muffling the sound of the clicker (put a few layers of tape over it, wrap it in a hanky, keep it in your pocket), or you can use any object you can think of that you can operate quickly and easily with one hand that makes a unique, quick sound. A Snapple bottle lid. A clicky pen. Something that beeps instead of clicks (I don't know what such a thing would be, but I'm sure there is some common household object that would fit the bill that I'm just not aware of). There are also clickers on the market that are electronic and make a wide variety of noises. And then there's the old fashioned way that does work fine for dogs who are leery of the noise at first: once the dog figures out the click predicts awesome rewards (which you can toss to him from all the way across the room if he is not wanting to get up close and personal with it at first), they all of a sudden aren't so scared of it any more, and then they grow to love it. Counter-conditioning at it's finest.

I only wanted to give you all those options because a marker that is not your voice does have benefits. Our dogs hear us yammer all day long, and most of them very quickly learn to tune us out. A marker that is distinct and different from a human voice makes neurons fire in a dog's brain that just your voice does not. And as I said above, it is really really difficult to give your voice the quality that makes a non-verbal market so effective: consistency--the same sound every single time. This is also why, for our most important command (an emergency recall) I also do not use a voice cue, I use a whistle. That way, if I'm terrified and freaked out, my recall cue does not sound totally different than any other time, because it is not my voice, which changes depending on my mood and how carefully I'm paying attention to it.

Aww, a corgi! My old Penny is a corgi, and she's one of the most switched-on dogs I've ever met. She is quite something about figuring out humans and picked up training real quick. Unfortunately, it was a little tricky to teach her to sit and lie down because her legs are so short that she seems able to simply step out of any attempt you make to get her in the position you want her in, and she's so low to the ground it's hard to lure her into a down when she can reach from a standing position! My Penny is going deaf these days, but in her younger years, she could hear a chip drop from across the room and was there to catch it before it hit the ground. You could try backing Chipper against an obstacle like a wall or your legs and try to lure him into a sit by passing a food reward over his head towards his back. If he can't back up far, he might just sit to get a little closer to that food just out of reach. Once he figures it out, he'll pick things up quicker. All the best!