Mixed Breed Owners: What You See Is What You Get?

elissa said:
Chewie's recall indoors is near perfect, and it's good in the yard or in the park... But put her on the leash and walk the streets? It's like I don't exist!
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That's just distractions and though it doesn't feel like it now if you hang in there she'll get bored with some of the things and you'll be able to start getting her to pay more attention to you. At least she is quite a small dog, by the time Gus got bored of chasing every scary leaf weighed half as much as me and had given me a tennis elbow and a catalogue of other injuries and basically couldn't be walked on leash.
 
I've just bought a head collar for her... hoping this will help!

How long did it take for Gus to settle?
 
running_dog said:
I really love your description of Chewie's fur loss. My friend has a dog that sheds like that and it often feels like we end up more furry than the dog. It seems to often be a GSD and Border collie thing but I don't think there's either of them in Chewie's breeding.
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Yeah, I have a friend with a white GSD and he makes my friends front room look like the floor of a very lazy barbers shop! I think she's too small for any GSD or BC in her though :/

running_dog said:
]Are you sure that she is not so intelligent that she's choosing to hide it from you? We had a lurcher like that. Do you use a clicker (I can't remember if you do) sometimes dogs that seem a bit dim actually are very mentally active it is just that by the time you say "good dog" they've already thought about 50 different things since the one you were referring to and have no idea what you were talking about. A clicker helps to mark the exact thing you wanted to reinforce. Sometimes dogs are a bit dim, but again the clicker helps them because it makes it easier for them to understand what you want. Dogs that are a bit away with the fairies can come in any breed so it's hard to know if it is a breed characteristic or just Chewie :rolleyes:.
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I've ordered a clicker from Amazon, waiting for it to arrive to give it a try... I'm pretty sure it's just Chewie though lol... We'll see!

running_dog said:
One word of caution, playing "chase the puppy" has a reputation for wreaking havoc on recall in any dog. Getting her to chase you is a much better option.
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We have a set game we play that starts with me saying 'Gonna get the puppy!' and she grabs Mr Giraffe and we play tag with it. It ends with me saying 'Enough' and she settles back down. She is very attached to me so she never wants to be too far away. :X3:
 
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