Selective Hearing

[Uggmugg]

Hello

The recall with my dog has regressed quite a bit. She blatantly ignores us sometime and not even when she is distracted. We've been in the house and she is upstairs and we call her and she doesn't come. Only comes if it's for food or going out.

Also a bit concerned that as soon as it gets dark she head upstairs to our bed, where she sleeps, and will not come and sit in the living room. If we bring her down she whines to get let out and scoots back up stairs. She has always been a sleepypup after dark but used to always want to be close with us.

This started around fireworks time when she was freaked out and her safe place was our bed. Bizarrely she will often come down stairs around 2330 and sit with us then.

I'm not sure if these two issues are related or not.

Any advice would be great.

She sounds like a human teenager!!

How old is she?

I would let her sleep where she wants for the time being. Fireworks have a lot to answer for!

With regard to recall I would go back to treats for rewarding her for the time being. See how things are after a month of always rewarding her for food and see how much better her recall is then. You can then drop to random treats for really fast recalls after that time.

Hi, thanks for the feedback. She's 4 years old and yes a teenager is a fair comparison.

I'm also wondering if she doesn't like our kids much either. She never listens to them and comes downstairs when they go to bed. The other possibility is the cat. She is scared of the cat (who has even stolen her dog bed) and maybe tries to hide from her.

Going to try the rewarding every recall trick and see if that works. Fingers crossed.