My dog ignores us alot when we call her name..

[Fuffedoff]

Or when we would like her attention. She appears to be very stubborn and wants to do things on her terms.

She's 9 months old so in the midst of the adolescent phase and boy don't we know it

A lot of her training seems to have gone out the window which I understand this can happen but we are keeping up with her training.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we can do to get her attention reliably/to engage with us more? We are obviously not interesting enough

Take her out just before mealtimes. Take a meal's worth of (dry) food out with you. Call her back, when she comes give her a piece of breakfast. Repeat often, make a fuss of her sometimes if you've no food left. Don't get cross with her for not coming back when she eventually does, still reward her for coming back

I'm a dog walker and most of the dogs I walk now just went through adolescence (lockdown pups coming of age). Whoo boy that was fun. Haha.

Loads of them suddenly behaved as if they didn't know their name / give two craps about listening.

100% foolproof method for me is making a quick "kissy" noise then giving them a mega high value treat - roast chicken, hot dog, that kind of thing. Now whenever I make the kissy noise, they immediately look at me regardless of what I'm offering them. Works with my own dog too.

Aside from that, you can work on eye contact and engagement.

Have a treat pouch on you throughout the day (or a toy - whatever your dog loves most). Whenever your dog looks at you without you asking, reward and give attention.

On walks, you can also build engagement my mixing up how you walk. You can be playful and say "go fast!" "go sloooowwww" "wait!" "this way!" and kind of jump around, have fun, change directions, change speed. Again, teaches dogs to keep their attention on you, because you are unpredictable and fun and spontaneous!

Once you've got more engagement, you can then start using your dog's name again to get their attention and then offering a huge fun jackpot reward. Otherwise they just learn to ignore their name when they don't feel like responding ;)

Hmm this sounds good. I definately need to work on the focus side of things including eye contact. The little bugger gives me the side eye alot

Back to basics, it may be!

Picture of little bugger who looks like butter wouldn't melt

I agree with all the above comments. Dogs do tend to go through a stubborn teen phase where they develop selective hearing. However, as an owner of a deaf dog, I just wanted to give a different perspective. Dogs are very good at communicating even when they can’t hear a thing, so sometimes deafness can go unnoticed for a while. Are you sure this isn’t an issue? You can test this by clapping loudly, whilst standing behind her (so she can’t see you) or shaking her treat box. It’s very unlikely that this is hearing related but having been in a position where it was, I felt compelled to ask (much more likely that she is just being stubborn)

You don't need to use their name to get their attention - in fact, a high pitched or unusual noise often works better as they often switch their ears off to their name Like @dustofneptune, I'm a dog walker and I agree that a kissy noise works, or a click of the tongue is good too. I also use the phrase "what's this?" in a really excited, high pitched voice.

I would do a lot of work on getting her to focus on you. Commands like 'touch' are really useful here, so hold your hand out with your palm facing the dog, and get her to touch her nose to your hand and then treat when she does it.

Have you done any clicker training with her at all?

The problem is she has her name all the time, constantly so she’s just learnt to tune it out. That’s why recall is generally a different word that always means ‘come back to me now = treat’

Back to training, failing this back to basics, long line training and no off lead freedom 'till your recall is cast iron

You can't have a dog off lead if you can't trust it to come back, I'm sure that's obvious for a multitude of reasons

The puppy trainer we went to offers adolescent classes which we'll head back to if 6 month old doesn't behave!

I hope all these great tips from pp work for you OP! I do all these things with mine and have been doing since the day we got her. She was doing great til the adolescent phase and then it all went tits up. She's now 18 bloody months and still won't recall to her name or any of the command words we've tried. I've been through so many classes and trainers and now I'm basically giving up and wondering if we are doomed to a life forever on lead

I use a nickname to refer to my dog so as not to 'wear out' his name. Result is that hearing his name has an electric effect on him.
Second tip, never ever repeat a command. If you're not absolutely sure your dog will respond, then don't ask. If you want him, go and physically get him. The idea is that they never realise that they needn't listen to you.
Third, linked to the other two: don't talk an endless stream of nonsense to your dog if you're interested in obedience. Keep quiet and speak when you need to.
You probably need to go back to basics with training, especially recall, and use some new words instead of the old ignorable ones.

I'd switch off a bit from her for a few days before restarting training and keep in mind that she needs to work for the good stuff in her life: off-lead time, affection, play and food.
A very good read, even if she's not a working dog, is The Pet Gundog by Lez Graham.

I follow McCann dogs on YouTube and they are great with this sort of thing. Worth a look OP.

In your best Janet Jackson voice: "oooh, what have you done for me lately?"

Noises don't get your dog's attention (above and beyond the novelty of a new type of noise). What the noise means to your dog is what does it.

Pick a noise, any noise - and I agree that their name is not always the best choice because it's used so much in other ways that just to get attention - and help you dog link that noise to good things happening. Once that link is strong and provided the history with that noise leads to more exciting things that whatever they are doing* then the noise will gain their attention.

It's why "what's this?" works for so many dogs. It's not normally used in any other context than presenting treats or toys and many people use it many times in those two scenarios. So the dog has a strong link between the noise and something good happening. When you then use it in a new context, he/she focusses to see if the 'something good' will happen there too.

• During adolescence there is sometimes little you can offer that is more exciting than the Big Wide World so use your noise sparingly in those scenarios, save it for scenarios where you know you will 'win' the attention battle. As the dog ages, they typically get less excited about the world and you can start to use the noise in the real world . In the meantime, focus practice can involve it being a prerequisite to anything good. e.g. in a secure field and want to let the dog off lead? Doesn't happen until the dog offers you eye contact, then off they go.

I reinforce training by saying the dog's name when giving random cuddles, in a sweet voice. Not always, but frequently.

I see lots of people calling their dog’s name without saying what they want the dog to do.
So if you want the dog to come to you, you need to say the name and the command you’ve taught that means to come to you. Then reward when he does it.

She doesn't listen to me inside, nevermind being outside .

We don't let her off lead at all due to not having reliable recall and that training is ongoing.

A long, windy round ahead!

Lovely dog, @Fluffedoff! Is she a beagle? Mine plays regularly with other adolescent dogs in the field nearby - when I call him, all his friends rock up and sit expectantly in front of me waiting for a treat while my own blatantly ignores me and and pretends not to know me. Very frustrating!

I agree with giving a command rather than a name (also have a young dog). Because the dog hears her name all the time.

So I will call my dog Come! So she knows that is what I want her to do. It seems to work. Also reward for eye contact on walks (praise or treat). Just to keep that bond with you. (I have also taught her to come on the whistle if we are at a place where noise needs to cut though, e.g. the beach).

As an aside, my dog was jumped on by an out of control dog yesterday (my dog was on a lead). The owner couldn't call her dog back - just kept shouting its name. Then when she did eventually get hold of it she whacked it. So no wonder it didn't want to come back to her in the first place!

This is not you OF COURSE! But just that her dog was getting complete mixed messages and too many of them. (Name name name, grab, whack). So I favour a direct command for a particular action.

(Also my dog is V V food motivated so treats always help!)