1. Feed timings
How important is it for the dog to eat at set times. I've always had set times for previous dogs, but this one is already used to eating when she wants. Should I just give in and leave a bowl of food out for her all day? (She doesn't seem to over eat.) I tried taking the food away after half an hour, but if she wasn't hungry she would just skip a meal, and I worry that a growing dog can't afford to skip meals.
It is important to have a set feeding time for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is so that a dog will not become overweight, though some dogs are able to manage their weight and not over eat. The next reason is teaching the dog that YOU are in control of the food. And the last is simply because iti s more convenient. If you were to take a trip and needed to leave your dog with a friend, relative, or boarding kennel, I doubt they'd like to put food into the dog's bowl all day.
It is my own personal advice to feed at a set time. Set the bowl down for her and give her a chance to eat. If she doesn't begin ti eat in five minutes, take the bowl away until the next meal. (At nine months I think she should still be being fed twice a day: once in the morning, once in the evening.)
Don't be afraid to do this. Dogs are smart, and dogs like their food. They will not starve themselves. They will eventually eat, just don't give in. If you do, it will be comparible to you giving in to a small child kicking and screaming for a candy bar in a grocery store after you've already told them no. Don't let the dog be in charge. You are in charge!
2. "Here"
She is slowly getting better at coming when I call when we are outside, but it is still 50/50 whether she listens to me. Will this really get better just with constant positive reinforcement? Sometimes she doesn't even seem interested in a treat (even if she hasn't eaten) since she is so excited by what she is smelling outside. The other problem is that when she does come, she doesn't stop when she gets to me, but keeps running past me in the other direction!
Your body language when calling your dog is very important. If you are yelling at it to come to you, but you are working towards it, your body language is telling it NOT to come. Dogs respond far better to body language than they do voice commands, so most dogs will ignore the voice command and instead respond to your body language. Instead of walking towards a dog when you are calling it, just jog backwards calling it in a happy voice! I recommend turning it into a bit of a game. Jog/run away from him calling her! Make her want to come to you through body language, happy tone, and TONS of praise when she does get there.
And also, when she's already coming to you, add the command so that she learns to associate the command with her action.
Which brings me to my next point. Never call your dog when you are angry. Recalls should always be a pleasant thing for the dog. If you call your dog when you are angry, your tone of voice is actually telling the dog to NOT come to you. Also, you want to avoid calling your dog when something unpleasant is going to happen, such as a bath. Do not call your dog to only put it into a bath tub. If your dog is like mine(doesn't like baths!), you are actually punishing your dog for coming to you! Instead of calling a dog when you must bathe it, end its play time and bring it inside, or anything else similar, go get it, don't call it.
Also, getting a consistent recall is about setting the dog up for success. Until they have a solid recall, they should always be under some kind of control. Every recall that your dog ignores because of whatever reasons, whether it is your body language telling it opposite, or you allowed too many distractions too soon, it shows the dog that it can get away with not coming to you. Don't give them the chance to not listen. For the first steps of training recall I do happy, short recalls on a six foot leash. I walk in one direction, and then run backwards calling the dog. When the dog gets to me, it gets tons of praise, treats, and if toy drive, a game of tug or ball. You want to make coming to you WORTH every bit of it. I also always suggest long lines for lengthening the distance of recalls. It also helps so that if the dog really doesn't want to come, you can still reel them in and they do not have a chance to be inadvertently reinforced for not coming when called. Make sure you don't give them the chance to not respond. But even if they do not come and you must reel them in, do NOT punish. I probably wouldn't give many treats or that much play, but I still praise the dog. No matter how long it takes them to come, you never punish them for eventually coming. . With that said, eventually you do only want to reward the fastest recalls, but in the beginning you just need to make the association that coming is a very good thing.
Now, as for the actual training, you want to first start out with very little distractions. I lengthen the distance with the long line. If I started with a six foot leash, I use my 20 foot long line and this time only give the dog ten foot of line. I do NOT give the dog any more line until it is doing consistent recalls EVERY time with ten feet. Once the dog is consistent, I give it maybe 12-15 feet. If ever the dog becomes too distracted, you have moved to quickly. Go back to the step/distance before that and heavily reinforce.
Now, distractions are THE hardest part about recall training. Once the dog will come to you on the long line without distractions, go back to only giving the dog 6 foot of line and practicing WITH distractions. This distraction can be another dog, food, etc. The distractions at first should start out small and more easily to ignore. Again, start the recall training process all over again, not moving on to the next step/distance until the dog has a solid recall with that amount of distance and distractions.
Once the dog can ignore the little things and still come back, it is time to go onto the hardest and most distractive of distractions. For me, this was having my dogs out in a field with scents of birds, rabbits, and stray cats in sight. And again, went from step one to all the way until they were at the end of the long line and still coming when called.
3. Jumping
I'm getting better working on having her sit instead of jumping on people, but sometimes she is just overexcited. I suppose she might calm down as she gets older, but, as with "here", it seems very hard to get her attention sometimes. It is especially hard to train this because strangers don't know what to do. The previous owners let her jump and nip at people, which was cute when she was a puppy, but isn't so cute now that she is so big. Like I said, there is some improvement, and maybe I just need to be patient, but any tips would be appreciated.
Get some friends to come over and help you train. Friends that will cooperate and help you. She MUST sit before they give her attention. Teach them to tell her to "sit", in a commanding, but happy and confident voice. If she begins to jump at them, I've found for some dogs it is also useful to walk right INTO them to *make* them back up, so that the dog will put all fours back onto the floor where you can try to tell it to sit again. If this only encourages the dog to jump on you, don't do it.
Whenever strange people are around, keep her onleash and a close eye on her. *Never* let her jump on anyone. When you do go up to someone, ifshe starts to lose it and get overly excited. Back up a few steps and ask her to sit a few times, or any other behaviors she knows. To get her attention back on you.
Speaking of attention, this is definitely something else you should be teaching. Your dog should look at you EVERY time you say the command to. Some people use the dog's name.. I, however, think the dog'sname is so commonly mis and overused and choose to use a "watch me" command. I taught this by sitting in a non distraction room and giving the dog a treat whenever it looked at my face. Soon the dog was looking more and more at my face, and then I added the cue. As the dog looked up atmy face, I said "watch me" and treated. Then, to get the treat, I made them hold the look at my face even longer. First starting with only making them hold it 2seconds, then 4, then 7 etc etc.
