I was asked again the other day how to get a dog to come inside from the yard, when the dog clearly does not want to.
“She is so stubborn,” I was told. “I can call her over and over and she completely ignores me. I used to be able to lure her in with a treat but now she won’t even come for that. How do I get her to come when I need to leave?”
This is such a common question that I thought I’d write about it to help everyone.
To answer it, let’s think in terms of the dog’s perspective.
Why do dogs do anything? What is their motivation?
Going back to the very basics. All of us – including dogs, including people, including elephants – make decisions based upon where the value is for us in any given time. We all have needs and wants and seek to fulfill those. Our behavior will help us to either get more of the things in life that we value or move us away from the things in life we want to avoid, things that are unpleasant. When forced is not involved and we are allowed to make choices, we will naturally choose to do what GETS us the highest value outcome to ourselves.
Thinking about myself, I love beautiful scenery. It gives me such a sense of peace and content to walk along a beach, hike along a nature trail or boat on a lake. If you are accompanying me and bored with this activity, you would have a pretty tough time getting me to follow you away to go home. If, on the other hand, I had been hiking for four hours and was completely exhausted, I would easily make the choice to leave. I would have a lot more value for resting with a cold glass of iced tea at that point. If you asked me to leave my walk on the beach for an opportunity to try parasailing, I would not hesitate to follow.
So, let’s go back to that dog’s decision to ignore her owner’s calling him from the back yard where there are so many smells, textures, opportunities to dig or chase squirrels, twigs to chew on, sights to see. Prior to being let out the door, his dog’s activity included laying around or following her owner, trying to get attention. Can you see the stark difference between the two environments? That rest, low level of stimulation, and even boredom had even heightened the value to that dog for all of the awesome experiences of the back yard.
Think about that from the dog’s perspective. Why would she CHOOSE to come to her owner’s call when coming would result in the loss of all of that intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcement of being outside?
Add to that, her owner was needing her to come in so that he could leave. That meant going into her confinement space of solitude.
Dogs are very good at learning discriminative stimulus. In other words, they can quickly learn that coming inside at 5:00 pm may mean indoor play time followed by dinner but coming inside at say 8:00 am means being locked in solitude for several hours.
Sure, the first time or several you may be able to pull out a piece of steak to lure your dog inside, but very quickly your dog will come to learn what that steak means. (I can just hear the dog saying, “Uh oh, here comes the steak. I know what that means. It means I am about to get locked into my crate if I come to get it. That’s what that means. The steak is THAT valuable to me.”)
What is a dog owner to do then? His pet needs to go outside to eliminate. He needs to get his pet in to leave.
Once you understand the motivation for behavior, you have some choices yourself (that do not include luring, yelling or shocking a dog).
Knowing that you are leaving at 8:00 am, you could rearrange your schedule to let your dog out earlier. This way your dog could have time to get satiated on all the outdoor stimulus and value resting more. It could also mean that the added time would allow you to have a play session indoors once your pet comes inside which would add more value to the choice of coming in.
You could take your dog out on a leash at that time of day so that you would not have the issue of calling your dog to come and having your dog ignore you. (Still, you should be asking yourself – How can I make the choice of coming inside of more value to my dog?)
Always, you should be asking yourself, how can I make the behavior I WANT to see, the best choice for my dog. And practice that over and over.
Practicing your recall with your dog, at times when you know you will be able to have success getting your dog to respond – and your dog will have success knowing only GOOD things will happen as a result of coming/paying attention will also be important. Then practice gradually with more distractions – still making your dog’s choice to come pretty awesome for him/her.
As always, have fun!
