[torilovessmiles]

This is Duchess! She is a 3 year old German Shepherd that use to be my sister's dog, but when she moved to a small apartment, Duchess sadly could not come with her. My sister made sure her needs were met (food, water, shelter, etc.) but Duchess is a bit neglected in training and grooming. My sister just did not know how to handle this type of dog, but she did not intentionally do any harm.
I bathed her and I've been brushing her daily. On the good side of things, she is very well housetrained already and loves kids!
Duchess is, by no means, a stupid dog. She is one of the most intelligent dogs I've met! We had to put a lock on our fence gate because she found out how to work the latch from inside, got out, and chased our neighbors ponies. She got herself kicked, but luckily wasn't badly injured and my neighbors where nice enough to help me get her back.
I have trained puppies to be very good dogs, but I have never really trained a dog that has existing problems, especially not a large working breed. I could use any advice you have to offer

First big problem, Duchess does not respond well to her name. My sister would often get frustrated and yell to try and get her to come, which did the exact opposite of what she wanted. For this reason, we have a strict "no yelling" policy, especially with Duchess. She is becoming less anxious but still doesn't come well. This is probably the most difficult thing I am facing, as I am not sure how to teach her to respond. I've taught her to stay, but the "come" command is at a halt. As mentioned above, she finds a way out sometimes, and getting her to come to us is extremely important in this situation. My sister normally punished her for getting out when she came to her, rather than rewarding her for coming, so I believe she still thinks she'll be punished. How can I fix this mindset? We've tried offering rewards when she comes to us, but its very, very slow progress, if at all.

Second problem is the leash. I usually start leash training puppies as soon as I get them, even if it's just through the house. Since we live in the country, my sister would just let her run loose instead of walking her. I tried to tell that if she would keep her on a leash as a puppy, she would be better behaved of leash as an adult. My sister refused my advice, and now Duchess does not walk well on a leash. I have been working with her, and she actually has improved quite a bit. I've opted for the head collar, because, in my experience, harnesses on big dogs end up with me being pulled around like a dogsled. A head collar makes more sense to me, I feel like it gives me more control. When walking, she likes to look for things to chase. Cats, chickens, mice, anything. She gets very easily distracted. I really would like to take her jogging with me, but I have to work on that first.

Obedience commands. This one is going the easiest of all (with the exception of "come"). She is very driven by both food and toys and I've taught her to immediately "sit" and "stay" when given the command.

Being a working dog, I want to give her an objective, I want to train her in agility. Before that, though, she needs to learn manners on and off leash, and master the obedience commands. I won't be doing any competitions, but I feel like a backyard agility course would help to release some of her energy and anxiety. I also want to take her to a local lake with me, but, again, she needs to learn off leash manners before this is possible, as I don't want to keep a leash on her while she's swimming.

If anyone has any advice at all to offer in this situation, it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dia]

That is a beautiful dog.

First big problem, Duchess does not respond well to her name. My sister would often get frustrated and yell to try and get her to come, which did the exact opposite of what she wanted.

Change her name, and make that name nothing but a positive experience. Names are just 'sounds' to dogs, so all Duchess respresents to her is something uncomfortable; she doesn't have her identity tied to it in the way that humans do. So give her a 'sound' that means good things to use as her name.

We've tried offering rewards when she comes to us, but its very, very slow progress, if at all.

Break it down into very small steps. First choose a word to mean "come to me"; if your sister used "come", use a different word that has no negative associations for her. Here's a good method for teaching recall, even to an older dog:
Teaching a Reliable Recall - Whole Dog Journal Article

Second problem is the leash.

Here's a forum sticky on teaching loose leash walking:
http://www.dogforum.com/training-behavior-stickies/loose-leash-walking-1683/

You do have some wonderful plans for Duchess, and I hope to hear about her progress. Here are some forum stickies that may help you:Training and Behavior Stickies

You could also google Zak George, Emily Larham (Kikopup), Ian Dunbar, Sophia Yin; all have websites and free info on positive training methods.

Good luck!

 

[traciek88]

I agree a name change would be a good idea. (She looks like a "Winter" to me!). Try the "name game" with a clicker and lots of treats. Say her name and as soon as she turns to you click and treat. Do it several times until she starts to respond to her name without the click-treat. The same with with the clicker and a different word for the come command. If she's really smart she will quickly get the hang of this and might not even see the correlation with the other name or commands.

Otherwise any other suggestions with the leash and all have been said. She's a real beauty!

 

[torilovessmiles]

Thanks guys! I'll think about the name change, but until I think about something I like, I'm going to say "Baby" or "baby girl" which is something I would probably say to her anyway. Thanks for the links, Dia!
I'm going to get a clicker as well. I think she would respond pretty well to the click-treat method as sounds tend to get her attention, if only for a second.
I'll update with her progress!

 

[StormyPeak]

A name change I think would be a good thing too....as it appears she associates her name with bad stuff happening to her.

Be patient with the dog learning to come to you. I adopted an almost feral, extremely abused dog...who's last owner for 5 years would chase her down in her yard and beat her with things like boards and chains because she wouldn't 'come' to him when she escaped out of her tie-down/collar. She probably learned early on that when she did, come to him, she got beat anyways, for being too slow about it...so she just ran from him after that which ticked off the man even more.

One of the first things the rescue did when they got the dog I eventually adopted...was they renamed her. She was so abused that they didn't want her to associate anything with her past life. I adopted her as a project dog knowing she had some major issues. Basically she was tied down out side with no shelter for most of her 5 years with no contact with humans or other animals...and her owner
was a brute who beat her and sometimes neglected to feed and give her water.

I had Jaya on a tie down for the first 4 or 5 months, then when she didn't bolt from me upon seeing me, I finally let her have a drag line...about 16 feet of it so I could catch her as she ran by me. This allowed her the freedom to roam my large yard at will, but allowed me the chance to catch her as her line trailed by.

Then on her own one day, she finally made up her mind to come to me when I called...or I should say she ran past me and up onto the porch...to wait by the door while I let her in. After that I took her drag line off. Sometimes she would make a few nervous laps around the yard...but would come in when called...and she learned that no matter how long she took, she never got into trouble for it. Now...after having her for almost a year...she doesn't even wait for me to call most of the time, but with tail wagging and a spirited trot or even a run, she'll come to me.

So, again, be patient and being you have a smart dog on your hands, she will figure it out probably a lot quicker than Jaya who suffered so much from a human's brutality. Early on, I never fed Jaya treats outside...because my goal was to get her to come into the house....so all treats were fed to her inside, as soon as we got into the house. She hadn't been in a house before, so she was kind of afraid of being inside and I wanted her to learn that 'inside' was where the goodies were. : )

It made it harder to teach her to come to me while I was outside but again, a smart dog will figure out what you want and learn that it's ok to follow orders - and Jaya soon realized that once she got inside there was a reward there waiting for her. : )

Another thing was you mentioned no yelling. I'm very glad to hear that. Jaya was so traumatized I couldn't even look at her, nor talk to her for the first month...if I did, she had a full blown panic attack and would bolt through the house trying to find a place to hide.

So, soft words and maybe just quick eye contact might work with your dog...but looking too long at her might make her nervous too, at least until she learns to trust you more. You have the advantage that at least you dog hasn't been through total hell...and has had some socialization. (sounds like she needs some work with the ponies though...lol).

She's beautiful, btw. Reminds me of a neighbor's white shepherd, Hans, who hung around our house when I was a kid - he was a gentle giant of a dog.

I'm glad you were able to take this dog in...sounds like she's going to have a wonderful life..

Stormy

 

[torilovessmiles]

Oh, another question. I need to get her accustomed to chickens, but without putting the chickens in danger. I was thinking about taking her in the chicken run on the leash, with a soft canvas muzzle on. Is this a good idea?
What would be the best way to go about this? She likes to chase the chickens but I would like to get her to guard them instead, if at all possible.
She had two goat friends she "guarded" as a puppy but they are since deceased. The only livestock she's been around since then (ponies and chickens), she has just chased.
Thanks for your replies!

 

[torilovessmiles]

Update on Duchess:
We still have yet to decide on a name, but we're considering Frostbite (shortened to Frost) or maybe Pearl.
I've simply avoided using her old name (which is actually pretty hard to do) and she has been doing quite a bit better. Anxiety is lower, she will sometimes come to me, and the head collar has made it much easier to walk her. She's been doing very well. She still get distracted by cats and chickens, but is doing better. A cat even walked up to her once and she barely reacted, but then later lunged at him. We'll get there!
She also now sits calmly for me to brush her, as she previously tried to get away any time she saw or felt grooming tools.
My method to getting her to come to me while calm was simple and not intimidating. I sat on the floor with my side towards her, held my hand out and calmly requested for her to come. She has learned that this means affection, not punishment.
Getting her to come while she is excited is a whole different ballgame though, but I'm using the Reliable Recall methods that Dia linked to me so I think it will eventually work. Hopefully by this summer she can go camping with us!

 

[traciek88]

It sounds like you're doing a great job. I like the name Frost too.