[theAnarchyHippy]

she's settled in, but now shes developing confidence, starting to test how far she can push, and shes occasionally starting to ignore calls of her name, any advice?

 

[Abluedog]

Up the reward for coming when called

 

[Tess]

She's not "testing you"
She is being a dog.

I really recommend to you again, the "puppy Primer" book. It will help you to understand the TRUE motivations behind her behavior.

Most of what we THINK we know in popular culture about what our dog is thinking/what is motivating her is off base. And its not fair to her to ascribe emotional motivations to her that have a moral component that just is not there. This leads to all kinds of mis-understandings between humans and dogs and all sorts of training routines that can even be harmful

If you read this book, you'll truly understand! I would think you could get this in the UK (you are in the UK, yes?)
Amazon.com: puppy primer

If you don't like that book, try this one
Amazon.com: The Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way to Understanding the Relationship Between Humans and Domestic Dogs (9781888047059): Jean Donaldson: Books

Pretty much anything you can read by either Patricia McConnell or Jean Donaldson will be immensely illuminating for you. Go ahead and find something in your local bookstore. Do it soon, before you go down a negative path with your new puppy. She's very impressionable now, so mistakes you make will be more impactful and harder to repair.

 

[Tess]

For starters, let me just say that dogs do not have the moral value we call "obedience." That is purely a human conception.

From her perspective, either there is a good reason to come to you, or what she is doing is more interesting.

My suggestions: work on bonding with her.

Go to kikopup channel and work with her on training this way, and you will suddenly become much more interesting, and she will be much more attentive to you and will very much look forward to coming to you to engage in these fun training routines.

On the other hand, if you are "ordering her around" with the assumption that she is supposed to feel an obligation to obey you... you are going to get a puppy who appears to ignore/defy/challenge you.

Get the books... really... they will make your whole relationship with puppy much more satisfying for you.

Try this..
YouTube - kikopup's Channel

 

[kmes]

Ditto Abluedog and Tess.

Your puppy is really young and you just recently got her correct?
It sounds like your puppy is becoming confident with her surrounding and is really beginning to explore. The reason she is not responding to you is not that she is testing you, but actually because she is either distracted or does not completely understand what you want.

All this means is that you need to work harder at teaching her to come when called. At her age, I would start out by play "the Name Game". It is super simple. Also you can use a verbal marker such as "yes" rather than a clicker.

As she progresses there are other fun recall games that you can play.
http://www.dogforum.com/dog-training/recall-9595/

 

[kblover]

she's settled in, but now shes developing confidence, starting to test how far she can push, and shes occasionally starting to ignore calls of her name, any advice?

What I would do is reteach recall.

Forget notions of testing, etc, even if they are true because they don't really add much information.

The net result is that the behavior needs to be made stronger to where "disobeying" won't even be a thought.

Go back to basics, use a long leash, etc, and build up the desired behavior again. Being a puppy, she's probably distracted (like a little kid), might have forgotten (again like little kids), or just doesn't have it totally cemented yet (little kids again).

If she's sniffing, it's said dogs tend to ignore sounds when they are deep in sniffing. I know Wally, even now, sometimes doesn't hear me or will ignore sounds around if he's deep in a scent. Add to that our voices tend to be on the lower/harder to hear end of their hearing - and it's another possibility. I like to clap my hands, especially at distance as another cue and the sound tends to be more "catching"/"unique", making it easier for him to pick up.

Also consider using Premacking once the behavior is re-established. This is the principle of giving the dog what they want when they do as you like. So something like, call her, praise/mark her for the recall, then send her back out to do what she was doing before.

 

[Tess]

Great advice from everyone.
I just want to add that the puppy is about 8 weeks old, as I remember, so AnarchyHippy just wants to be aware that training sessions should only be a couple of minute long at this age... at most! Lots of very short and very positive interactions throughout the day, and always stop while she's still eager and paying attention. End on a success! And if you've mistakenly gone on too long, just quit for a couple minutes, then ask for one more behavior she can do successfully (such as "sit"... which is really easy to teach) and then be finished for a while.

For attention span think "18 month old child"