[maximus]

My GSD is 15 months old and a nicer, sweeter, more intelligent or affectionate dog is difficult to imagine.

The one intermittent problem I have is that he will not obey the "come" command when we ask him to come inside the house. He wants to stay out and it becomes very frustrating as to how one makes him do so. We have tried treats, rewards, scolding him, yelling at him, sweet-talking him - you name it.

Most of the time he is very obedient and one could not ask for better behavior. He understands the "come" command because he obeys it when he wants to do so.

We have a large fenced yard and it is near impossible to catch him.

Any advice or recommendations would be welcome.

[shell07]

Be consistent with any of your training you do. If it were me, I would use the firm voice of command, and if he doesn't come, go physically get him, and lead him to his destination and be positive with him while he is following your lead (good boy!, etc.). You should always praise when animals obey, but ignore when they don't-he will eventually pick it up-just be consistent

[Xeph]

You need to go back to the beginning and not give him the option of not coming. Put him on a long line and stay outside with him.

Also, don't use the word come. To him, come now means that play time is ending...and he doesn't want it to.

In my pack, there are three outdoor commands:
Come! - Come where I can see you! You needn't stop, but I want to know where you are!

Hier! - Come to me and sit in front. This is not optional.

Let's go INside! - Playtime is over, it's time go back in the house now.

You need to make it rewarding to him to come inside, and you need to be sure to use a different word for going inside the house than you do for getting him to come to you. Come is for good things only, and in his mind, going inside is not a good thing.

[Stac928]

Our trainer had us be sure to call him and then release him back to what he was doing sometimes. That way he doesn't equate come with "my fun is over".

[pamperedpups]

What you are describing is not a learned behavior. Your dog simply doesn't understand and/or feel compelled to come to you in all situations. The environment is likely too full of distractions and/or the distance to you is too far. Add to that the unknown criteria and mixed reinforcement schedule and you've got trouble. I recommend the book "Control Unleashed" by Leslie McDevitt.

[maximus]

Thanks for all the responses - they have been helpful.

One thing I failed to mention is that the problem with obeying the command is when he has been playing with my daughter's GSD puppy - when the puppy comes in but my dog refuses to do so. At other times, there is rarely a problem. So it does appear that his reluctance to come in has to do with his desire to continue playing - so he stays out even if we ignore him.

Xeph, I was not aware of the need to separate between commands for different types of actions. It does make sense upon reflection. When you mention retraining him with the use of a line, is there a limitation in terms of the length of the line. As I mentioned we do have a quite large yard.