# Stubborn Pup Outdoors



## Citypup1802 (Mar 10, 2018)

I have a 7 month old Vizsla named Cody. My husband and I got him back in September. He is an absolute sweetheart and we love him to death. He attended and graduated from a basic training class. Cody gets about 2 and a half hours of physical exercise daily. My husband and I are struggling with training him outside of our apartment. Inside of our apartment he is great at all of his basic commands (sit, wait, crate, down, paw, bed) except he does not respond to 'come'. Outside of our apartment he does not respond to these commands. On a rare occassion he will sit, but he needs it restated. When training outside he actively puts his attention other places. Even when we get down to his level and in his face he will turn his head and not make eye contact with us. We have worked on loose leash walking and have seen some successes there. He is not a very food motivated dog but, we have tried a variety of treats and discovered which are higher level than others. We have only been using the higher level treats outside to make them seem more special. We are very committed to him and want to train him the best we can. Our end goal is to be able to take him off leash to parks and other places and have him 'come' on command. Our other goal is to get him to respond to basic commands first time given. 

Do you have any tips for training? Do you have any type of training that you have found to be most effective? Have you ever run into this same issue? 

Thank you so much in advance for the help. :smile


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

I would start with only saying the command once. Then enforce it. Even if you have to pull up on the collar, and push the butt down. Once he is sitting, praise him. Do 5 minutes of training, then release him to play. After he has gotten to play for 20-30 minutes, do another 5 minutes of training. 
My puppies have always had to earn being off leash. They drag check cords around, until they have a reliable recall. If you have no way to make your puppy come to you, refrain from calling them.


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## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

Ok, so he obviously knows the commands if he does them inside. 

Put him on lead in the house and start giving him the commands, once. Recall the Golden Rule of training: Never give a command you cannot enforce. So, if you say "Sit", make darn sure he sits. Ditto all the others. You want to reinforce the commands while associating it to the leash inside. That's the missing link here, he loses his mind outside b/c of the distractions. You want to use not only the command but the new association to the leash to elicit compliance. Rinse and repeat as often as necessary before moving onto other commands, do them one a a time.

Do not make this a control struggle, if he cannot get it outside, leave it alone and just enjoy the time with him, and redouble your training on lead in the apt. until it generalizes outside. And, do not get in his face..that's very aggressive, and his turning his eyes away is not "Ignoring" you, but to the contrary an innate response to that display of your dominance, it is actually a sign of respect.


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