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Taming/domesticating a wild dog

I haven't commented in this thread yet, but I really admire what you're doing, fishonjazz. It sounds hard and like a lot of frustrating work, but look at that beautiful dog! You are giving it chance for happy life.

I'm ridiculously invested in how this plays out. I want the happy ending for this story so so bad, but I know that it might just not work out that way.

No matter what happens, you tried. You did more for this dog than anyone else was willing to do. I know you have a good heart and that if you have to call it off it is because there was no reasonable way to make things work.

Fingers crossed!
 
fishonjazz said:
Ya I'm pretty upset about it. Off leash behavior is my #1 favorite trait in a dog.
Me previous dog (heeler/border collie mix) was the best off leash dog I have ever seen. He was perfect. I had complete control over him no matter the situation. It was awesome.
My black lab I had was also very good off leash though not quite as good as the farm dog mix.
I'm afraid this dog will never be good off leash and that makes me sad.

I'm thinking about getting a Vizsla next year. They are known for being great off leash. Lol at a husky and off leash. Those words don't belong in the same sentence.
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I want to believe that any dog can learn recall. I'm not 100% sure this applies to feral dogs, but I have to believe it's possible.

In my personal experience there are definitely huge differences between individual dogs and probably different breeds, but they can all learn it. For example with my Sheltie mix we never even had to train him, he always wanted to be right next to us. Our cocker spaniel took a couple of months, but she was also our first dog, so we probably weren't as consistent as we needed to be. Our current dog is a pit mix and he was somewhere in the middle. It took about 6 to 8 weeks.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Worked great on my kids!
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Actually at work I went through training with Aubrey Daniels' organization on utilizing reinforcement in the workplace as a trainer in their Performance Management system. It brought great results after putting all our supervisors through the training. So I dug into it some more, read a lot, and came across a book called the Power of Positive Parenting. My wife and I read it when our oldest was maybe 15 and we felt like it had a strong positive impact on our parenting and helped us understand their behavior. It's worth the read honestly. So in a way, it really did help with our kids.
 
Update. I had 5 days off recently and I fell kind of hard for Willow. She has made pretty good progress over those 5 days.

She learned "lay down" (my wife taught her and at first she would only do it for my wife but last night she was following my command too)
She has kind of learned "come" but will only do it if I have a treat.

I was frustrated that she wouldn't "play" with me but she loves my daughter the most by far and I told my daughter to try to get Willow to play tug of war with a rope toy and she took to it very quickly. Then I had my daughter bring me her end of the rope while the tug of war was ongoing and Willow would play with me for a bit until one of us "won" and then I would have to get my daughter to start the game up again. 2 nights ago she played tug of war with me with no assistance from my daughter! It was awesome! I really really want her to learn fetch. Maybe my daughter can get her to learn that too.

She had been on 3 car rides and every time I had to pick her up and put her in the 4 runner but the last two car rides (her 4th and 5th) she jumped in by herself! She also did ok at Petsmart.

She is just getting less scared around us in general lately. Like I can walk past her very closely without her heading for a safe space. She still doesn't really allow my wife or myself to pet her unless she is kind of cornered or laying down and we get to her before she can get up but she lets my daughter do whatever she wants to her and on news years eve she jumped up onto the footrest of the recliner with me and I got to pet the top of her head while she drifted off to sleep. This was my favorite moment with her so far.

She never has issues with coming in the house anymore ever. That was her worst thing for the first 3-4 weeks.

She doesn't really dig much at all anymore or destroy the yard much. (A little here and there)

I still take her on walks all the time and love our walks. She always ends up getting me to take her farther and longer than I originally plan to. She is just so happy on our walks (I am too). I have even lost a few pounds since I got her and Im 100% certain its due to all the walks.
I took her on walk late last night and there were fireworks going off and I was shocked that she wasn't scared. She was interested in them but continued on the walk just fine without fear.

Im kind of in love with her at this point. She still has a long way to go before she will be how I really want her to be and she might never get there but she doesn't have to be perfect for her to be a part of the family for life so right now Im feeling good about her chances of remaining with us.
 
fishonjazz said:
Update. I had 5 days off recently and I fell kind of hard for Willow. She has made pretty good progress over those 5 days.

She learned "lay down" (my wife taught her and at first she would only do it for my wife but last night she was following my command too)
She has kind of learned "come" but will only do it if I have a treat.

I was frustrated that she wouldn't "play" with me but she loves my daughter the most by far and I told my daughter to try to get Willow to play tug of war with a rope toy and she took to it very quickly. Then I had my daughter bring me her end of the rope while the tug of war was ongoing and Willow would play with me for a bit until one of us "won" and then I would have to get my daughter to start the game up again. 2 nights ago she played tug of war with me with no assistance from my daughter! It was awesome! I really really want her to learn fetch. Maybe my daughter can get her to learn that too.

She had been on 3 car rides and every time I had to pick her up and put her in the 4 runner but the last two car rides (her 4th and 5th) she jumped in by herself! She also did ok at Petsmart.

She is just getting less scared around us in general lately. Like I can walk past her very closely without her heading for a safe space. She still doesn't really allow my wife or myself to pet her unless she is kind of cornered or laying down and we get to her before she can get up but she lets my daughter do whatever she wants to her and on news years eve she jumped up onto the footrest of the recliner with me and I got to pet the top of her head while she drifted off to sleep. This was my favorite moment with her so far.

She never has issues with coming in the house anymore ever. That was her worst thing for the first 3-4 weeks.

She doesn't really dig much at all anymore or destroy the yard much. (A little here and there)

I still take her on walks all the time and love our walks. She always ends up getting me to take her farther and longer than I originally plan to. She is just so happy on our walks (I am too). I have even lost a few pounds since I got her and Im 100% certain its due to all the walks.
I took her on walk late last night and there were fireworks going off and I was shocked that she wasn't scared. She was interested in them but continued on the walk just fine without fear.

Im kind of in love with her at this point. She still has a long way to go before she will be how I really want her to be and she might never get there but she doesn't have to be perfect for her to be a part of the family for life so right now Im feeling good about her chances of remaining with us.
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It's really interesting that she will play with your daughter, but not you. Good update, glad to hear things are progressing well.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
It's really interesting that she will play with your daughter, but not you. Good update, glad to hear things are progressing well.
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My only guess is due to my size.
On the other hand, my wife is pretty small and Willow is equally scared of her but my daughter is the smallest so that could be it.
 
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