Taming/domesticating a wild dog

[Sardines]

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!

 

[SoberasHotRod]

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.

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.