Although not as bad as she was with going through doors she is very resistant to coming back inside after being in the garden when someone is there waiting to shut it afterwards and won't even follow my other dog in. If she can see that the door leading from the kitchen to the sitting room is open she will sprint through, but if it's closed and she can see we just want her to come into the kitchen, she runs off. If no-one is by the door she will wander in but at night this is proving to be very trying when letting her out for her last wee takes up to an hour to get her back in and it doesn't matter on the quality or quantity of treats on offer to lure her she's obviously wise to that one.
Lufbra, I am absolutely fascinated by your post since, although none of the other p-f adopters have reported it, I had just the same problem with Millie. As you know from our previous 'conversation', I think there's a strong possibility that Millie and Pip are related - possibly even mother and daughter. For a long time I have wondered if dogs from this farm were turned out at night, when no-one could see them, left outside and threatened if they tried to come in. It would explain why Millie was pretty easy to house train - she was used to 'going' outside. But this is the really uncanny bit. If she chose to go out at night, she was fine. She was not frightened of the dark and would come in by herself. But for the first six months we had her, if she was
put outside at night for a pee, she would become almost catatonic, responding to nothing we could say or do. It was almost as if she totally withdrew inside herself. Sometimes she would crawl behind the compost bins for shelter and sit there shaking. Since we were trying to persuade her to move of her own volition through things that scared her, rather than picking her up, it made life pretty tricky. We eventually cracked it when she learnt a little training routine in daylight hours: 'sit', 'down', 'up', treat. By doing that with her, it seemed to bring her back to consciousness and she would then happily follow us in - or rather follow the treat!
Maria, sorry if I've highjacked the thread. I know your problem is getting Smudge to go down in the first place so this is not likely to be much use to you. But it is just another illustration of the fact that nothing is ever straightforward with a
p-f dog. We have all had strange episodes and issues to solve. On the other hand, we all appear to have sorted it or found ways of living with it - and I personally would not have missed a single day of it. I love my girlie to bits - she is funny and happy and loving and - now - pretty responsive. The one thing I have never been able to teach her - and frankly I've all but given up - is LEAVE. Anything edible below knee height belongs to her. Can't win 'em all.
