I will put a few pics up of Ruby later, she has changed, looking much more grown and still very cute. I wouldne be without her, and she has fitted into life with us really well. She will play for hours but still settle quietly in her bed so we both get a rest (she is in her basket now chewing on a bone!) Guess she had to play up with something as she has been so easy with most things. Glad Montys toilet training is much better, its such a relief when you dont have to constantly look out for little puddles. Please more pictures of Monty too, its nice to compare as there are only about 6 weeks between them

Here are a couple of Monty! - They are not very good, I need to get a new camera really bad!

These were taken last week (that is only his xmas t-shirt he has on, I needed a pic)





And this was Monty at 9 weeks, as you can see his face has changed quite a bit! - it's funny he always looks sooo serious!





Looking forward to some pics of Ruby!

Lots of good advice here!

Amy, your puppy is so cute!

And don't take recall for granted, very young puppies are insecure so won't wander off too far from the owner, wait for the teenage age when they become more independent and realise that other doggies bums are sooo interesting!

Ugh.. the teenage stage or better know as "the butthead phase"... Going through this with my 9 month old right now... wish me luck.. I may not make it out alive! Hahaha..

Lovely little puppy! Agree with everything everybody else has said, but just have one other thing to add, but this only refers to your original post about her not wanting to come in from your garden, coz I have the same problem atm what with the snow and how much she loves being out there

Don't stand in the doorway when you call her in, go into another room where hopefully you can perhaps see her out of the window? Then call her in in a different type of voice, a happy, silly voice, with a "where are you added", that gets them thinking they might be missing out on something, and it worked for me for a while. Then I had to resort to different tactics coz she sussed that one out, and although I don't give treats anymore for coming in (she's 14 months now!), I resorted to them, even though she was more interested in staying outside in the snow than coming into the warm for a much prized fish stick. As Claire and Daisy said, I used a totally different word, and knowing how much she adores her daddy and waits for his imminent arrival home, I called out that "daddy's home" and that brings her racing back indoors everytime, and STILL does (been on that for 2 weeks now)!! When that one fails I'll have to resort to Plan F, but for the moment it works fine! I only have this problem in the garden, never out and about thank goodness, and hopefully it will never happen when out, but I won't hold my breath! Good luck, she's adorable.

EXACTLY what I was going to say

Hi rubythebeagle


I'm not sure if it has been mentioned as I only scanned the thread But another thing I would do is to stop asking her to sit after you have called her back. You're not giving her a treat for coming back then, you are simply rewarding the sit.

In her mind, why should she come back to you? She comes back and you just ask her to do something else, it's much more fun for her if she just ignores you

So I would make being called in from the garden the BEST ever! Make it so she knows she is going to get a treat or a toy and lots of praise (I'm talking high pitched voice 'GOOD GIRL!' ) And to make it easier in the future, I would make sure that when she comes back to you, she only gets the treat when you are holding on to her collar. A lot of people don't do this and then when they try and grab hold of their dogs collar after recall, the dog just thinks it's a game and decides 'HUH you can't catching me!' and runs off! Teach her that when you hold her collar, you're not going to put her on the lead and stop all the fun. I would also do exactly what Minihaha said, don't just call her when you want her in. Show her that the fun doesn't stop when you call her. Call her at random times, quickly touch her collar and reward her and carry on playing. I would also call her when you are feeding her. Another useful thing to do, is get somebody to hold her, show her you have a treat and walk a few strides away from her, then recall her and get the other person to let go on her collar and give her the treat as soon as she gets to you. This just helps to reinforce the recall. One she's got the hang of it, you can gradually progress to moving into different rooms and calling her. Hope this helps!

Amy, I have started a new post in your pictures with a few pics of Ruby, they were taking on my phone as camera battery is dead so not great quality. Monty looks very handsome, Ruby also goes the serious/sad look!

Thank you again for all the suggestions, i will also be looking at possibly getting a whistle as im sure they come in handy when out and about and needing to get dogs attention.