The bolting out the door bit is always scary, Lori. Buster ran out the door of a dog store and into the road once. Scared the hell out of us. Curing the actual bolting is tough, but as you mentioned, your best bet is repetition, repetition, repetition. Is it when you're opening the door from the inside, with her, or you're in and she's out? If inside, practice getting between her and the door, and even before you open it, get her in a stay. Open the door a tiny bit, then treat her if she stays. Repeat over and over, opening the door a bit more each time. If outside, it'll be tougher, but you can open it just a crack, get her to sit/stay, and then reach through with a treat, then repeat repeat repeat.

It can definitely help to establish as strong a recall ("COME!") as possible. If you can find an open field free of distraction, you and your husband can stand 30ft or so from each other, and take turns calling her. If she's already coming to your husband, he doesn't even need to have any treats, but you should definitely have some to establish You call>She comes>Reward in her mind.

As for the shoes, yeah, I'd just put them up. Some dogs are inclined to steal, and it's a tough habit to break. Some trainers recommend "booby-trapping", by putting the shoe somewhere easy to grab, but with things on top of it that will fall and make a racket when grabbed. But honestly, this might be one where it's easier to train you than her. :)

You nee to establish physical dominance over her. Our vet comes to the house, and whenever the dog growls or resists in any way, she body slams it and gets in it's face and says, "I"M THE ALPHA BITCH HERE!" Actually it only happened once and the dog remembers.

If you are not concerned with your safety (i. e. the dog won't bite you, or so you think) you could try stuff that makes it clear who is boss. Dogs actually want that sort of stuff.

Right now she feels like she is above you in the pack.

Don't be cruel, but don't take any more shit from this dog.

Thanks SpiffyRob. This is good advice. It can go either way when she bolts, but mostly when we open the door from the inside. A friend was here yesterday morning and I wasn't paying attention to the dog and she took the opportunity to bolt. I lock the front door when the kids are outside because they will run in and out and the dog will bolt when the kids open the front door from the outside. I lock it so I can open the door for them and monitor the dog.

If we open the front door from the outside she will stay back because like you said, we are commanding her to get back and stay.

My dog is very timid and a scaredy cat. She is all talk and no action. She will bark and then retreat if approached.

She thinks it's a big game when I am out there calling for her. She disregards me. She'll even look at me and run. When she was younger I could go out with a piece of cheese or turkey and get her to sit and stay. She learned this game quickly and does not care what I have in my hand. I could have a bacon cheeseburger and she wouldn't bat an eye. She has been known to chase cars and I fear for her safety. Thankfully, most of the time I can cpture her quickly, or my husband can, before she has an opportunity to run after another dog or person. I'm always fearful she is going to get out while a neighbor is walking their dog.

Thanks again SpiffyRob. We do have an open field to practice. I have to do something. Basically, she views me as a big joke. She doesn't take me seriously and is in her own world when she escapes.

She gets plenty of walks and runs with us when we are on bike rides. We also have a large fenced-in backyard. Another thing she does is bark like mad when people come to the door. If someone comes to the front door unexpectedly I have to hold her collar while she barks constantly and loudly while lunging. We can get her to settle down if the person comes inside. Mostly I have to go on the front porch so I can speak to the person because the dog is freaking out. It's embarrassing. The mail woman tsk tsked one time and said, "You need the Dog Whisperer. Do you know who he is?" Yeah, let me call up Cesar and invite him over. :-)

On preview, this is exactly what my husband says, danf. He says I need to body slam her or "beat the hell out of her". He doesn't really mean to literally beat her but to smack her on the snout and get in her face. I've tried but evidently I'm still not the Alpha Bitch. I want to be the Alpha Bitch.

I suggest that instead of getting in her face, you simply lie down on top of her.

My aunt and uncle have a dog who sometimes thinks he is above my aunt on the totem pole. I observed him ignore an order from her to sit, and after she repeated the command once to no effect, she walked over to him, grabbed one hind leg and one front leg and flipped him onto his side. She then lay on top of him with her face near his and said "I said SIT." She did not get off of him until he had completely relaxed and lay his head on the ground.

Wow, that sounds promising, Specklet. I will try this. Thanks.

My husband does the thing where he flips her to the side as you described. I am a wimp and need to be more assertive with this dog.

LoriFLA - one of our dogs tends to disregard me. I just have to use a "deeper" voice with him, to get him to take notice. He's also generally submissive, but dogs quickly work out where they can come in the pecking order without incurring too much of a penalty from the pack leader. You're right - you do need to be more assertive. I just raise my voice and repeat the command loudly, as if he is in trouble - he soon obeys.
One more suggestion. Every time you need to open the door, put your dog on the leash first - attach the other end to the door handle. She'll soon learn that she can only get so far before being brought up short. Then you can tell her off and make her return. She'll get the idea pretty quickly and you won't need to physically restrain her after a while.

It sounds like it may not be an issue, but I'd be careful about using treats from the *outside* for training her not to rush the door -- that reinforces the idea that SHE SHOULD RUN UP TO THE DOOR AND GET HER NOSE THROUGH THE CRACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE THERE ARE TREATS OUT THERE OMG OMG OMG!!!

Train her to sit and stay when you open the door from the inside, whether it's you who is then going to go out the door or it's someone else ringing the doorbell.

It sounds a bit, in general, like you're reacting to her out of anxiety and fear. I don't think people need to be "dominant" as much as they need to be "confident" around dogs -- are there things you can do to increase your confidence that she'll listen to you? Are you the one holding her leash when you're walking? Are you doing other training inside the house on a regular basis? It might help just to get both you and her accustomed to the idea that she listens to you in non-stressful situations, so that that habituation is there during stressful situations.

Also, a trick that I learned from It's Me or the Dog for dogs who won't come when called, which I think is brilliant: You need to make it *fun* for her to come running to you. Call her in a whooping voice, wave your arms playfully, and start running in the other direction (that is, away from her). Now you're something fun she can catch. And make sure you're rewarding her rather than punishing her when she does come to you, even if it took her longer than you'd have liked.

I do the lying-on-top of the dog thing with Olive, and it's very effective. But then she's only 15 pounds, and it's easy for me to flip her over on her side. Then I grab her feet in my hands and lean my arm across her neck. Sometimes I'll growl at the same time, but I don't let her up until she's completely relaxed. The first handful of times I did this, it took a long time for her to relax because she hated being down and she hated me grabbing her feet. But I wouldn't let go, and she's much better with my being dominant.

nthing being physically dominant. I have two "stepdogs" that my husband acquired before we met. He has complete control over them, but taken together they weigh as much as I do so they didn't respect me at first. When one of them disobeyed me, I grabbed her collar, forced her on the ground and put my foot on her neck (no pressure, obvs). Every time she lifted her head I said "LAY DOWN" in a growly, deep voice. I did this until she didn't lift her head anymore. I have had very few problems with her since.

The other one is skittish, like yours, and disrespects me more. I need to walk him by himself and gain more control.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I really appreciate it.

I need to do the leash on the door thing. I have read about that.

I also have the book, The Other End of the Leash. I was thinking of it the other day. I am going to reread it. I have tried the jovial hand waving and running and such and she still ignores me. I can get her to jump in my car and I can get her to come 75% of the time if I hop on the bike with the leash. I think I have created a monster because the kids and the neighbor kids would try to chase her and they would laugh and she thought it was a game. When I try to get her she has a one-track mind. She sniffs everything and is enjoying herself so much. Nobody is getting her to come. Except my husband. She goes immediately to my husband.

It probably is a confidence issue, although I hold the leash on walks more than half the time and make her sit, stay, etc. in the house every day. When we are outside all bets are off unless I have her on the leash.

When I did obedience training the trainer said it sounded like I was asking instead of commanding. He actually laughed at my tone of voice. At home I think I do have a deeper, more commanding voice and often I speak very sternly because she is doing something that she isn't supposed to be doing. Still, she must know I'm really not so confident even though I would like to think that I am.

I'm going to try some of this stuff on a routine basis. I'll report back with my findings. :-)

Take her to a dog park and get her really tired. Then, work on "Come." Also when she's good & tired, work on "Sit" inthe house, and work on it with somebody at the door, leaving the door cracked/open for increasing times.

If she's getting her needs to go outside, exercise, play, satisfy her curiosity about the world met, it will be easier. Well-exercised dogs are much better behaved.

Yeah, I had to assert dominance over both our dogs, they were firmly convinced that PackLeader was the only one they had to listen to. We corrected it while they were small, as I'd have a hard time flipping either of them now that they're over 80 pounds.

Our dogs did the rush the door thing too. We trained the command "Back up!", Sit and Stay, and if either of them lifts a haunch off the ground when I go near the door, I growl, low and quiet...but they'll sit back down. We've also trained them to "Check the door". If someone rings the bell or knocks on the door and I get that weird feeling, I'll tell the girls to Check the Door, and they'll slaver like the dogs of hell in the window by the door until I get there and see who it is. If it's someone I want to deal with, then I tell them to Back Up, and Sit. If it's not someone I want to deal with...door to door salesmen, etc.; I just say "Oh, sorry...dogs. Can't open the door. Have a nice day." and walk away.

If you can train hand commands, for me it's absolutely the easiest way to control big dogs. If I do the command for sit, both dogs will drop instantly, whereas I can tell them Sit, and it doesn't work nearly as well. I don't know if that's because of the way I trained them, or if the hand is just a clearer thing to understand. On the other hand, people seem to be more frighted of hand-command dogs, I think because most attack dogs are trained to use hand commands. (Mine are not attack dogs...unless you count the evisceration suffered by dog toys.)