Back in November we adopted an 8 month old female mixed breed. According to
the people at the shelter (a local vets office) she and her littermates had
been dropped as puppies at the end of a road. They were taken in by a woman
in a home there and were placed in a fenced area behind the home and the
only interaction was bringing them food. At some point the puppies were
either adopted out or sent to shelters. Our dog was taken in by this local
vet and lived in the kennel for several months before we came along. The dog
was VERY uncomfortable with people and would not allow you to get close
without running away. She would never put herself in a position to be
cornered, always leaving herself an escape route. She is a very sweet dog
that loves attention and to be petted but only if she comes to you or when
she's in her crate. After a lot of work we have gotten her to the point
where she trusts us to walk up to her and pet her, play with her, or walk by
her. She still has moments where it seems like somebody flips a switch and
she reverts to her original behavior but those times are getting farther and
farther apart.

My wife and I have had a number of abused animals before and understand that
it takes plenty of patience and time to turn things around. My problem with
our latest addition is that I can't get her to respond to training. With
other abused dogs we have trained, even though they were scared, they always
had a desire to please and we found something they would respond to. This
dog doesn't seem to care whether she's pleasing us and doesn't respond to
anything either positive or negative. She will walk well on a leash and
responds to commands like heel and stay while on the leash so she is
trainable. Getting her on the leash though is a challenge and more often
than not we need to hook her up in her crate. Once she's hooked she comes
right along with us. We live on a golf course and I walk her along the
fairways. She loves to run and stays with me but will only come near when
called and will not allow herself to be leashed again. Even though she's not
on a leash she walks back to the house with me and comes right in. If
anything scares her outside she immediately comes to me and stays right
along side.

Well that's my story so does anybody have a recommendation for training our
new addition? She's a really nice dog and she's got a home for life either
way but I would love to find a way to get her to respond to training. Is
this dog just going to take more patience than the rest?