Why won't my rescue dog come inside?
Newly adopted dogs often freeze, lie down, or hide under hedges rather than coming through the front door when called. This leaves owners struggling to get them inside after potty breaks, even in extreme weather.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Setting up an intermediate space like a garage, patio, or deck with shade and fans
- 2Using wet cat food to lure the dog inside or tossing a trail of food
- 3Feeding every single meal just inside the doorway
- 4Using leashes and structured potty training
- 5going outside to look for the cat and carrying her inside manually
- 6bringing food outside to her
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We are having a problem we didn’t anticipate, she doesn’t want to come back inside once we take her out to potty.”source ↗
“Sometimes she will get up and we can gently coax her inside but other times she won’t get up from lying down or will just stand still and refuse to come in the front door.”source ↗
“Lucy will not come into the house at all for any of the carers or when her daughter visited at the weekend.”source ↗
“So for 3 days now Lucy is sitting/sleeping under the hedge rather than her comfy bed inside.”source ↗
“when I called her to come to the house, she wouldn’t come in.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 37How to get a puppy to settle down indoors without barking
- 7How to get a rescue dog to stop freezing on walks
- 7Puppy refuses to go back in crate after night potty break
- 7House-trained dog won't go to the bathroom outside after moving
- 3What to do when local animal shelters won't take a stray dog?
- 9Resident dog hates the new dog