Our rescue dog, Susie, would not listen to anything either. Our dogs are trained to lay by the hall door on rugs. Susie would not listen & who ever owned her before must of left her run around in their house. I ended up tieing her to the door when she would not listen. She could lay on the rug & was not to run around the house. She finally learned after many times being tied up her reward for not running around & laying on the rug was to be untied. When I tied her up I also gave the command STAY & put my hand in front of her nose when I said STAY. I had to be very consistant with her. She was a very very smart dog & had lots of bad habits. But she also was a sweet heart too.