Hello everyone!
Here's my dilemma, I'm hoping you guys can help me!
Huck has always been a pretty independent golden, and since he was a puppy, he's always been more interested in wandering around doing things on his own terms. - He loves to go sniff things, check stuff out, etc. His recall has been the only thing he's ever really given us trouble on. With a lot of work, if we have treats and not a lot of distractions, I'd say we've gotten it to where he'll come to us 90-95% of the time. I don't trust him 100% and probably never will, because if something REALLY exciting catches his eye (Squirrel, etc.) he'd much rather chase or do that than come to me. I know his iffy recall is because of mistakes we made. (Trusting him too early with the command, repeating it when he wasn't listening, getting angry and frustrated etc.)
My old golden, Spiffy, always had a PERFECT recall. I don't know what I did right as a teenager raising him, or if he was just naturally like that. (I think that's a big part of it.) I remember always making a big party out of it when he came to me, though. It took nothing to get that dog to come to you, you could just click your tongue and he was by your side. Spiffy was my first dog and his beautiful recall really spoiled me, causing me I think more frustration when working with poor Huck, which isn't fair to him.
So here's where I'm at: I want to raise my 9 week old puppy Sawyer right, and me and my husband are worried about doing things or making mistakes that will make it so that like Huck, his recall isn't 100%. I would love for him to be as happy and willing to come over to us as Spiffy was. He's SO smart and for a 9 week old puppy I think he's doing really good as far as learning to come to us, but he's not 100%. (And I don't expect him to be right now, of course! )
When we take him outside in the back yard, we've been taking him off leash. He's doing wonderful with his potty training, and he's pretty good about coming, but sometimes he doesn't. We can crouch down and whistle or call his name or whatever, sometimes he'll come, but sometimes he'll be off chewing a stick and that's apparently MUCH more fun than we are, because he'll ignore us. : When we want to go inside and he doesn't, we're not sure what to do. We hesitate to go pick him up because we don't want him to learn that when we approach him we'll pick him up and the "fun" ends, but we also don't want to just call and call him while he's not listening, therefore reinforcing the idea he doesn't have to come. Should we be taking him out on a leash at this age instead of trusting him off leash?
We just really want to start from the get go teaching him that coming to us or being around us is GREAT, better than being off somewhere sniffing stuff or chewing on sticks. Do you guys have any tips for instilling a good recall? Not even just the official "Come" command, but having your dog just come to you when you want, even informally. I could do this with Spiffy, he'd come to the command "Come" and he'd come if I just said his name and patted my leg or clicked my tongue or whatever. Also what are mistakes a lot of people make with their puppies that teach them they don't have to come when called?
Sorry this is so long, I just want to start things off right since Sawyer's so young and he's SO smart, I figure it'll be easier to avoid mistakes than correct them like we've had to do with Huck.
Thank you soo much guys!
Here's my dilemma, I'm hoping you guys can help me!
Huck has always been a pretty independent golden, and since he was a puppy, he's always been more interested in wandering around doing things on his own terms. - He loves to go sniff things, check stuff out, etc. His recall has been the only thing he's ever really given us trouble on. With a lot of work, if we have treats and not a lot of distractions, I'd say we've gotten it to where he'll come to us 90-95% of the time. I don't trust him 100% and probably never will, because if something REALLY exciting catches his eye (Squirrel, etc.) he'd much rather chase or do that than come to me. I know his iffy recall is because of mistakes we made. (Trusting him too early with the command, repeating it when he wasn't listening, getting angry and frustrated etc.)
My old golden, Spiffy, always had a PERFECT recall. I don't know what I did right as a teenager raising him, or if he was just naturally like that. (I think that's a big part of it.) I remember always making a big party out of it when he came to me, though. It took nothing to get that dog to come to you, you could just click your tongue and he was by your side. Spiffy was my first dog and his beautiful recall really spoiled me, causing me I think more frustration when working with poor Huck, which isn't fair to him.
So here's where I'm at: I want to raise my 9 week old puppy Sawyer right, and me and my husband are worried about doing things or making mistakes that will make it so that like Huck, his recall isn't 100%. I would love for him to be as happy and willing to come over to us as Spiffy was. He's SO smart and for a 9 week old puppy I think he's doing really good as far as learning to come to us, but he's not 100%. (And I don't expect him to be right now, of course! )
When we take him outside in the back yard, we've been taking him off leash. He's doing wonderful with his potty training, and he's pretty good about coming, but sometimes he doesn't. We can crouch down and whistle or call his name or whatever, sometimes he'll come, but sometimes he'll be off chewing a stick and that's apparently MUCH more fun than we are, because he'll ignore us. : When we want to go inside and he doesn't, we're not sure what to do. We hesitate to go pick him up because we don't want him to learn that when we approach him we'll pick him up and the "fun" ends, but we also don't want to just call and call him while he's not listening, therefore reinforcing the idea he doesn't have to come. Should we be taking him out on a leash at this age instead of trusting him off leash?
We just really want to start from the get go teaching him that coming to us or being around us is GREAT, better than being off somewhere sniffing stuff or chewing on sticks. Do you guys have any tips for instilling a good recall? Not even just the official "Come" command, but having your dog just come to you when you want, even informally. I could do this with Spiffy, he'd come to the command "Come" and he'd come if I just said his name and patted my leg or clicked my tongue or whatever. Also what are mistakes a lot of people make with their puppies that teach them they don't have to come when called?
Sorry this is so long, I just want to start things off right since Sawyer's so young and he's SO smart, I figure it'll be easier to avoid mistakes than correct them like we've had to do with Huck.
Thank you soo much guys!