making yourself irisistable to a dog??

FlyingQuizini (Steph) has really, really, awesome recall advice.

I would first start out in your home on regular leash. Walk around the house with treats (something high value) and periodically say "your dogs name, then your recall word" and walk backwards bent down at the dog's level. When your dog comes, I would give the treat in small pieces for a period of at least 10 seconds, while telling your dog how good he/she is. I would also play games like hide n seek to reinforce recall as well.

After they do this reliably, move on to doing it periodically on your walks. When that is solid, move to a long lead. This way, your dog has NO option BUT to return to you. Always praise like mad and give good treats for an extended period of time (I say at least 10 seconds).

Then, when reliably returning on long lead 100%, I would try it off lead.

Another thing you could try is whistle training. Get a whistle and sit with your dog somewhere in the house with some yummy treats. Blow the whistle, give a treat, and do this repeatedly. Then play on leash outside, off leash in the house...then move to outside on leash, then off leash, etc.

Oh, also, pick a word for recall that you haven't already burnt out saying. For instance, I burnt out come...so I used the word 'fly'. You can pick any word...and use it ONLY when your dog will reliably come to you. Eventually, it will become your emergency recall and you can count on your dog returning to you. Truly, it just takes time!

nixietink said:

FlyingQuizini (Steph) has really, really, awesome recall advice.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

Here's a link to a a two-part article where I wrote up my recall training protocol. I know a few people here have used it to re-tool their recall and they reported good success!

Part One:
http://www.examiner.com/x-18986-San...09m8d26-Training-your-dog-to-come-when-called

Part Two:
http://www.examiner.com/x-18986-San...our-dog-to-come-when-called-final-installment

-S

I'm so glad to have found this. We work hard on training every single day, but recall is still tough for Bogey because I didn't start training him correctly from the beginning. So now it's a bit harder. I have printed these articles to take with us to open practice next week and will work on them.

I will add that hide-and-seek, monkey in the middle and a long line have helped us a lot. It's just off-lead that is still really unreliable. (Monkey in the middle is what I call the game where hubby and I stand on opposite ends of a big room, both holding a favorite squeaky toy, and take turns holding him and then having him come.)

Another helpful tip I read about in a book last night said that you should make sure you use your recall word often and not just when the dog is coming back to be leashed back up. To us, that made perfect sense as Bogey is only bad at recall when he's in a wide open outdoor space and doesn't want to lose his freedom. So, when at the park, we practice lots of comes and then reward and send him back out to play. I think over time this will help a lot.

I won't believe we've mastered it until we can call him off a squirrel chase, something I didn't think was possible until I read Stephanie's work.

Jill (Ljilly) also has some fun tips about recall in this post - http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/showthread.php?p=910014#post910014