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Off Lead Dog Park Recall Practice


Staceybob

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Great recall.

I'd have to be wearing a coat made of chicken wings to get that level of response from mine. . . lol

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Lol. Does Blaze not come back?

Stacey xxx

Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2

If I've got skyla he does cuz he follows her lol tbh tho I don't really get to take him out much to do recall or anything with him he seems to be getting abit more obedient as he gets older tho

Sent from my ST18i using Forum Runner

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I would have to be waving around a piece of meat for Suka to listen to me like that!

He would just look at me and go, "eeeerrr, no." and he completely ignores me (I KNOW he hears me cause he stares at me!)and goes off to pee on more stuff.

He's really treat motivated, so I tried a few times to bring treats to the dog park, but other dogs smelled the treats and it didn't work out so well for me! Besides, my dog park is so huge (an acre, I think) the treat would have to be something large (like a piece of meat!) for him to see it.

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I would have to be waving around a piece of meat for Suka to listen to me like that!

He would just look at me and go, "eeeerrr, no." and he completely ignores me (I KNOW he hears me cause he stares at me!)and goes off to pee on more stuff.

He's really treat motivated, so I tried a few times to bring treats to the dog park, but other dogs smelled the treats and it didn't work out so well for me! Besides, my dog park is so huge (an acre, I think) the treat would have to be something large (like a piece of meat!) for him to see it.

Not to hijack Stacey's thread, but when we are talking about training a super reliable recall the dog needs to learn that the command is an opportunity to earn the reward. The sight of the reward shouldn't be part of the command or a cue for the behaviour. If the dog has to see the reward to comply with the command, you've trained the sight of the reward as part of the command sequence. Going by Stacey's video I would have a different approach to training recall than she does (I train recall so that the dog complies instantly with the command the first time I give it as I only give one short command and I usually train recalls in drive, well at least with my dogs I do - every client and their dog is different. Everyone can have different criteria for recall). Having a dog that 'needs' to see the reward to comply with the command is a very common problem but it's also easily fixable with the right approach! :)

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How would I go about fixing it? Yeah, Suka only comes when he sees the reward (and its "worthy" I guess).

I'm not the one who initially trained him, but I've had him for 3 years so I'm guilty of not fixing it yet. :oops

Stacey may have some ideas as well, but I'd start retraining it by doing the following things;

1) Pick a new word for recall - whatever you use now is 'tainted' as he's learnt he can ignore it if he chooses to.

2) Start by training the new word at home, where it's not distracting so he can learn how to respond to the recall.

3) Make sure that you don't have a treat in your hand when you first say the new recall word, have treats in a treat pouch behind your back or in a pocket or on the counter. Don't make showing him the reward part of teaching the new command.

4) Get his attention and then say the new recall word (let's say it will be 'here'). As soon as you say it and he responds by looking at you mark it was a 'yes' or a click if you use a clicker and give him the reward. Use something high value and exciting like chicken and make sure when you reward him you make the experience of receiving a reward exciting for him too.

Practice it over and over at home so when you say 'here' he comes running straight away without needing to see the reward. Once he's responding well at home you can start adding in distractions. Keep him on a long line if you are unsure of how reliable he will be so the instant he ignores the recall command you can reel him and show him he has to comply (and I'd still reward him even if you have to reel him in). I reward every single time for recalls. My criteria for recall in my dogs is that they have to respond instantly to the recall command and they have to come directly to me as fast as possible. If they don't recall the first time I say 'here' I consider it a 'fail'.

If you have someone around to help you train, you can also practice restrained recalls which helps to build the dog's value for the recall command :)

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Thanks, that's really helpful! He's a quick learner, so when I go on Christmas break I'll start teaching it to him! :)

Unfortunately, both of the words "come" and "here" are 'tainted'. I'm assuming "Come" was taught to him by his first owners, and "Here" by his 2nd owners. I'm his 3rd owner.

I looked in the thesaurus, and unless I want to be weird and say: "Suka, approach!!" then I'm outta words. :P

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Thanks, that's really helpful! He's a quick learner, so when I go on Christmas break I'll start teaching it to him! :)

Unfortunately, both of the words "come" and "here" are 'tainted'. I'm assuming "Come" was taught to him by his first owners, and "Here" by his 2nd owners. I'm his 3rd owner.

I looked in the thesaurus, and unless I want to be weird and say: "Suka, advance!!" then I'm outta words. :P

It doesn't matter what the recall word is, it could be a sound like a kisskiss noise or anything. :)

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Yeah, I would whistle but I can't whistle loudly. And, whenever I do whistle, it sounds like something dying so... :P

I COULD be all medieval and say: "Suka, come hither!" to which he'd reply, "No, Mama! I want to watch the hangin'!" (a medieval movie reference...)

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Yeah, I would whistle but I can't whistle loudly. And, whenever I do whistle, it sounds like something dying so... :P

I COULD be all medieval and say: "Suka, come hither!" to which he'd reply, "No, Mama! I want to watch the hangin'!" (a medieval movie reference...)

You can buy a dog whistle to train it (Herm Sprenger make a good one). Lots of people use that option and it's not a bad one, I just prefer not to have to take an extra thing with me if I don't need it and because I also train for competition work I wouldn't want to train something I couldn't use in the ring.

Try and keep whatever word you use for recall to something short, and try not to use the dog's name in front of the recall word if possible.

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I don't really use the word come. She knows when I call her from a distance what Id like to see. Same as heelwork, I never use the command heel. I don't actually say anything to her other than the odd bit of verbal praise.

When I do recall, I often walk slowly backwards too to keep her focus on me a moving thing to return to is far more interesting than someone standing still and I find its better for keeping sibes attention.

Heel video coming soon. Ill post a video of her running in harness as well at some point so you can see the variety of things she does.

Stacey xxx

Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2

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I don't really use the word come. She knows when I call her from a distance what Id like to see. Same as heelwork, I never use the command heel. I don't actually say anything to her other than the odd bit of verbal praise.

When I do recall, I often walk slowly backwards too to keep her focus on me a moving thing to return to is far more interesting than someone standing still and I find its better for keeping sibes attention.

Heel video coming soon. Ill post a video of her running in harness as well at some point so you can see the variety of things she does.

So the sounds you make when you call her are her cue to recall?

Looking forward to the heel video sounds interesting! :) I just started training heelwork with my new pup.

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So the sounds you make when you call her are her cue to recall?

Looking forward to the heel video sounds interesting! :) I just started training heelwork with my new pup.

I tend to make those click and tut noises because they are more interesting for her to listen to. Sometimes I think the value of the word "come" gets lost as the sibes get bored, but generally Aleu knows I only really say her name when I want something from her, so she'll come over when I call for her.

Stacey xxx

Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2

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You can buy a dog whistle to train it (Herm Sprenger make a good one). Lots of people use that option and it's not a bad one, I just prefer not to have to take an extra thing with me if I don't need it and because I also train for competition work I wouldn't want to train something I couldn't use in the ring.

Try and keep whatever word you use for recall to something short, and try not to use the dog's name in front of the recall word if possible.

The dog whistle sounds like a good idea. Does it have to be an actual dog whistle, or can it just be a regular whistle that humans can hear as well? I would guess an actual dog whistle would be less annoying for everybody, but harder to train cause you can't hear it yourself?

Really? I usually only call him name with the first command to get his attention (he usually looks at me when I call him by name), and then I say the command. So, if I'm starting a training session with a whole bunch of commands (sit, stay, down, up, go away, etc), then I would only say his name before the first command to get his attention.

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