Recall/Here - Page 1

My 13 month old comes in so fast, that he literally knocked the wind out of me.
I love his quickness, but any advice not to slow him down, but to stop him before he makes contact.
My first Working dog, but not my first GERMAN Shepherd, and I am learning quite a bit from him.
Thanks for the advice in advance.
Dawn

Go back to the foundation for the recall, and train the dog by luring with food to come in and sit in front from only a foot or so away. Lure the dog by bringing the food into you and up so that the dog will come in place and naturally sit as his/her head follows the food up (so the dog comes into position with their head up). This will naturally slow the dog as they will be bringing their head up when they come into position. Do not do any 'distance' formal recalls until they are super-solid on a recall from close to you, to develop good habits. When the recall is the way you want from close, then GRADUALLY increase the distance while making sure the form is still correct. This will train the dog to control their speed and 'gather' as he/she gets close to you. Good luck.

Just to add to Koots. Only reinforce the behaviors that you want to see again. Reward him for slamming into you and expect more of the same. Male handlers figure this out very quickly once they lose that spontaneous tenor voice and come out of the fetal position. Shorten the distance and reward correct behavior. Many short and continuous recalls, rewarding for correct behavior (ignore everything else) often solves this. Again, reinforce what you want. Nothing wrong with stepping towards the dog, using barriers (stackable jumps are handy, as you can lower the boards over time once he is conditioned for correct approach), place mats, down command along the way (this gives him something to think about as he comes in) are all options that have worked for me in the past.

EMORYG...🤣🤣
I never laughed so hard about male handlers and the fetal position!!
Thanks to Koots and yourself for the input!
Dawn

I second Dawn's laughter - my mental picture is amusing, thanks emoryg, although most male readers would cringe at the thought. Brings home the need to properly train the recall though.

I can laugh at it now.lol Let us know how it goes. Good luck!

Another way of doing it is to train the dog to sit on a marker. People who train dogs for movies and TV do this all the time. The marker can be whatever you want: a piece of cardboard, a Frisbee, whatever.

The marker can also be used to teach the send-out.

And yeah, my dog USUALLY isn't bad with her recall, but one night she bent my knee backwards when she came in too fast. Was limping for a couple of days!

I have been slammed into on Recall a few times, but not being a bloke helps !   The only backward bending of my knee(s) however has been when two GSDs play-wrestling have bashed past me because they are too intent on their game with each other and the hume has stoopidly been in their  way !!  2 x 40 kilos of dog can have a long lasting effect on the ol' knee-joint geography !

 

Terrific advice from EmoryG and Koots, ought to do the trick if you follow those tips. Trying to think if I ever did anything else that might help, but they + Sunny seem to have it covered.  Best of luck.

I worked with a dog who did an inside swing finish on recall. I should have stopped it when he was learning to come back to heel, but at the time I didn’t care how he finished just as long as he got there when told. My left knee regretted that decision a few times down the road.lol