Your "succesful" method of teaching the RECALL - Page 2

When working with a young dog, I reward it for coming, then send it off to play again. That way, they don't see the 'come' command as always meaning play time is over and it's time to go back in the house or into their crate or kennel.

I guess I should say that all of mine with excellent recalls were started as itty bitty puppies, before they got it into their heads that they have a say in the matter lol. The last recall in AKC open (NQ dang it) I told the judge to be prepared for the drop command because he is lightning quick lol. She was very very surprised and Nero actually slid 2' on the mats he hit the ground so hard when he dropped. I don't much care for teaching older dogs the recall who have not been with me since puppies, though I do it much like Blitzen. It's a pita... SO much easier to teach when all they want is to be with you!

 

Melissa

Cos agility folks were/are the pioneers of working a dog in drive. Every other venue followed.

OK, if you say so.

Some schutzhund people also use that method for teaching a fast recall.Doesn't work for my dog...she can't understand why she's being held back, and it just confuses her!

I think it is.meant for puppies.

We worked through all the exercises in the Michael Ellis recall DVD and they were fun ...the early exercises involved restrained recalls so you need two people to do the exercises (the second person controls the distractions for several of the exercises too). While several of the exercises in the DVD weren't new to us (we trained with a private trainer for several years), it was still fun to follow along with the DVD. We still practice recalls weekly under various distractions, it's not something that we just taught and forgot about. Our male GSD comes hard and fast even before the air makes it through the whistle- I have no idea how he can hear air blowing (we're on ten acres).

OK all sounds great and thank you for responses.  So how do you know if your dog is ready to be "proofed".  Or is this an ongoing exercise in different places with different new and old distractions for the life of the dog?  I truly agree with the training from young puppyhood it is much more effective and soooooo much easier.  But in this case, did not have that opportunity and the dog is great at home;  ran off to other dogs to play in class (fenced area) and would not come at all after called.  Bad boy...

 

Have been working since last week to correct and change method(s) to see what works for him best.  Will probably be stuck in recall phase for a while.  Think the Michael Ellis tapes sound like a good investment.  Hubs does better with visuals.  Is working really hard to master this.  Thx again  Nan

You could try the very lightest line, maybe monofilament line on a prong when ready to proof. I set mine up with my other dogs. One in a down, one working ob. If I have my one nasy male doing off lead stuff I'll put an ecollar on just in case, but I've never neededto use it. How did I know when they were ready? I'm not sure lol. It just kind of happened....

"So how do you know if your dog is ready to be "proofed".  Or is this an ongoing exercise in different places with different new and old distractions for the life of the dog?"

Our trainer told us it was for the life of the dog so that's what we work from. I don't think of it as a chore- we're at the point where it's fun to think of ways to challenge the dogs. A favourite is for Martin to play an exciting game of tug with Bosco, I'll hide out of sight, and then blow the whistle (or say "here"). Martin could freeze the tug if he had to (ie. he controls access to the distraction) but he's never needed to. Bosco always comes fast immediately; we don't have any issue recalling him from chasing cats, rabbits, etc.