Failed Recall

Discussion in 'Labrador Training' started by Johnny, Nov 4, 2016.

  1. Johnny

    Johnny Registered Users

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    Hey all

    Yesterday, my boy and I went for a nice afternoon walk. As usual, once reached the Park school yard, I let him wander off-leash. The schoolyard in fenced all around with 2 openings on each side of about 4 feet.

    Through his usual wander and sniffing, he locked eye with a little bird. He then began to chase the bird. After a few seconds, the bird flew out of the fenced perimeter and my boy followed ... ending up in the middle of the street.

    The recall FAILED COMPLETELY!!!

    At one point I was literally yelling so loud because I saw the oncoming traffic. I got scared. Most importantly, the first time the recall completely failed. In most cases, after the second recall... I have his attention and comes back.

    I am disappointed. He is almost 14 months old now.

    I understand this means, starting back at beginning and retraining the recall completely. I am just happy he is OK.

    Any thoughts??

    Thanks all
     
  2. snowbunny

    snowbunny Registered Users

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    You might be interested in reading about the concept of a "magic word". http://www.thelabradorsite.com/your-labradors-magic-word/

    I'm glad your boy is OK, it must have been really scary for you :(

    Additionally, working on your recall against increasingly big distractions will mean that it's more reliable whatever the scenario.
     
  3. JulieT

    JulieT Registered Users

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    But have you ever trained your recall against the distraction of birds? If you haven't, then you can completely expect it to fail in the circumstances you describe (unless your dog wasn't all that bothered about the bird, and wasn't really passionate about chasing it). So it's not necessarily the case you have to retrain, but you have to proof your recall against your dog chasing birds.

    I think it's a bit easier to use a stop or a change direction when your dog is heading away from you at speed though.
     
  4. Sven

    Sven Registered Users

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    Glad your boy is OK.
    We had a similiar experience where our girl would not come straight away. It was as @JulieT said more about proofing rather than going back to the beginning. I spent a while on a quiet oval just proofing against birds, when I knew nothing else was around, just plenty of birds. Now she will only chase if I let her.
     
  5. QuinnM15

    QuinnM15 Registered Users

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    The exact same thing happened to me, but with a Pointer who recently had surgery on both back legs and has these colourful casts on and walks funny and it makes a loud noise against the pavement. Quinn bolted out of the park and across the street after him. It was scary and her recall totally failed - and a couple more times within a few weeks with people walking by when she thought they had something (a ball) in the their hands (this is scary and embarrassing).

    We did go back to basics, for a bit, and then I decided to go to a recall specific training class with her, just to make sure I was getting enough distractions and situations.

    We do not say "come" when we know she likely won't come. If she starts off towards something new/interesting that we haven't proofed (like her new discovery - squirrels), I call her name and bounce a ball - that will stop her in her tracks from anything, as a ball is so exciting and high value to her. Other people in our training class have a noise they use to grab their dog's attention (it's like a singsong noise).
     
  6. charlie

    charlie Registered Users

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    So glad nothing happened to your boy. I wouldn't risk a recall with any of my dogs chasing a bird I use my stop whistle with Hattie, she has been stopped in the presence of herds of deer etc. I find the stop whistle far more effective than my recall in these cases. Charlie isn't reliable enough with the stop whistle yet, it's still a work in progress but we do lots of sitting looking at birds, deer, rabbits etc. with Charlie on lead which has been a very long process but is paying off - one day! x :)
     
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