i have been working on recall in the back yard. When she is not paying attention, I walk away briskly and she runs to me. But I have tried incorporating the clicker. But once she gets the first treat, she is glued to my side. If I bring my kids out there they can distract her so that I can get away from her. Sometimes this leads to her just running back and forth between us. I can get her to stay with me by petting and a treat (of course). Is this creating some future bad habit (the running back and forth between us)? Any other suggestions?
If your dog wants to be with you and is keen to run to you or your family members then that makes you the envy of a lot of people! Sounds like you have done a great job of teaching her that paying attention to the humans is really worthwhile - that is a really good thing. The only issue I would foresee would be if you want to do distance work - so, like stays, or position changes at a distance. She might not be 100% happy with you walking away while she has to wait. To address that you could just start teaching her to wait or stay while you gradually (very, very gradually) build up the distance you go for before coming back to reward her. Start with a tiny movement of your foot only. If you are not sure how to start teaching her a wait or stay just ask as lots of people can give you advice on that
you could also use the fact that she IS running back & forth between you, to use your recall as she is running towards you, helping to reinforce it.
I taught Annie sit and stay first. When she could sit and stay while I walked around her, then I when to the front of her, than back to her side, without her moving and then I gave her a treat. Next I made her sit and stay and went in front of her, wait a second or two and called her by name. She comes and sits in front of me and gets a treat.That works for us, but maybe other members don't do it that way. Annie is 16 weeks I don't know how old your puppy is.
I did much the same with Juno working on sit/stay/come to begin with and then introducing more distance, walking round her, walking back to her, recalling her. I then added down into the mix. Stay would only be one step away and then back to begin with, adding a step when she was solid on the stay at that distance. Gradually increase distance then add time by reducing the distance back to basics.
This is good news - and a good time to really reinforce that being with you is the best thing ever. Your pup will soon mature and gain confidence and range further. That's the time to be unpredictable and hide a few times every walk. It teaches them to always stay in range - and to keep a close eye on where you are as you could disappear at any second! .
Thank you for all of the responses. I will continue to use the kids as a distraction so that I can sneak off. I was concerned that i might be creating some other problem that I was not aware of. Delta is doing great, but she is just 9 weeks old, and has not yet advanced to sitting AND staying. Right now, I am just pairing the sit cue with the action (language lessons). I have trained dogs before, but never in this style. If you would have asked me 6 months ago if I would have thought that I would trade in my choke chain for a harness, I would have told you that you were crazy! But the results have been great, and I am getting to train so much earlier. Love it. Thank you for all of the help along the way. Although the positive training is great, it still is pretty foreign to me.
@braden good to hear that a choke chain is now well and truly out of your training style . It's great that training can start from day 1 with our puppies - it's so easy when they are young. A stay is easy to train once you have a good sit - just take one small step back, wait a second or two and then move the one step forward again and gradually build up, 2 steps back and a couple of seconds wait.
That's exactly what I am planning to do, once I get sit established. I finished up my placeboard just this weekend. Great info on this forum!
Lovely to hear you're open to new things and embracing the positive training methods. Well done. Don't be afraid to ask more and more questions, especially when she hits the teenage months! I imagine that that's probably the most difficult time for people who are used to traditional methods. I agree with the others, spend this time reinforcing her for staying with you. The distance will come with maturity. Both of mine stuck with me when young, but especially Shadow. I would regularly kick him accidentally because he walked so close behind me. Willow was always a bit more independent, so I spent more time with her rewarding her for checking in with me and staying close. I didn't have to do this with Shadow, but now (18 months), it's Willow that rarely leaves my side and Shadow that needs more work to keep him close. So, I'd recommend working on it now, even though you probably feel you don't have to
Using the children is a really good way to practise recall. The first time we let Harley off lead, my daughter walked about 20ft away from us then called her. We spent the next 5 mins calling her back and forth and rewarding when she reached either of us. It really helped as she got to the teenage stage as she would recall to me, my OH and my daughter. Training with the children will also help them relax more around children. My OH was very 'old school' do we had many disagreements (I won as she's my dog so I had the final say ), but he has really come around to positove training and even encourages his friends to do the same now
