Hello Everyone I am new to this forum so please forgive the long post in advance ... I am getting rather desperate . I have a wonderful lab boy ( castrated) Wilbur. Cream, 3 years old. I have had him from puppy hood. I also have 4 other dogs, ranging in size, sex and age, none of which I have a recall problem with ( despite having a Jack and a Greyhound!). I live in Argentina and have a very large garden. I work from home so spend a large amount of time with the dogs. My problem is with Wilbur ( my Lab) and his recall. He is a hugely fit and energetic dog. He is very solid around the home and garden. Sit, down, fetch, stay, recall... all perfect. He is very well socialised, can fit into any pack, adores people and other dogs. Wilbur has also had experience and excelled at personal protection dog training ( an unfortunate necessity given where I live) but is still super sociable and friendly. My huge problem is recall when off lead outside. I have literally tried everything (and I mean everything). In terms of his value drivers, although very motivated by food at home, outside it's irrelevant ( even high value food). He's not that bothered about fetching balls. And his favourite game Frisby is irrelevant when walking. He loves swimming and we are lucky enough to have access to a lake ( which he loves ) and a pool in the garden ( which he also loves) As well as full access to the house and garden, the dogs have an hour off lead walk everyday ( I'm lucky that I live in the country ), however, Wilbur has managed to roam onto a horribly busy road as he will just not come home when the walk is up. ( I now have a GPS tracker as I would be devastated to lose him, so spend at least an hour a day tracking him to make sure he is safe until either he returns home or I can entice him into the car with food...) On walks he will loosely stay with me and the pack, running non stop but always stops and waits and follows us if we change direction. Until it's time to come home that is. He will get to the entrance of my property and then happily run away again for another hour or 2. And nothing I do can get him back! He will come to me for a treat during the walk , but is very canny at knowing when I want to put his lead on , or when we are heading home ( or I ask him to hop in the car). I have tried all the usual techniques , and called in 3 dog trainers to help but nothing works! True to his breed, he loves water ( hence the mention of the pool, perhaps it can be a useful tool?) and scent trailing and I think that if I can engage him on that level ( gun dog training) he will flourish as he is highly intelligent but I think mentally under stimulated . However such training sessions / groups just don't exist here and I have absolutely no idea on how to start. Does anyone have any ideas / advice ? He is a super dog that I love dearly. I feel that I am failing him as he is not getting the mental work out he needs. Thank you for your patience getting this far! If you have any thoughts they would be much appreciated! Claire
Hi Claire. I would start off by getting a copy of Total Recall and working through that programme with Wilbur. I would also do some work with him crossing into your property; as often as you can, do some sessions where you cross in and out several times, always rewarding massively for coming in. Do this on a line if you're worried about him wandering off, I would also use a line on walks for now, so he doesn't get to roam. Work on games to make yourself the centre of his world; Labs love to work so playing focus games when you're out and about can be hugely beneficial. Look up the Leash Off Game On DVD. If you want to start gundog training on your own, I can recommend the book Clicker Gundog to get you started.
Practice calling him to you (preferably somewhere secure so he can't run off) when he comes hold his collar and then treat him. Do this everytime you call him, sometimes clip his lead on sonetimes just send him back to play. Mix it up so that coming to you and having his lead on doesn't mean the end of his fun. Lots if great treats for coming to you, collar touches and walking with you on lead. Recall problems often happen because we wait until we get to the park gates etc and then go to put the lead on signalling the end of the dogs fun and the dog then plays keep away.
I have no expertise in training. Just wondering whether he is always "out with the pack". Does he go AWOL if you are just with him? Will he stay around to protect you? If so, this could maybe offer an angle. jac (PS - welcome to the forum!)
Jac makes a good point - my tribe pay far more attention to me when we're out one-on-one, and that's really valuable training time. It takes a lot of effort to get the same level of attention when I have all three.
Thank you so much everyone for your helpful replies. It's an interesting point re : the one to one walk. I do take him alone on occasions and he stays a lot closer to me and I practice the treat, recall, let go technique and he's a lot better. UNTIL something else more interesting comes along ( often a scent) , then we are back to square one. The problem I seem to be having is that so far I have found nothing that is of higher value to him ( food or games) than whatever it is that he has smelled/ seen/ heard. I've even tried the 'running , laughing, waving arms in the air happy dance' routine....much to the amusement of my neighbours ! I will try the crossing the property border on a long line, as he does get 'stuck' there. Unfortunately it's not possible to order the suggested books here as they get stuck in customs and are not released. I see there is a kindly version, is there a downloadable option for PC? A friend of mine suggested scent training, I'm just not sure how to start. He's such a lovely boy, super fit, fast and incredibly agile. Loves his tummy rubs ( maybe I should try that?) I was thinking about fly ball training but is this feasible given his general lack of interest in ball games? Thank you again for your warm welcome Claire
There is a free Kindle app for PC Scentworks do a DVD you can rent or buy a digital copy of: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/scentwork
Hi Claire and welcome from Hattie 9 years and rescue boy Charlie 6 years. When we adopted Charlie at 9 months old he had no recall and used to abscond and leave me for dust for anything upto 2 hours (we live in the countryside) until I stopped it as my nerves were shredded and I found this forum and followed Pippa's Total Recall. He is 6 years old now and a very good boy I hope you don't mind me saying but this scares me a lot. Having a GPS tracker won't stop anything happening to Wilbur and he will continue this behaviour because he is finding it very rewarding, also he could have or cause an accident If I were you I would stop this immediately and train his recall by using a harness and long training line to practise every day. I also have the same problem, Charlie is not particularly food or toy motivated when off our property. I also have the added "bonus" NOT that he is a Labrador x Pointer (GSP) so he has some ranging genes going on . We worked our butts off on his recall keeping him on a harness and very long training line, rewarding all attention on us, hiding rewarding if he would take it with steamed chicken, sausage, sardines anything he would take and it paid off BUT it took over 3 years. When we did eventually let him off lead for very short bursts we would recall him clip his lead on walk a few meters let him off lead a few times so that he knew having his lead on didn't mean the end of fun but it was all totally worth it as he now gets off lead exercise every day. In our garden I play lots of games with Charlie, scent work, retrieving, hiding balls/toys for him to search, we practise stop whistle and general games which he loves. In doors I do lots of clicker training for fun and for more vital purposes, all of this has strengthened our bond xx
Thank you. Yes I am terrified that he will have an accident. He has only gone once but it only takes one time. You are absulorlty correct in that he finds this behaviour rewarding. It's good to know that you have had a similar issue and come through the other end. I will read the book and start from the basics again. I know I should have him on a long line and harness (I have both) . I have fallen back to the rookie mistake of thinking he needs to run and run, as he has so much fun and he will be underexcercised and miserable on a long lead. Which is an emotional rather than rational response . I stopped using the long line when he managed to get away from me ( he is very strong and is very good on our ' boot camp ' walk to heel walks but can take me my suprise on the long line ). This particular day, a car drove past us ( dirt road on the farm ), he for some reason went crazy, ran after the car barking ( a terrible habit he learnt from the feral dogs we have here, thank fully have managed to stop that behaviour with a lot of time and patience ), and the line got caught in the wheels and he was being dragged under. Thank fully the line snapped but it was awful to watch! I'm going to try again and am making a deal with myself he is not going off the line until we have this problem sorted! Thank you all again for your welcome and advice
I used to worry a lot about Charlie being on a long line for such a long time as a young dog but I kept his brain working with clicker training and all the things I mentioned above. I also was lucky to have the use of a friends paddock to let him run about to burn off some energy and to do more training, I would have been lost without it. Going back to basics, I think is the right way to go so good for you. You sound like you have lots of patience which is needed in spades I wish you luck xx
