Re: Recall failure Hey, - well done Bella and CDM! 8) Do you mind if I hijack your thread again for a bit....? ??? After thinking me and Bon were doing really well, our recall has slipped somewhat. The two-ball retrieving game seemed to be working to rinse and repeat the recall... but, she's not coming back in other scenarios (without the game), so I feel she was just coming back to me because she wanted a ball throwing, not because I recalled her... Also if she drops the ball, she'll stop and collect it, sometimes running down a small hillock as it rolls, before she comes back to me, so - again - it's very much focused on the ball. I'm a little bit frightened about using her recall without the ball game in case I ruin it, but how to progress....? There's only so much we can do at the minute as I have one arm in a sling and the other arm has tennis elbow (an old injury exacerbated by over-using it recently) .... I know, I know, I'm a wreck!!! Do you think I should just keep trying to have her focus on me, no matter what the distraction? Can I use her ball as a lure for keeping her attention without necessarily throwing it, or will that make her distrust my intentions?
Re: Recall failure You must use the ball as a reward, not a bribe or a lure for recall - if she is not coming back when she thinks there is no ball, something is going wrong somewhere, unless you mean she is only coming back in environments where you have rewarded with the ball, in which case this is a matter of proofing. What you say about her dropping the ball etc suggests she is getting the ball before she has completed a recall - so you are just playing a game, not training a recall. Which is fine, and good, and keeps her engaged with you and will help. But it won't train a recall in itself. Can you set out what you are doing, why, and how you are using rewards?
