Hi all, I'm hoping someone might have some advice for me and my girl Tatti. She is 16 weeks old and for the 4 weeks we have been able to go out for walks she has gradually got worse and worse at recall. To be specific, she was coming back every time in the first couple of weeks, she now comes back every time UNLESS specifically she is Lin the park AND playing with another dog. In which case, we don't stand a chance. We have tried upping the quality of our treats from kibble to her prefered dried treat (although to be honest- if I gave her a leaf she's be happy) and we still do lots of running about with her- she just seems to prefer dogs. And she also doesn't seem to understand when to stop with other dogs- she jumps in their faces a and won't leve them alone - even if they growl and snap at her. So, how do we get the perfect recall we have at all other times to translate to when she is playing with dogs? Currently we can use her name or a human whistle. Any advice would be great
At 16 weeks old, you have trained only a puppy recall. Up this point, you have been able to rely on the puppy needing to be close to you for protection. It's this instinct that we try to take advantage of to train the early stages of recall. But, as your dog gets more independent, and as you have found is happy to ignore you while playing with another dog, you have to work through the stages to properly train and 'proof' your recall. This means very gradually introducing higher and higher levels of distractions, in training set ups so the dog does not get a reward (eg playing with another dog) when it ignores its recall. This process is all set out in Pippa's book, Total Recall. Well worth a read.
I remember this stage very well myself. I was so, so proud of my recall. And then - crash, bam, whallop, it was gone. I believe it was Julie who said the exact same thing to me - I had a puppy recall and now had to start work on the real deal. Total Recall is excellent, and I would highly recommend it. I struggled with orchestrated set-ups because of where I live, but even if you can't manage those, it's a great resource with loads of tips and tricks. After lots of hard works, my two recall away from most things, even playing with other dogs. Apparently a swan is a step too far, though, as I found out when Willow decided to give one a piece of her mind in the New Forest You'll find that over the coming weeks and months, other things you thought she was good at will also go downhill. It's simply because she's gaining in confidence and the outside world is getting more exciting whilst you're getting more commonplace. It's normal, you just have to go back to basics and start again. Then maybe again and again... as she hits different developmental stages. You just have to try and keep in mind that what you're essentially dealing with is a higher level of distraction from things she could deal with before, as she gets braver and then the hormones kick in. It's not disobedience, you're just asking too much and need to dial it back a few steps. Good luck!
Simple really, there are more things out there more interesting than you. Go back to basics recall at home, when you feed then progress with distractions. Ensure that you get 100% sucess before moving on. Sue
Thank you, I have the other two books, I suppose I should make it the set. So, I obvioulsy can't just stop walking her until we have perfected it. Do I just not recall her when she is with other dogs in the park for now, until she is ready? If I call her just before she sets off she comes back but I don't want to stop her playing with other dogs... Or should I?
Don't use your recall, no, when you don't think it will work. You can let her play with other dogs if you want, but it's a good idea to have her wait to be told she can go and play, not to always let her play, and work on getting her attention when she is playing - give her a treat for that - and release her to play again. The main points are that you don't want your dog to always expect to be allowed to go and play with other dogs, you want your dog to think interrupting play to pay attention to you is a good thing, she waits to be released before dashing over to other dogs, and don't ruin your recall using it to call her away from other dogs if it won't work (just go and get her).
I strongly agree with JulieT in relation to not letting always play with other dogs, and wait until released. I did this and at 2 years old, Harley stops when she sees a dog walking towards us, looks at me and waits for me to say yes or no (I always ask the owner if I don't know them/the dog as they may not like saying hi!)
