I don't post a lot, but read the puppy forum quite a bit and I have to say that I have learned so much here - you are such a helpful group! Anyway, I was so pleased with my sweet Gretta this morning. We went to a nearby park for the first time and I decided to start working on fetch a bit. She did so beautifully - ran dragging her leash after the ball, ran back to me enthusiastically when I crouched down and called "Come," and dropped her ball when I said "drop it" and gave her a treat in exchange. I was really nervous about letting go of the leash for her to run after her ball, as my last dog would have just bolted down the street to be lost forever. I have been working on the exercises from Pippa's book Total Recall from the time we got her and I'm so pleased with how well Gretta is doing. She will be 15 weeks old tomorrow.
It's worked for us too. Duggan is 100% at the moment for the scenarios we've trained for. We had a breakdown at 8 months but we just upped the reward and now I can call him off other dogs, birds, joggers running by the house and pretty much anything in our little world. Haven't tried doggy parks yet. Keep it going.
Lovely! it is hard to let go of the lead in the early stages, well remember the feeling! Well done, sounds like you are doing a great job, and a little retriever to boot
Oh yes it does! 1000 thanks to Pippa for that book! We get compliments a lot both with Tatze and the pups. I recommend it at least twice a week to people who struggle with Recall.
That's really good. I have been doing the first part of Pippa's recall with Red (13 weeks) in the garden. She has been doing pretty well until yesterday when she decided hiding in the bushes and nibbling bits of bark was more exciting! I thought it might be because I was rewarding her with bits of kibble (boring) so tried bits of chicken today - still didn't work! Trying not to lose heart and perhaps we need to take her out somewhere to do this work.
As Mags says - if its not working go back a step. And don't try the recall in new locations until you are getting a great response in the garden. At 13 weeks you have heaps of time. Concentrate on building an association between running towards you and hearing the whistle as she comes. Don't worry about using the whistle as a cue yet, especially if she is busy exploring.
I totally agree! Yesterday I recalled my dog from very excited play with another dog for the first time. He stopped playing immediately, looked for me and ran to me as fast as he could. Thank you Pippa!!
Another vote for Total Recall. Brilliant book. I still often blow my whistle as Coco is running back to me (with a ball-fetch) - it all helps reinforce the recall.
I was doing Exercise 1: Getting your puppy to chase you. We have been doing this for almost two weeks so I hadn't introduced the whistle yet. Red just now seems totally disinterested in running towards me and worse still today, when she did run, it was only to rush straight past me to chew on plants despite a chicken treat awaiting her. Feel disheartened. Sorry to Grettagirl for highjacking your thread. Perhaps I am expecting too much, don't know. My confidence is so fragile. Took my grandson out in the garden this morning and he was stood by me. He had to go in in the end as all she was doing was biting his shoes!
It sounds as though your puppy is still rather excited by the whole idea of just being outside in your garden. Don't worry about that, just wait until she is bored and loses interest in the plants etc. That's the time to make yourself interesting and get her chasing after you. It'll be easier as the weather warms up and you can spend longer outside. And as the garden become more familiar and therefore more boring to her. She really is still very much a baby, you've no need to worry at this stage at all. If you are just trying to trigger her response to follow you, once her vaccination cover is complete you can also try going to locations where she is more likely to want to be near you. A big open space will get most young puppies trotting after you. This works less well as the dog becomes more confident though. And it won't work if there are other dogs or people around to play with, so go very early morning or when it's raining
Thank you Pippa - I really appreciate this. Especially putting my mind at rest about not needing to worry at this stage. Her vaccination cover is complete so we can work out where and when to go to other places. Yes she does seem to love the garden and running through all the bushes etc.
