Ziggy is out for regular walks now, at our lovely local park. He's met a number of other dogs there and had a few full on play sessions which have gone really well. His recall is pretty good at the moment although I rarely need to use it as he sticks to me like glue! I know that as he gets older this won't be the case and he'll be wandering off a bit more and I'm wondering whether I should still be making a huge fuss and treating all the time when he comes to me while we're out at the moment - and he's never far away? It's tricky as often we're on our own for walks so I don't get the chance to recall because he's at my feet, tripping me up!! Will he stop coming back if I don't treat him every time? And what do people do when their dog finally does find their independence and recall just doesn't work? Are there any tricks for getting him back if he bolts? So many questions!!
Hey Lozz, I would absolutely recommend getting a copy of Total Recall and working through that - it has a full programme to follow from puppyhood through adolescence and out the other side, with instructions on how to proof against distractions so you build a really reliable recall. Yes, keep up with the treats and the fuss. I always reward a recall with something super high value, which for my puppy is food and a game of tug and for my older two is the throw of a ball. There's a good recall game you can play for puppies who don't wander, called "ping pong recall". Basically, count out 6-10 large treats that are easy to eat and easy to see on the grass. I use cheese, cubes of ham or frankfurter, about 2cm cubes. Start off by bowling a treat away from you, so Ziggy chases after it. When he has eaten it, he will turn back to look at you. Turn 180 degrees and throw a second treat the other way. As he runs towards you, blow your recall whistle. Repeat until you've run out of treats; on the last one, get him to take it from your hand rather than throwing it, so he finishes off by you. As he gets the hang of the game, you can start blowing your whistle the instant before he turns back to you, so he starts associating it with the whiplash turn. Be careful not to overdo this game, as it is high impact, but it's a good one to play every other day or so. My dogs all adore it. My number one recall tip is - don't use it Train it, for sure, as much as you can, but try to avoid using it to call him to you, because the more you use it to recall him away from something fun, the more poisoned and less effective it will become.
Absolutely reward him for coming to you. I reward for recall or an unasked for checkin. The foundations you lay now will pay dividends when distractions become, well, distractions and more exciting than you. Make your pup work to stay close to you as well - turnaround and walk the other way, start running away from him and call him (if needed young pups will tend to just run after you). Start working on sit/stay out on walks as this has the benefit of the recall to you. Make sure you always have a few extra good treats to use against distractions.
I would use this sparingly, though, as your puppy can easily start to anticipate your calling him towards you and start breaking his sit. I very rarely recall from a sit - maybe one time in 20 or probably even less.
Oh and one other thought, when going to a new environment be prepared for your recall to fail initially because of all the new distractions. I usually suggest keeping dogs on lead in a new environment until the initial burst of excitement has passed. And finally make sure you clip the lead on at different times on your walk, not just when you are about to keave the park etc. that way it doesn't't become an issue that the fun has ended.
Only if you don't build your distance/duration slowly - but it's up to each individual to decide what works for them and their dog on walks. I've never had problems with it and it can be good for helping to build some impulse control
I humbly disagree. If you do ten sit/stays and recall from each of them, your dog will start to anticipate the recall. This is how we chain together complex series of behaviours, by depending on that very anticipation. Similarly, using a stop whistle too frequently on an outrun can make your dog sticky. So, to quote a very smart person, when training our dogs, we need to "anticipate anticipation" and ensure that we don't inadvertently create behaviour chains we don't want.
I was always told that when practicing a stay, always go back to the dog at least two in three times.
It's slightly different to what you're discussing above, and I'm a complete novice, but I nearly ruined Ella's sit stay when I was focussing on our obedience recall. She used to have a really good sit stay but I found that I would leave her and turn around to see her sitting like a coiled spring, waiting for the recall. She was breaking the stay quite frequently so I had to go back to basics.
We've used a whistle for all of our dogs for training recall and continue to as they're off lead so much. We've been whistle training Mabel at home using continuous short sharp blows and giving her treats every time she comes back. We took her to the beach for the first time the other day and she was great! All four of our dogs are fabulous at coming back.
