Background: 17-month-old Henry lives with his Mum and sister and has been easy to train from puppyhood. After a 10-day rehab period (and a full checkup from vets with a clean bill of health) the dogs were with us off the lead in our partially unfenced woodland garden and Henry and his sister Maud found their way out to the neighbour's pond... no recall was working at all. During the next couple of days Henry was determined to have fun in the pond and I collected him a number of times. He had lots and lots of energy and as I collected them yet another time, and was approaching the house with Henry and Maud walking to heel - he dashed away from me, this time making it all the way to the river! I couldn't help but showing my frustration and upset as I collected them... on walks in other woodlands his recall is fine and is happy to walk to heel off lead. Previous to this mad period of energy Henry was very happy to play with their balls as I worked in the garden, go off to explore a bit and come back, and stay close to the house. The occasional chase after scents in the woods made me invest in a GPS tracker on Henry for peace of mind as I continue training, therefore I could locate him quickly! Questions: is a mad increase of energy common after castration? Was it because of enforced rest? Teenage tendencies? Now to my added dilemma, 17 days after Henry's castration he had to have an emergency operation for a suspected stick injury. Nothing was found and he is recovering well at home, we are on day 4 of a 14 day house rest. Now, I feel I have a golden opportunity to reinforce my connection with him and get some training in, in the house and on a longer lead as we progress through rehab. I have Total Recall and have started the Pre-recall for older dogs. Questions: to choose a fresh recall - do I change to a new whistle with a new tone? And choose a different number of pips (I normally have pip-pip-pip) what about the other dogs? My voice command is 'Henry come!' do I change that as well? I have read the chapter on Training leads, but in the garden it would get tangled within minutes. And when we are on the beach or on other walks his recall is good...any advice gratefully recieved!
Hi Sofia. I'm sorry to hear Henry's been unwell. We suggest using a very different whistle cue for him - a long trill for example. If you are able to change pitch/tone of whistle as well that may help, but the different cue is the main thing. And yes, if he sometimes ignores 'Henry come' you will need a new verbal cue as well - Total Recall will help you with adding that in when you come to that point in the recall training There's no need to change what you are doing for the other dogs if their recalls are reliable And I suggest buying two training leashes - a long one for the beach (we really do recommend using this at first, when you get to that stage) and a shorter one for the garden. This might mean buying a 5m leash and cutting a bit off it, giving it a go, and then trimming again if it's still getting tangled. I hope that helps!
