Hi everyone I'm new.I have a 3 1/2 yr old female lab.She is very well trained.Recently she has become addicted in the last year of fetch ball.Thats great we love it.We take her to dog park she fetches for us for 15 min,then decides I'm going to share my ball with other people.Then of there not paying attention to her she will bark.lol.Then if they throw it then she wont come back to us on command "come".We didnt think it was that big of deal but we do want her to "come".Any ideas would help I'm drawing a blank.We do not use punishment ever and dont want to yell out.
It doesn't sound like you have trained a recall. What steps have you gone through, to train a recall on your dog?
I had her since 8 weeks.We taught her to come when called in our yard.Made her sit and stay even when she couldnt see us,and told her to come.She does come at the park if the ball is not being played with.We can tell her to lay down from a distance and she will ,and say up and she will rise and sit.So I'm not sure what recall is maybe further explain.Thanks
I've been waiting for someone more experienced than me to get back to you but they haven't so here are my thoughts... Sounds like you did a great job training a good enough recall but it's not fully proofed in all situations. In my experience there seems to be very little in dog training that can't be fixed by going back to basics and upping the value of your treats. This could mean using a long line for a bit and practising away from other dogs. Maybe use a new command, or noise or whistle and reward prodigiously. Then phase out the treats but still give a big reward every now and then just to keep her guessing. Like I say, I'm no expert but that's what I did when my dog started to be inconsistent with recall along with playing some recall games with all his meals.
I think that is a good account @Ruth Buckley. One needs to proof the recall gradually in the face of more and more distractions and in a vast range of environments. Until that generalisation is undertaken then keep the dog on a long line. It may not be necessary to change cues. Work out whether you need to take that step when you practice recall in a low distraction environment. Recall is such an important cued behaviour that some trainers always use continuous reinforcement.
Another thing that occurs to me here is that in this situation at the dog park you're actually punishing her for coming back to you (end of fun game, back on lead) so this needs compensating for (with more games/food rewards) and maybe you need to make yourself less predictable by recalling and rewarding at various times at the dog park not just at home time.
That’s a really good point. Meg has a sharp recall from pretty much anything, but I often call her back, treat , lead on...then let her straight off. Lead on does not mean the end..home we go. Lead on often means treat time, pause...then off to play again. Where I walk there are many runners and loads of dogs on and off leads. I pop her on the lead past runners and dogs on leads...then quickly off to continue zooming about
@Ruth Buckley and @Edp are correct. If come is always followed by a removal from fun (a negative punishment), then come becomes a cue for negative punishment, which, of course, results in a decline of the desired recall behaviour.
Thanks for your reply.This is a tough one for me.So we went to dog park as usual and after 15 minutes she started to entertain 5 different people dropping the ball at there feet.If someone throws it on.lol.So when the ball got thrown towards us I interrupted her on her way back to who threw it and said let's go and she came to me.I made her sit and stay then took the ball back to my wife.I made her stay where she was and then told her come.She came and I made her sit.Praised her.Then resumed ball playing.We then left.I want to give a treat to her but dont like to while she is running so hard.Im going to try what you mentioned combined with me interrupting her during her ball sessions and see what happens. Maybe its teenage years lol.Thanks for your support
Why can't you give her a treat? Most dogs are far more motivated by food than praise. You've got to to make it worth her while coming away from something she really enjoys.
Hi @TED DOLIVEIRA and @Ruth Buckley reading your post closely, you are worried about bloat? Make the food treats no bigger than your little fingernail. You would have to be doing a great deal of training to run into a problem. Intersperse it with some stays, as you did.
I've done that before but she will go for water and puts her whole head in the bowl over her nose to sometimes to drink then throws up her food.So I ended that because the water was probably swishing around in her stomach when all out running.I have fed to in the morning as usual and a couple hours taken her out playing ball she drank and threw up her dry food it was still formed.I guess it shouldn't hurt to give a small fingernail treat.Yes I would say bloat.Thanks for the input.Try a little more back to basics
Slow her down. Put much less water in the container. One can buy portable drinking bowls designed for dogs. Give her only a small portion at a time. But increase the frequency..
Hi. It has been awhile since i have experienced this but it did occur about a month or so again. My boy is quite athletic and loves, loves playing ball. when he was younger, we had a neighborhood group that (i just gave him a ball now to destroy so i can finish typing this). Anyway, we met at nearby parks and the dogs played. My boy clearly being the master at fetching was not interested in other dogs, only people and the ball. He would go endlessly which always made me nervous and he would not come to me...and he knew why. If he did, I would have him sit and rest. So instead i would chase him in and out of a circle of adults who for the most part, were there to talk with one another while i played with their dogs. I spoke with an expert trainer in our area and he sold me a "throw chain" for 9 dollars. The idea is to toss it at the rear side of your dog to get their attention. Mind you i did not like this idea. while driving home i realized that first of all, i was very uncomfortable with it and second, he would not stand still long enough for me to hit my target. We returned and he sold us an shock collar,(which I have not been comfortable with). The collar has a vibration mode however, it is not strong enough and my boy would never feel it as he was running. The shock collar did not work either because he would not stand still and i did not want to raise the strength level up higher. The group no longer meets (neighbors seeking for somethign to complain about). So how about this suggestion; "PEANUT BUTTER!!!" it works at home. We never did try it when playing with the other dogs because i would have to carry it with me. Here, when other commands fail "PEANUT BUTTER!, BANANA! OR EGG!" work. (I am at times, totally manipulated by my dog and that is fine with me.)
Hi @Scooby99 It's okay to use treats the dog really likes. But keep the dog on a 10 metre long line so that you can prevent walkabout dog. This site does not advocate aversive methods.
Hi @Scooby99 The discussion on this site centres almost exclusively on how to achieve desired behaviour by using positive reinforcement. Since E-collars do not work by applying positive reinforcement then they are off the agenda. The implication of that sentence is that if the dog had stood still then the shock from the e-collar would have been a method worth applying to your dog, and maybe other dogs. The site's philosophical, ethical, and scientific stance is that e-collars are not a tool to be applied to dogs.
The main reasons the recall fails is: 1. The handler has not previously associated the recall regularly and always with high value treats. By high value, I mean: Paté, sardines, mackerel, gourmet wet dog food etc etc - it will be wet and squishy stuff which you can deliver from a pot using a plastic toddler spoon. I would never call a dog and just 'praise' - that is going to destroy my recall. Praise isn't sufficiently reinforcing and the dog just isn't going to come, next time. 2. The handler thinks that practising the recall at home a few times has equipped their dog to recall away from other dogs, prey, and just about everything. It hasn't. It won't. You need to train the dog to come away from things the dog wants. You can do this by using one person with treats to distract the dog, and another person to recall the dog - since you can remove or stop the distraction if the dog ignores it. 3. The handler doesn't put anything in place to stop the dog from accessing what she wants to access (ie use a long-line).
