Hi Everyone I'm just after a bit of advice re an issue that has recently started with our 14 month old Labrador. Her recall is good although not perfect and she can sometimes get a bit distracted (can't we all!) however we keep working on it and do a good mix of lead walks and off lead. She has recently started a very bad habit where she decided she's coming back but she just won't get close to you. She'll do everything you ask - sit, down, follow you, drop the ball, but she just won't come the last two feet to you to go back on the lead, even for food! She doesn't always do it at the end of walks either however It is often after she's just had a big run round following a scent. She suddenly started doing it just after Christmas and it's happened about 5 times now. We've been putting her on the lead during her walk, walking with her for a few yards and then taking her off so she doesn't just associate the lead with the end of the walk and while that seemed to be working we've had a couple of incidents in the last week that have made me think there maybe more we can be doing. We've also started feeding her when she's on her lead so she also associates lead with food however I'm keen to nip this problem in the bud as quickly as possible. Help!! Sometimes I just wonder if she's being a bit of a teenager however I don't want a habit forming and would rather stamp this out as soon as possible. Any suggestions would be hugely welcome. Thanks everyone.
Hello and welcome from me and my two dogs It sounds like she ( whats her name ?) is really good apart from this little issue and you are doing everything right . Have you tried coaxing her back with a ball ? Then she would have to come right up to you ? or even a squeaky toy ? If this works , then carry the object, in your pocket but let her know that you have it , use the roulette system , sometimes she gets the object but sometimes she doesn't, it will keep her keen Practise in your garden or even indoors , make it loads of fun .
Thanks for the reply. She (Welly) does it so sporadically that you never know when she's going to do it. I had a ball with me when she did it on Sunday and that seemed to work in the end however it did take 40 minutes! I've also thought about having a tupperware pot with her food in so she thinks she's going to be fed however I'm keen to stop it happening in the first place rather than just ways to sort once its happened.
Hi there, and a very warm welcome. It might be worth just thinking about whether there is a reason she is doing it - dogs are very, very short compared to humans (I know, stating the obvious! ) and it's easy to be (completely unintentionally) a bit 'looming' for a dog. This is why some people recommend you take a ball or a dummy from a dog by bending your knees rather than leaning forward. Anyway....in terms of a solution, I'd train a hand touch. It's easy and fun to clicker train, get it quite strong and then use it as a hand signal for your recall. So the dog comes right in to touch your hand. You can hold your hand out at first, if your dog finds that easier, then move it closer to your body.
Hand touch, YES. But I wonder, has someone grabbed her by the collar when she has come close? Sometimes you do just have to grab them and in one of our classes we trained a collar touch, then a hold, then a grab so the dog would not be leery of coming close. Grabbing should be the minority of the times they come close though.
I was also thinking about the elastic recall game. I have to go out, but maybe @JulieT will explain it for you? It's really easy, and gets the dog running to and past you, eventually working to having them stop at you. Been playing with it this evening with my two
I love the name Welly! I would do lots of recalls where you hold her collar, give a treat, then immediately let her off to play again. I think she probably sees the recall as the end of her fun, so you need to change her mindset. Also, finish the walk at different places - or, even better, walk in new places so that she doesn't know when the walk is at an end. Start the re-training with super-duper high value treats, but only treat when your hand is on the collar - so that it becomes the norm .
Some good advice already given, and as with most things with our dogs there is no simple solution but a mixture of changing when/how you touch her collar, new games and fun through being close and super duper treats. Good luck and keep us posted on progress
Hi and welcome, Welly, what a fantastic name, I love it I play a collar or harness grab game with Dexter, I touch his collar/harness and click & treat, then hold it and C&T etc and make it into a fun game. Just in case I ever have to grab him quickly.
Something like that is how I got Oban's recall back. I posted it up on the other site I'm on and here's a link. If this isn't allowed then a mod. can delete it: oops, no the other site isn't working now. I will re-write, it;s pretty basic and on the UK gundog site I first found it on was called simply North/South fetch. Two balls, throw one, then when the dog gets it and looks up throw the other exactly opposite, he has to run past you to get it. I was using it for field work but I morphed it into a recall. If this isn't enough description I'll try to link to the other site later.
Yup, so I do the elastic recall with chunky treats. Sea biscuits would work, or yesterday I was using big chunks of ham and cheese. Something nice and tasty, anyway. Count ten treats out into your hand. Then, you "bowl" one away from you in one direction ("north", like @Snowshoe) says, then, when your dog has reached it, you blow your recall whistle, turn and "bowl" a treat in the other direction, to "south". The turning movement will encourage your dog to accelerate. You can click on the acceleration if you want. When you get to the last treat, don't throw it - the game ends at you. It's a fun, high-paced game and, once the dog gets the hang of it, they'll be sprinting to you in no time. You can change your whistle so you're blowing it just before they start their run to you. I think it's probably easier to start with treats than a ball, because you don't have to worry about where the dog drops the ball. I did a puppy switch retrieve with dummies, which was a similar thing to what snowshoe describes. Have two dummies, get the dog excited about one of them. Throw it (no steadiness) away from you and let the dog chase. Once she has it, encourage her back and, when she gets close, start jiggling the other dummy to make it "come alive". She'll likely drop the first dummy and then you can throw the one you're holding in the opposite direction, pick up the first and repeat. Both of these games teach the dog that running towards you is a super rewarding thing to do.
Welcome from Hattie 8 years and our rescue boy Charlie 5 years. Charlie used to do this so I would turn and run as fast as I could in the opposite direction, Charlie would follow arriving at my feet, I would give him lots of treats pop his lead on again giving him treats and tons of praise. I would do this in lots of areas too, this also helped his recall a lot because I would blow my whistle too. Good luck! Helen x
Hi there and welcome to the forum from Poppy and me, you've had lots of good advice, just wanted to add my words of welcome! I'm sure you'll get this under control.
Huge thanks for all of this fab advice everyone. Given that Welly only started doing this just after Christmas I do wonder whether it's a combination of a teenage dog pushing boundaries and just not wanting the walk to end and seeing recall as being the sign of that. We've just started doing flyball as a great way of channelling energies and giving real focus to activities. The trainer at flyball gave us an activity very similar to the north/south one above so that's clearly a great bit of advice. Will keep on at it. I've just heard from my husband that she had a brilliant walk today with immaculate recall - we just need to make sure she does that everytime! Thanks everyone Jo x
Not sure how I've managed not to hear about this one before but it sounds awesome! Now I'm just deciding on which type of treat we'll use...
It is great fun and the dogs love it! They run as fast as their little legs will carry them and have that mad "bum tuck" look on their faces when they do it. I must get it on video Ham or turkey frankfurter and cheese chunks work well for me. They need to be quite big so the dog can see them easily and not have to hunt. Let us know how you get on.
