Bonnie is now 14 months old We walk happily in the forest every day for over an hour together. We play with a ball, toys, play hide and seek etc, she does lots of sniffing around. I constantly work on recall saying “come”, and I use a whistle, she will come straight away, she likes being close to me, as soon as she gets back to me she sits instantly, I always click my clicker and give her a treat (if she’s come when called). My treat bag has options depending on what she’s done, if she’s come to my whistle instantly she gets chicken or cheese. (For walking to heel for example she just gets a kibble). So, generally it goes well. I work on LAT with my clicker, which at the moment is 50% working, I will keep working on it. But, here’s my question: We still do have the odd occasion through the week where she gets distracted by another lovely playful dog, and doesn’t come instantly. Today she wouldn’t come back instantly and played away with a dog for a whole minute (felt like 10mins). She wouldn’t come to my call or whistle. So when she does EVENTUALLY come back to me should I a) tell her off for disobeying b) reward her for returning What’s the best thing to do, my instinct wants to tell her off, she’s come back, so what do I do? Thanks for any advice
Hi @Caro A Don't tell her off. You do not wish to weaken your recall. A sensitive dog will view your tirade as an aversive. Second, punishment/correction has to be done at the time the dog does something undesirable. After 1 minute she will have absolutely no idea why she is getting a ticking off. And this is one reason why one ought to avoid punisment. So what do you do? In the case at hand I would not give her anything good or bad. After 1 minute she is not going to associate the treat with your cue, i assume you only called her once 1 minute prior to her coming eventually. Although I would have been inclined to say come when she was coming in and say 20 metres away, so that I could reinforce my cue. Train recall when other dogs are say 200 metres from your dog. Reinforce if successful. Then rinse and repeat 4 more times. If successful, then push to doing a recall, when the other dog is 150 metres away. Repeat and reinforce. Gradually get closer and closer to the distraction. If you are not confident she will listen and follow your cue, then use a long line. The idea is to control the level of distraction in such a way that you get success. You might have to increase the value of your treats. Jo Lauren is an advocate for sardines and/or patè.
Thank you So if/when this scenario happens again, I should only do my recall only once (one whistle), then leave it, don’t keep calling. Then when she’s back just pass it off with no reward. But I could reinforce it ONCE she’s heading towards me. Thank you, I will perhaps take the long line out and work on practicing this. 4 times at each distance, thank you. What should I do in the (embarrassing) situation where we’ve stumbled across some dog walkers at close contact, (round a bush, didn’t see them coming). Bonnie starts getting over excited and won’t listen to me, won’t come away from the other dogs, should I then tell her off, because I’m right there at the moment of misbehaviour, with a big strong NO? Or again, if she’s finally stopped mucking about I should ignore it and move on. Thank you
There is no point in saying no. It doesn't mean anything in terms of practical behaviour. It always better to tell a dog what you want. No is too vague. When she is so over-aroused she will not focus on anything you say. You should have her on a long line until your recalls a rock solid, even when there is an unexpected distraction. Then you can start doing off lead work first with distractions in the distance. You need to set up mock situations in order to control the level of the distraction and thereby train for the distractions. It may take some time. Don't expect recall to be proofed in one or two sessions. It took me several months to get a reliable recall off line when other dogs were around. You have to control the level of the distractions so that the dog is below threshold. Then the cue results in a return, which is something you can reinforce. And so on and so on.
What Michael says here is totally right. But really, you don't want this situation to arise in the first place. Dogs which learn it is possible to go and meet the other dog before they come back, just end up doing that all the time. The owner can't do anything about it and the recall is a bit useless when the other dog is (say) aggressive, on leash or muzzled or there is some reason you don't want them to meet them first. You should be able to call a dog back immediately, away from anything - they should not check it out first, and then come back. That's not a recall. So - you should be using a 10m biothane long line to prevent the dog from ignoring your recall, until you've totally fixed this problem...
