Hi all. New here, (and to dogs). Tiber is 6 months old now. Training going really well and recall "Tiber come" with him is pretty good but sometimes in the garden, he'll go loopy and chase our cat (although in the house he's so good with him). Now with better weather, I had to quickly come up with an emergency recall that was full proof. He absolutely loves Primula (cheese in a tube) We only used it rarely so that it wouldn't diminish the value of the normal treats. Easy to squeeze a tiny bit out for a lick. So I started to teach him "cheese!" and now whenever he goes to chase the cat and recall doesn't work, I call out 'cheese!' and he stops in his tracks and comes straight to me for a lick. It works when he gets too loopy around the chicken pen. He went nuts on a walk when a cat appeared but stopped straight away with the magic word & treat, and it also came in really handy when we had him off the lead for the first time and one of the dogs we came across got him so excited he went nuts. What I need to know, is this is ok? I've heard of the 'emergency STOP', but not this kind of thing. Can we just carry on? Or should we now start teaching him 'come' instead of 'cheese'?
You should always have an ''emergency recall'' only to be used in emergencies. Keep up with ''proofing'' your emergency recall so that Tiber will respond instantly in an emergency. ''Tiber come'' for ordinary recall and ''cheese'' for emergencies only. Pippa's book Total Recall is extremely helpful.
An actual "emergency stop" is supposed to train them to stop running on the spot and NOT come back to you (e.g. imagine if they ran across a road and you wanted them to stop but not cross the road to come back). But for what you're talking about, it is good to differentiate your recall. Personally I do it with a whistle so when I blow my whistle I expect (and always get) a very robust urgent recall back and I reward accordingly. If I just want her to come to me or keep up, I just say 'here' or 'let's go' or 'this way' and I'm not looking for anything too speedy. So when you're training your 'cheese' recall, just always be prepared to reward hugely.
