Hi My partner and I are following the Happy Puppy handbook. We have the whistle around our necks and give our recall signal whenever she runs towards us. Our question is, she doesn't run towards us all that much (she's a very confident pup in the garden and doesn't mind being 10m away and in the house she's normally following us around anyway). However she does runs like mad towards us during games of fetch. Should we give the recall signal then or does that confuse matters? It'll be much easier next week when she's immune from her vaccinations and we can take her somewhere where she's less confident and more likely to pelt towards us! Hannah
I used to use my recall when my pups were returning to me with retrieves. I don't see any problem with it, as long as they can also return without the whistle. You could also have her running between the two of you for treats to get some recall practice. Or, a good game is "ping pong recall", where you throw a good-sized treat one way then, once she's finished and looks to you, you turn and throw another 180 degrees to the first. Once she has the idea, you can introduce your recall whistle as she is running towards you and eventually just before she turns, so it starts pre-empting the turn to you. It doesn't matter that she's running past you; the idea is that your puppy learns to associate the whistle with accelerating towards you. Apparently, it can help prevent them becoming slow on the return, which can happen if they always have to stop at you. So says my gundog trainer, anyway With a puppy, you really don't want to be doing much ping-pong recall (or fetch, for that matter) when the puppy is very young, as it is really hard on the joints. So I'd limit it to only a few reps every other day or so.
I do use the recall whistle on the return from a retrieve. There is absolutely no harm in that. The other thing you can try is for one of you to slightly restrain her while the other one calls the dog and then let her go. She will come flying over to you that's when you can use your whistle. It will give you a very enthusiastic recall.
I do use my recall for a return retrieve not that I have that many When we first got Charlie our rescue who had zero recall we also did as @heidrun suggests to slightly restrain him whilst someone else recalled him for a great treat, he loved that and recalling between two people, he also likes a game of ping pong recall. All these things are very useful to train recall x
I use my recall nearly all the time when Coco's returning with a fetched ball - verbal or whistle. I see it as helping to imprint it in his brain.
I had Duggan at the beach thr other day and there were several major distractions so I tried a recall with his whistle (which has become more of the emergency recall now) and for the first time ever he never did. Scared to poison the cue I still did it again.... never came. I'm upset now but there was no danger or distance between that I was uncomfortable with so i stopped after the second attempt and thought to my self whst to do. Whist looking at him he squatted and pooped... then her ran back to me past 5 boats full of people and kids throwing balls in the water and sat looking at me for his treat. Poor guy just needed to go. Lol.
I use my whistle on the return from a retrieve. I was told when they are puppies, if they are coming toward you, blow your whistle. Its worked for me.
