My black lab is 71/2 months now but is making no progress with recall training, in fact I think hes getting worse! He only takes notice of his recall if he feels like it I have gone back to the training lead but he ignores recall on this. I am getting a bit disheartened with his training as Ive been doing it every day, is this normal ? how long does it take?
Play, play, play! My advice is to make yourself really interesting and an exciting person to be with. Carry a bag of toys and keep changing the game every few minutes. Pippa's book Total Recall is definitely worth buying. It gives a complete plan for teaching recall.
Joy is right in that you do need a level of engagement from a dog for you to be able to train it, so if your dog is not engaging with you, that is the place to start. Apart from that, there are a few reasons your dog doesn't 'get' his recall cue: You haven't trained it properly in the first place - he doesn't understand There are too many distractions - you haven't proofed his recall cue You have 'poisoned' his cue - you have used it so many times when he hasn't responded, it has got confused in his mind It isn't really a question of time - an 8 week old puppy is capable of responding to a recall cue, in the kitchen when you are holding his dinner . It's about the circumstances in which you have trained that cue in order to get a reliable response. If you haven't got the book 'total recall' then it is well worth buying.
I third the recommendation for Total Recall! I got my dog as a "hand-me-down" when he was 9 months old and he had zero recall - previous owners had no clue how to train this and as a result he completely ignored his name being called, or any inticements to come. Training recall using a whistle saved us! I don't have a 100% response yet but pretty close. When out and about I still use a long line, that way I don't have to worry that Simba will take off on me. You might want to consider using one while you are training, that way if you use the whistle and he ignores you, you can give a little reminder by tugging the leash a bit.
