Hi , I need to reinforce my recall which is failing In only one area. Deer. Please could someone advise me how to prevent my dog ignoring the whistle once chasing a deer. He comes back but not straight away and I’m never sure when he will listen. Has the whistle failed ? Do I need a new recall sound ? Do I go back to the beginning again, I would struggle as I already use tasty food when he comes back for the whistle. Any advice would be great. Thanks Sarah
Hi @Sarah Bernardez The dogs stays on a 1i0 m long line until the recall is rock solid. If it is not, then the recall will worsen because each time the dog is self-rewarded by chasing the deer the undesirable behaviour is positively reinforced. The long line is required to prevent the dog from following his nose. Now for the reward. Have you tried wet gourmet dog food or sardines? One can't keep using the same treat. Variety is required for motivational putposes. So you don't need to go back to basics. But you do need to train for distractions. For example, find some deer droppings and get a second person 'holding' them try to distract your dog. Call your dog and reward if he comes. If he does not, then go up and lure him away. Then if you can find a deer park. And use the movement of the deer as the distraction. Be prepared to reward the dog with jackpot of treats--one after the other. All of this is done with long line.
Thank you for this, I was wondering what new treats to try with this as I’ve been using sardines , tinned fish varieties for awhile now and the novelty is probably wearing thin. What gourmet dog food would you recommend? I will try the lead work although I find his behaviour completely changes when he is on a lead.
We have used the wet Ziwi Peak. It is quite smelly (tripe and other offal) so you need a good method for transporting it! I have heard that some people use little cat food pouches, which are probably neater. Also a high quality dog roll/sausage cut into small pieces could work well.
Yes, they know. When you are confident, you can let the long line drag on the ground. Keep a foot close to the line so that you have control if needed. Prevention can cut off the payoffs from walkabout, which in turn can result in extinction. @Chewies_mum suggestion is excellent. My friend uses Ziwi peak with her Labrador with great success. I don't know what country you live in re making recommendations of a specific wet gourmet dog food. I don't know whether My Dog is distributed in your country. Just try a can of some relatively expensive product and observe your dog's reaction. You will need a plastic container and a plastic spoon to dole out the rewards.
Any wet dog or cat food seems to do the trick. I like lily's kitchen and forthglade. Cat food comes in handy little pouches, I used to keep one in my bag even if I didn't end up using it and reward especially brilliant recalls or to open if we did see deer and I'd had to put him on the lead unexpectedly.
Besides relying on increasing the value and variety of the reinforcers, you can also identify the skill you need to work on - calling the dog off a chase. The thing with deer, is it's very hard to know when it's going to happen. But you can set up other situations with a chase involved. For example, keep the dog on a long-line and see if you can recall off a tennis ball rolled away from you. Get a flirt pole (basically a horse lunging whip) and tie a rabbit fur to the end of it. Get a member of the family to 'lure' the dog to chase the flirt pole lure and see if you can call off that. ('Disappear' the flirt pole rabbit fur, if not.) Buy a bolting rabbit (if you live in the UK) from a gundog supply store and see if you can recall off that... All these scenarios involve calling off a chase. If you can teach your dog that CONCEPT then you will be better able to call off deer. Identify the core concept behind what isn't working and then come up with other ways to achieve that, when you can't train it using 'real life' distractions.
I'm no expert...but you have competing problems. Recall work on a long-line allows you to prevent the dog from chasing the deer and developing bad self-reinforcing behavior, but at the same time the long-leash prevents the dog from having to pay any mind to where you are during a walk (as he doesn't have to since you're leashed to him), and it therefore completely changes the dynamics. My solution was to work on my dogs impulse control. I would have him sit, and toss a treat, and he could only get the treat when I verbally released him. I then did the same with a squeaky tennis ball. And let me tell you, that was really hard for my dog to learn, it took about a month of daily practice (just a few practice throws per day). But once my dog learned not to chase the ball until he was released, his ability to NOT chase cats and birds got MUCH MUCH better. With that said, I don't recall when he perks up at the sight of a cat, I say 'no'.
My understanding of a long line is that you dont hold it, it trails behind the dog and you stand on it if you need to. It doesn't change the dynamic that much. Work on impulse control obviously a good idea in conjunction.
@Ruth Buckley is correct. One can use it on the ground with a foot ready to step on the line. One can also hold it at say 3 metres, letting the other 7 metres drag along the ground if one wants to work closer to the dog on say loose lead walking. It's flexible how it is used. It does take a little bit of practice because 10 metres of lead can be cumbersome.
