Abby is the "perfect" lab! She sits on command, lays down on command, stays on command. She and I go for loose leash walks and she does extremely well. When we tell her it's bedtime at 9 p.m. she hops into her bed and we don't see her until 7 a.m. Never a problem with getting into trash, chewing on things, etc. Perfect dog.... except..... Abby won't come. If she's out in the backyard and I try to get her to come in, she looks at us and walks the other way. In the house, if you ask her to come, she acts like she is totally ignoring you. Outside, if we really need her to come inside I can tell her to sit. Clear across the yard, she will immediately sit on her haunches and wait until I walk up to her. Then, she'll follow me into the house. She know these commands and obeys them... except recall. We've tried real meat treats, fancy treats, lots of affection, low voice, loud voice... nothing works. If left alone, she will eventually wander to you... at her own timetable. It's almost as if she knows her ignoring this one command drives us up a wall and that's her entertainment!!!! @#$%^ Watched many YouTube videos on teaching recall. Used a long leash and she responds well. Let her off leash and she acts as if she has never heard a recall command. Perfect dog.... well, maybe just close to perfect. Suggestions???
Hello there She isn't ignoring you for fun - that's not how dogs think. She is simply ignoring her recall cue because she doesn't know what it means. It really is as simple as that, nothing else. The book Total Recall will take you through training her this step by step, or there are loads of articles on the site that will help.
Does she like to chase balls? Fetch them up? I used North/South fetch when Oban's fantastic recall failed. I was on a dirt air strip too, which helped show him where to go. Threw the ball north, as soon as he got it I threw the second ball south. He had to run right by me to get the second. By 8 throws he realized coming back to me promptly got another throw and I was only throwing the one ball. At this point I wasn't saying anything. Two days later we went out again, I whistled three tweets, threw north, then threw south. This only took about four throws. Later I morphed it again to use the verbal COME or the hand signal. I had not poisoned my COME but I started with the whistle anyway for a change, worked. I still play it with a N/S once in a while, it's fun, he likes it, keeps him sharp.
another vote for Total Recall book. Take it slowly, be prepared to go back a step, and you will get there.
If she'll sit at a distance and wait for you to approach, how about trying going nearly to her - say 3 steps away- and calling. Then if that works gradually extending the distance. I think you'd need to repeat this as training exercises rather than only when you actually need her to come.
