Hello I am three days into the Total Recall program with my 4 year old lab collie cross - Ernie. I am at the first day when you blow the whistle and give a treat then later on blow the whistle and give them part of their dinner. My dog Ernie has refused to eat his dinner. I really don't think he is ill because he ate the treat very happily and is normal in every other way. Do I just carry in with the program and when he is hungry enough he will eat his dinner?
Hi @Debbie Paddington Welcome to the site. The threats you are giving him are not supposed to be surplus to the amount he gets for free at his normal meal times. Is it possible that he has been over eating since you started training? Otherwise take the meal away as soon as the dog walks away and give the meal at the next scheduled meal time..
Dear Michael Thank you for your reply. Maybe I have been giving him too many treats. I will take his dinner away as suggested and carry on with the program. Debbie
I think you probably have an earlier problem to fix - which is that of food motivation. Before you can train a dog, you need the dog to be motivated by food. You need them to really WANT their kibble (or whatever you usually feed). For best results, I would suggest pressing 'pause' on Total Recall for now and instead working on establishing food motivation. I would recommend following these steps for the first week: http://www.sue-eh.ca/page24/page39/ After that, use the food/meals to actually train with... no more food for free. Once you have established good food motivation, then you will be able to return to the Total Recall programme.
Another possibility is that Ernie didn't understand he was allowed to eat his food , that he misunderstood the whistle. I say this as I wonder if you haven't had him long, as he's four and you're doing recall training. If you've recently given him a home then he could have a history of being taught that a whistle means something else. You can still work through the Total Recall exercises just using treats and giving your dog his meal without the whistle - just add ina few more whistle: treat occasions. I am a member of the IMDT.
We trained whistle recall for emergencies. We used Sardines. Ans we fed them slowly and watched him drool. Then we dipped bread into the sardine juice that was left over and made the whole event last as long as possible so it was something he would never want to miss out on so that when the time came when we needed to recall from something harmful he wouldn’t think twice. I too it up once a month just to remind him of this feast he loves so much that he will always come running from afar to get it once we blow.
Hello Thank you Joy, Jo and Johnny for your replies. I think I have been feeding Ernie too many treats. I have cut down and he is better with his dinner. We have had Ernie for a while and tried several training methods and they have worked to a point but I wanted to work towards a more robust recall so hence Total Recall. I am already using the About Turn Walk with very good results. My eventual goal is to have a "rabbit proof" recall The sardines idea is brilliant I am going to try that.
Just a quick note if I read your message correct. You don’t have to cut down on treats, just reduce the amount given at meal times. Some people will measure out the daily ration of kiddle and use it as training treats then give the rest at meal times.
