This story is something I hope will help all those first time owners who like me,have never trained a dog to do anything ,never mind recall to a whistle.When I first came across Pippa's work I never thought for a second I would be training a dog to a whistle...... Dexter's recall has never been bad but ive wanted to get it better and With encouragement from the forum (mainly something you said Heidrun)and being exposed to Pippas training I wanted to work through Total Recall and try to teach a whistle recall.With the holiday breaks and me being a bit OCD about it,progress has been slow. However we stuck to it religiously and have not moved on a step until I can tick all the boxes 100% and Dexter's progress has been fantastic. Hit a snag yesterday,it was time to rope in Assistants.I had selected my Boring Person and we were all set to go and Dexter wouldn't leave my side to go and see the boring person( too boring maybe? He he he!) so the Boring person tried to do exercise 2 petting Dexter ,making a fuss of him......no chance,stuck to me like glue....didn't even need to blow my whistle.We downed tools and sat in the kitchen for a cuppa to let him forget about us and my friend had a little pat of him while I surreptitiously tried to sidle away and get the whistle in my mouth.....bang,he ran into the back of my legs as I was trying to put some distance between us....so I have bypassed this step now as I just wasn't able to practice it,didn't need to because he was just there at the first hint of the whistle to my lips....(.please God will that be the case on the big scarey day when I blow my whistle in the park to call him away from another dog......)I hope by missing this step I haven't missed part of the conditioning process? Anyway as my friend obviously has a life and can't move in while I train our dog( ,she's inconsiderate like that !!!)...Chris was my option last night and we decided to practice the next step calling him away from someone with food.....by the 4th or 5th attempt he got it......bet you could here the celebrating and shouting all the way from Dubai!I was encouraging and coaxing him though and rolling round on the floor like a fool.My Friend called in again this morning and we did the same and blimey he recalled to me straight away( short distance only AND in the house ,but even so,straight away,no encouragement except Dexter Come,his verbal recall command)I'm just so pleased because I was stressing yesterday because I was missing a couple of exercises and modifying the 3rd one ( I really am anal about this as I want to get it right )so I hope we are on track.I so want this to succeed,we'll be sticking on this exercise for a while longer. Simultaneously we have started the stop whistle at the weekend ,he got step 1 in a couple of blows but Again I am going really slow to get it right,ive taken my time to reduce the rewards so we are going to practice step 2 today. This isn't a gloat post at all,I've had Dexter long enough to know that there can be unexpected backwards steps often along the way ...I just wanted new owners to know if I can do this,anyone can do it and it has just been amazing to see Dexters progress and so rewarding.At a very basic level,I've loved the total recall program for helping me build a much stronger bond with Dex. Whilst you all know its all about roast chicken.....Im convinced he just loves me and wants to be by my side he he he!
Re: Totall Recall Progress Wow - well done, that sounds like very careful training. Charlie's recall is really strong now - but I haven't worked through total recall half as carefully as you. BUT a comment that Pippa made (on the main site) about dogs being great as puppies, but holes in training revealing themselves when they grow up made me pause a bit... maybe I should take a leaf out of your book, Angela, and fill in those steps I skipped over now....
Re: Totall Recall Progress I've crawled along Julie because I mucked up his lead walking so much.........he was 5 months when we got him so I missed a lot of his puppyhood and some of the advantages I could have got.to be honest though,looking back ,I didn't give a lot of thought to training in preparation for his arrival.Id read loads about physical care and needs and exercise amounts ...and preparations for a puppy but hadn't focused on training preparation or making a plan.I was totally unprepared for the commitment and time you need to give to succeed with obedience and Im really annoyed at myself now.....I haven't got a dog who does things naturally because he wants to please us thats for sure.... : Also,I'm pretty much doing it on my own (I love Chris to bits but if he says one more time....'Well,when he's 18 months or if we get him done he will settle down,' .......there will be ructions!Thats not good enough for me!Dexter deserves better and Im doing the best I can by him.I don't mean to do Chris down,he has a horribly stressful working life and very limited spare time except for weekends so I was always aware I would be Dexters main carer/trainer and of course the consequence of that is he is really my dog!I do share him though very willingly though ;D x
Re: Totall Recall Progress Ah, your problems with the lead walking so helped me - sorry! I caught it just as I was starting to mess up and learned from you. He's really good now - well, just a few things to keep working on (isn't there always....)
Re: Totall Recall Progress Listen,if there's anything that I do or don't do that can help someone else avoid a potential mishap I'm more than happy!I don't think we will ever get off a harness......even on it he still pulls without a constant heel command,which both he and I get bored of lead walking makes me miserable.....that's really sad isn't it :-[
Re: Totall Recall Progress That is a bit sad for you and Dex ... ah, sorry about that. It's surprising lead walking is such a difficult thing to solve once there is a problem with it. But I'm sure you'll crack it (or, perhaps it's not worth doing, if there is a solution with a suitable harness). I'm not sure I'm ever gong to move away from using a harness (I have a fleece back fastening one now, that I'm very happy with). I think it's much easier on Charlie than a collar.
Re: Totall Recall Progress I'll pm you about your harness,the one I has 'does' in that it doesnt hurt him anywhere but it's not great.A fleece one would finish him off in this heat.......but could carry me over in thencooler months until I get him a custom made one when he's finished growing.we have lovely 'walks' don't get me wrong....we just drive to them!the,park opposite my front door is the route that's a bit of an ordeal :-\ during peak times of distractions ! Glad you have got it fettled x
Re: Totall Recall Progress There are always people worse off.... if I had to choose, I'd have a dog well behaved off the lead than on it everytime. Leaving the beach last week, and a 7 month old spaniel was strangling itself on the lead to get on to the beach. Charlie and OH had wandered off to explore a sand dune. So I admired the spaniel, pretty puppy, and talked to the owners. Spaniel wasn't allowed off the lead yet, no recall, so had to stay on. Charlie comes bounding back, I ask whether I should put him on his lead around the spaniel on lead - no, happy that they play. Really sad watching the spaniel do its best to play on lead with Charlie boing boing freely around. Then, a chap comes up with 2 Newfoundland dogs on lead. These are seriously big dogs. We talk, Charlie bounces round them, looking a bit wary (like "are they dogs?" "sure they are not hairy versions of those cow things you've been showing me?"). Again, owner happy the dogs interact with off lead Charlie but won't allow his dogs off the lead. These monsters pull their owner across the beach playing with Charlie. They are not allowed off lead - ever. They jump up at strangers! Boy, they weigh 10 stone each! How the heck does a person exercise 20st of dogs on lead!
Re: Totall Recall Progress Oh gosh......thankyou,feel a lot better,you are right!feel,so sad for dogs not allowed off,I had to encourage my friend to let her dog off......a gorgeous white German shepherd.......and even now she will really only do it with Dexter.......because 'he comes back!'can't be going too far wrong can I !
Re: Totall Recall Progress You`re doing just fine Angela ;D I also find it sad when we come accross dogs who never experience the off lead fun . It took courage to let Millie off lead because being a rescue of 4/6 years of age, we just werent sure what she would do , but off lead now for five weeks , she has rarely put a paw wrong , but it is so much more gut wrenching with a rescue, unknown entity Sam still tends to pull on lead on our way to a walk, but will walk to heal off lead and walks home on lead like an angel so I guess its just the anticipation of what lies ahead
Re: Totall Recall Progress Well done Angela! You and Chris must be over the moon! Me as a person, I'm impatient. I want it doing there and then but having Dexter home and reading Pippa's articles we're taking our time as well. Baby steps. Bought our clicker and whistle (its a 2 in 1) and the thought of clicker training scared me before we even decided to get a Labrador. I used to skip those articles, "too complicated" I used to tell myself. So Karl and I spent Friday-Sunday charging the clicker. Now when I was recommended to 'charge' the clicker' my first thought was I had to stand there and click as fast as I could. Sort of like, charge my thumb to click really fast. I know, that sounds completely stupid and I am pretty dosile sometimes but Dexter really got the hang of it. So my worry was he's understood this too quickly, surely? Am I doing this right? Karl started 'heel' training yesterday in the garden. Well when I got home how quickly has he picked that up??!! He can be chewing the slate and I tested it thinking it would only work with Karl, so I said "Dexter heel". Guess who Dexter drops the slate and comes walking over and sits at my left side (which is what Karl had taught him to do)?? I gave him so much praise! I was over the moon! I'm still open to the fact when we eventually introduce his harness and walks outside the back garden it could go the other way but it gave me faith that we can do this Keep up the good work!! Karl is nervous about letting Dexter off the lead when we eventually go out for walks and to be honest so am I (in all honestly, I'm terrified) but it's got to be done. We spoke the other night after I'd read a post and we spoke about what we want/expect from Dexter on a walk. Lucky in the sense we both want the same things and are following the same training articles
Re: Totall Recall Progress Reading that post back, I didnt click continuously to train Dexter. Followed Pippa's article and made notes ;D
Re: Totall Recall Progress Angela, there is no harm in taking your time with the recall training, I have been doing Total Recall for 10 months and am taking it really slowly with Charlie, making absolutely sure he gets it and proofing 110% before moving onto the next exercise. I do not want to ruin all the hard work. It's really hard when a large dog pulls on a lead and when we resuced Charlie he used craw on his tummy - very difficult, but we have stuck at it and I have to say David can walk him on a flat collar and lead but as I am so small and THIN ;D I do need to use the harness, but he is getting better all the time and one day will we discard it. I definitely know that the next puppy we get will be walked OFF LEAD before I ever introduce lead walking, but hey ho we just didn't know about all this information then the beauty of this forum is learning every day Helen xx
Re: Totall Recall Progress Thankyou everybody,your encouragement really means a lot .did another session with him and Chris tonight and he's a clever little blighter!I love him......knew exactly what he had to do .....couldn't get to me quick enough with no encouragement at all ,just the whistle signal.......slowly,slowly,trainee doggie! ;D
Re: Totall Recall Progress Well done, Angela and Dexter! I am following in your footsteps, Angela - starting tomorrow I am getting back to work with training, and Total Recall is definitely on the program. I am going to go slow as well and make sure we get it right. Simba has never been off lead with us yet - but I do want to get there with him. It is so much nicer to walk a dog off lead. However, previous owner warned us he would not come when called and I know she is right, so I am going to take it slowly.
Re: Totall Recall Progress Lisa in my experience it was really straightforward until you start factoring in other people...you've read what happened when I introduced assistants...it's turned out ok although I'm still practicing whenever someone comes to the house.now it's got really tricky with trying to find assistants with dogs.....whilst there is plenty of opportunities in the park I'm finding it hard to start this part of the training in the house,which is the start point ..people work and have families so I feel a bit of a pain asking them to come round with their dog.....sooooooo today I did a bit of a leap of faith,he was playing with a retriever in the park that he knows and we were in quite a quiet corner,I was only about 6 feet away from him and I had chicken....so bloody hell ,I blew my whistle!!!!!and he came .....immediately ,3 times!!!!you know that feeling where you want to just go mad jumping around and celebrating.....I dont think anybody knows what it's like unless you have worked through the program and got to that stage......I'm still not going to challenge him,it was a very easy ,basic recall .....I'm walking with my friend tomorrow and she won't have time to be at my house but ill do a bit of practice at the end of the walk.....I feel like im cheating as I haven't done the steps correctly here but ill practice and practice in unchallenging situations to see if I can make up for it....... I wish you all the good luck in the world .Simba is bright,he will get it,it definately works if you follow properly.I haven't read ahead,my kindle is only up to 42% so I still have plenty of work to do,I'm under no illusion that I have a Total Recall yet ;D x
Re: Totall Recall Progress Jumping around and cheering with you, Angela!! ;D Still trying to catch up from being away so looks like my regime won't start until next week...but start, it will!!
Re: Totall Recall Progress Luckily there is balance in life.....usually!obviously my miseries over the damaged tail are well documented elsewhere but Dexters recall performances cheered me up no end today! Today was our walk with Barni and Tam (Barni,black lab ,dexters cousin and Tam working cocker(a pet now)who did work with Charlie the Labradors breeder until he was 3.The usual walk format....Tam charging about having a wonderful time sniffing and then racing off like a rocket after birds ,he's so fast ;D Barni q and Dex tussling and playing and then hairing off like galloping horses after Tam.It is these situations that I have always had in my mind as being the 'test' of our recall ........out of the 3 Dex always stops and looks back at me first and comes when I've got him on visual.....but up to that point he is deaf to his verbal signal. We let them all have a good run round and when a bit of energy was spent and they were about 10 m away....I blew the whistle....bloody hell,just like the other day.....he spun round and came immediately....funny thing was,so did the other 2! Karen was delighted as she hasn't kept up their whistle training.....anyway I tried them again a few minutes later from about 20 m.....again ,perfect recall......from all 3!!!I left it a little while longer and then Tam saw a bird and they were all off.....I was really scared on this one because I have had to fudge this section of training a bit.....I let Dex get his speed up....and some distance away and whistled and my clever boy came straight back to me while the other boys kept on running!!!!!!he sat and stayed by me until the Barni and Tam came back,I was so proud.....and relieved!l. Tam and Barni have hunted.....Dexter hasn't and he isn't interested in retrieving ( although we have started work on that )so roast chicken is a good reason to return to me,the other 2 know the thrill of the chase and the rewards it brings......the scales are tipped differently for them!So all in all very happy,but still not confident I have a Total Recall.....tomorrow we go on our last walk where Dexter is off lead. sorry if I'm going on,I know you are all doing this and more with great success....I'm just so astounded that I've had the success we have had especially on the back of not getting my lead walking right.....this really cheers me up!thanks for indulging me,and thankyou PIPPA for developing the program x
