thought i was getting somewhere with sam's recall!

morning all, (sorry bout the length of post!!)

well i am well and truly p****d off today!!!!! as most of you know sam has a tendancy to wondering. he can be gone hours when he goes off on one! anyway i have been working very hard the last few weeks with his whistle training on a long line. 2 pips for a change of direction, left and right directions, and 3 pips for a full recall. he's been responding every time. so i thought i'd take it up a notch and started with the line trailing. great! every time i blew the whistle he was straight there for a tasty treat and fuss! all gone to pot now!!!! on weds evening his line was trailing as it has been all week, he was coming back to me, changing direction etc. i turned my head for one second and he was off!!!! across the road and onto the golf course opposite the field we were on! i flew after him, but he's way too fast. blew the whistle.....nothing!!!!! i took bronte home cos she's too old to be trailing round the field looking for him. couldnt find him anywhere. i was really worried though cos it was getting dark too. no sign of him so i went home. about an hour later the local farmer rang me saying he had sam there. he had heard him barking and went out to investigate and found him wrapped round the hedges by his long line.

anyway took him out last night and i thought best not let his line trail. so was blowing the whistle and he was coming back to me every time i blew it. anyway i tripped up and let go of the line and off he went!!!! i chased after him and thought id be able to hear him as he has a bell on his collar, but couldnt hear or see him anywhere. by this time it was snowing like mad so i went home. went out every half an hour or so to look for him, but no sign or sight of him!! so i went to bed bout 11'ish worried to death about him. got up this morning and opened the front door just to see if he had found his way home, and who walked in looking very sheepish and filthy!!?? yep you got it my waywood boy sam! so he must have slept under the bay window for shelter all night. he still had his collar, tag and bell on but no line, so it must have come off somewhere along the way!

i have gone back to basics so many times now with sam its really grinding me down. i really dont enjoy taking him out at the moment, cos he either runs off or pulls me around all over. where do i go from here? i love him to bits and in every other way and other things i do with him i cant fault him. i just want to be able to walk him like i do with bronte off the lead. i suppose the self-reward he gets is greater than the punishment (ie. leaving him). any advise would be appreciated as i really dont know what to do now!!! thanks

I dont really have any advise for you...as I am goin through the same problem with my 9 month old puppy.
He was great on recall from 14 weeks untill about 3 days ago when he started running off to play with other dogs in the distance.
I think it might be the "teenage" phase there goin through its so frustrating because it feels like you take 2 steps foward and the suddenly 2 back!
Its stressful and worrying for your dogs saftey when they are a dot in the distance or even worse if you lose sight of them!
Im glad you got your pup back safely and hes o.k.
keep up the trainng...but dont let him off lead were he can run away!
hope it all comes together in the end....it will!

The best advice i can think of is go to a professional trainer, thats what im doing with mine, they have a kind of super power where they know how exacly to make a dog do what they want! I hope everything works out for you and sam

i have tried that. had a behaviourist and 3 one-to-ones with various trainers. most cant really give me any advice other than i'll probably have to keep sam on the lead/line all the time. so no real progress there!

Sorry to hear Sam is causing you to worry again. I can only suggest walking him on a long line and not to let go and maybe walk him seperately to Bronte and walk him for a lot longer. You have tried so many things maybe he is not going to be allowed the privilege to roam without you on the end of a lead all the time.

i think you're probably right lynn. its a shame really cos he could have so much freedom off-lead if he came back every time i called him. but i think maybe he is gonna have to be on the long line unless i find somewhere thats totally secure to let him off.

Ah, Springergirl, I just caught up with this thread and I'm afraid I don't have the magic solution to your problem but I know how you feel and just wanted to sympathise.

I always follow your threads with interest as Pepper's recall is also pants and it feels like 1 step forwards, 2 steps back and just when you think you are making progress they seem to forget everything and you just want to go home and silt your wrists (metaphorically speaking!!!!) We had one of those days the other day, Pepper had been doing quite well when she suddenly bolted to the other side of the park to look for the squirrels she'd seen days before.

What really annoys me are all those people that don't put in half the work we do and seem to have effortless recall with their dogs. It's just not fair - she says stamping her feet and having a bit of a paddy.
:smt022 :smt019 :smt022

Big hugs,

J

No magic answers either, I'm afraid, just lots of sympathy. We had a setter with exactly the same trouble. Eventually we bought a 30' flexi that was sold for horses, but real off lead freedom was very restricted.

Has he been neutered? If not that might be worth thinking about.

Oh goodness, I'm sorry. It must be such a worry for you. You are working so hard with him and seem to keep going backwards. On a positive note, well done for teaching him to change direction etc with a whistle. That takes some doing!!!!

You will get there in the end, but it must be so demoralizing, good luck x