thanx for ur advice...i will start tomoz....now training my mum how to do it....thats another story!! lol i know it dont help that she teaches Winston one word and i teach him another, so its two tasks...teching the dog and teaching the mum! lol

It would be a very good idea for you and Mum (and anyone else in the family) to sit down and work out a list of commands so that everyone uses the same words and poor Winston doean't get a headache trying to figure out what he is supposed to be doing Write out the list and stick it on the fridge until you are all sure of which word to use for each action.

I had a behaviourist/trainer visit Murphy & I yesterday and we tralked about training techniques and a phrase came up that seems to sumit all up for me when training is:

*set the dog up for success* ie don't even bother using a comand if you don't know 200% that he's going to doing it , especially recall.

another phrase she used is *ignore the bad - treat & praise the good*.

I have to go to basics to train Murphy and the way the trainer advised me is start off by calling your dog when he/she is only a few feet away and when the dog is a few inches from your hand (with treat inside) say COME (or whatever recall comand word you are using) in a high energetic tone and treat and really praise your dog and do this for a while (it does feel like you are treating the dogs for the sake of it LOL) and then gradually increase the distance further for when you use your command word. I was advised to practise this in the garden with no distractions for some time initially until he/she is 100% spot on for recall in the garden and then you can take the training outside, but where there are no distractions of other dogs or poeple and it would be a good idea to use a long training line or lunge line and again slowly increase the distance but always remember *set the dog up for success* There will be times when the dog acts up a bit and you have to go back a step or two but thats normal.

As his recall gets better you can then start adding distractions.

I was told it can take 6 months to a year to get the recall perfect.