Training tips for recall needed. (Updated 23rd Sept)

Hi all
Tigger is 5 months old in two days. On the whole we are delighted with him and he is a well-behaved, pleasant pup. He understands basic commands, is 100% toilet trained, sleeps well, has excellent bite inhibition and is cute to boot! :smt002
The one thing that worries me is his recall. We go walking along the river, wide open spaces and he doesnt 'run off' from us, never has. He does always come back from his little run abouts and retrieves stuff brilliantly. Problems arise when there are other dogs offlead. As soon as they show an interest (and lets face it a bouncy springer pup tends to attract quite a bit ) he joins them and runs off! Now Im happy that he's interacting with these dogs and Im also glad he's not scared to leave my side, etc but he wont come back from playing until he's ready. I can shout his name until Im sounding like an ad for blinkin' Disney! When he's on his lead (retractable) he will come back from its longer length in response to his name, unless he's picked up a scent, then he pulls.


Would a whistle help? If recall tends to be better with whistle training, how do I go about this? Is it just a case of using the whistle on his way back til he associates the two, conditioning principles?

Or am I worrying about nothing? Should I let him run off to play with other dogs and just wait for him to return? (which is what I see the other dog owners seem to be doing. )

When he is just walking/running with us on the walk, if he goes ahead we can call him back and he will come bounding over, or will go fetch his toy if thrown. Its just distractions.
So am I neurotic first time dog owner or have I got a problem on my hands?

Hi Tigger Tigger sounds just about perfect, have you seen this recall article by Shadowboxer, it may be of help to you...


http://www.dogsey.com/dog-articles.php?t=8049

Thanks Minihaha
I hadn't seen it and it is really useful. We had been using his name to recall and I also suspect that other derivitive of Tigger, such as Tigs, Tigsy you get the picture(!) may have been used, so Come will have to be introduced.

Still interested in the whistle idea though. Anyone use a whistle?

hi Tigger
The pups are trained with a whistle....well sort of! Saturn ignores it just like he ignores me!!!!
They are whistle fed.
When we feed them (from the day they arrive) we make them sit, give a wait command (for an 8 week old pup this involves holding their collar!!!!) then blow the whistle 3 times quickly and they can eat.
Since a yuong pup is fed 4 x a day they get the idea quickly.
They SHOULD (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ) return to the sound of the whistle if a voice command fails. In fairness, our first pup never needed it as he was a big girly swot and never had a recall isuue, not once...ever!!! Our second pup had it used a couple of times and it worked a treat and as for m'laddo, well, when he goes deaf, he can't hear whistles either!!!!
The thing is for your dog to always associate the whistle with food, you should never use it at any other time. You could, I suppose, make Tigger sit in the house several times a day, blow the whistle and give him a treat? You could do that lots and do it when feeding too. I wouldn't try to use it for recall out and about until it's very well established though ( maybe up to a month if you decide to do it this way!) Perhaps start whistle feeding etc and continue vocal recalls and have the whistle in the end as a back up????
Maybe other people train a whistle recall differently???? Sure someone may be along soon....
ailsa xxx

Thank you Ailsa :smt001

That does make sense. I hadnt thought of getting him to associate it with food, only with the actual getting his little backside back to me. :smt002
I can see it may take a while and I should really have considered it from day one for it to take hold.

Hmm, lots to think about.

Personally I start from the day the pup comes home, calling in the house to play, from outside after toileting and then offer a treat etc That way the pup soon learns that coming back is fun!

First I teach them the command (through the above) and then add in the hand signal - open arms. Build this up over time first in your garden then in other open (but quiet) spaces, building in distractions slowly. If he doesn't come back at any point go back a step in the training and start from where he's reliable again.

I then add in the whistle, partly through personal preference but also some young pups can be unnerved by the whistle at first (and I also forget it sometimes! ). I also think it's important to make solid foundations before adding a whistle to the recall, but again that's just the way I do things.

With Tigger coming up to 5 months he'll be coming up to the "teenage" phase and might start going further a field and becoming a bit rebellious, so don't worry if he doesn't come back straight away every time - it's just a phase he's going through!

Good luck.

I was shown a method of if the dog is out and about off lead and they continue to disobey a command instead of standing nagging at them which they are either ignoring or oblivious to you should say nothing,walk up to them and pop them on lead,keep them on for a couple of minutes then let them off and continue on your way,the lead is punishment enough as it takes away the freedom of a big wide run for a short while then try the command again,if a command is responded to this time then always reward with praise and food and whatever you do don't put them on lead,they need to learn that nothing unpleasant/boring will happen by returning to you,only positive things.We did this with recall, and it worked particularly well with a staffie that kept attacking other dogs we tried this method and after a few days managed a long walk with at least 5 other dogs incident free.And I agree with rip,the terrible teens will soon be upon you so prepare for rebellion!

hi tigger2
My lab is also 5months old and after reading your problem with the recal,it seems to me that the idea of playing with another dog is more disirable than a treat might be. My lab was just the same. i asked a few friends who own gun dogs for some advice. As their dogs are well trained we took 6 dogs over a field, ( 5 trained dogs and my pup) I keep mine on a lead while the others were running about, they were then called to heal and my dog was let loose. At first my dog was running around like a bee round a honey pot ( the other dogs did not move) after 15 mins of this my dog seem to start taking notice of me, Now she recalls perfectly from upto 150 metres. I was lucky to know people like this but it did only take 15mins. This was only 3 day ago i will keep you updated.

I agree with the point made, I had a very well trained GSD who in turn trained the younger ones and so on right down to the dogs I have now he died 3 years ago but I see bits of his personality running through the rotts now. Only problem is if you dont have older well trained dogs around and your dog is an only dog the temptation for a play is overpowering

hi tigger2,

hope you get the recall sorted out. i have this prob with sam, but unfortunately its going to take me longer to train him to recall, as he's had 4 years of freedom before i got him!! i am training him with the whistle at the moment, but he totally ignores it outdoors! so back to practising it at home! good luck anyway!