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Location: UK
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 5,551
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A few quick thoughts on successful Recall teaching:
Set the dog up for success (so never call when the dog is for example about to play and you are not at the standard where you are one hundred per cent sure the dog will return. If necessary wait until he/she is tired from playing and recall, or go and calmly get the dog).
Use high value rewards - you can actually teach a dog to value certain toys etc by using them for special training rewards.
Practice often
Make it enjoyable for both dog and owner
Let the dog go back to play often, don't always put it on a lead when you practice recall.
TAke the collar as the dog recalls, give a reward, or click and treat, or have a game, etc
Use a release word to let the dog know he/she can go back and play
Dogs don't generalise well, so you start in the house,get perfect recall; go to garden, get perfect recall, go to quiet place (park?) get perfect recall; go to a more busy place, get perfect recall etc - with a puppy or untrained older dog, you may have to re-train from the beginning in many places before the dog understands recall in the park means the same as recall in the house.
When you are more confident, and recall is getting good, try doing some dog tricks which help with recall eg, get a friend and train dogs to recall moving towards and past each other (not crossing over though) and that kind of thing. Also, ultimate aim, train for the chase recall and later, emergency stop!
Clicker training is excellent for all of this, I did my training with clicker mostly. If the dog doesn't do as you ask there may be many reasons, eg lack of motivation, female hormones (is the dog due in season?), distractions (you have not trained for distractions well enough) etc etc etc
Keep training fun, motivation high and aim to be an excellent trainer!!
There's lots more but that's a few anyway