Yep, humans are hopeless at listening aren't they

That would be the most efficient way to deal with the situation, but like i said above people don't react well to being told the're doing it wrong, even if it's bleedingly obvious to the whole world that they are

I like your advice Evie. I think judging her is not solving the situation. Like I said she is my friend so I won't be employing the more 'hands on' methods already suggested

Just been out with her now and her dog came back to her twice with no problems. I do empathise with her because he is a very boisterous dog (think Marley on acid!) and she is very stressd in her personal life right now.

I think I'll suggest to her carrying a squeaky toy which she only gets out for the dog to play with for recall purposes.

Good luck Sarah. Hope it goes well.
x

I hope you can get through to her, for the dog's sake.
Personally I would let her see me wince and I'd be saying Oww if I saw her hit a dog. Then I'd tell her why I thought it was wrong.

why not just have a general chat about Dog Training methods, say that there was a interesting discussion on here, re reward & punishment ways of training, she what she says, then the next time shes about to recall him try to get her to do it different, ie step in a say "oh shall we try to do X & x as hes being a little sod at the moment isnt he?"

sorry to add...if he does respond well make sure you really praise the owner, ie oh look at him now he looks really happy now & i think he understood that alot better etc etc

I don't think that using aversives on your friend (shouting, criticising, certainly not whacking with a stick) will work any better to change her behaviour than her using aversives on the dog!

If you favour positive reinforcement why not wait until she achieves a good calm recall and then say, "that was a pleasure to watch, brilliant, so much better than getting angry with him."

You could make up a story about "a dog you once owned" who misbehaved like her dog and how someone else gave you advice which "you never thought would work" but by golly it did!

Showing her up and making her feel bad will make her withdraw from you and won't help the dog. IMO for the dog's sake you need to keep in touch and gently suggest better methods rather than be heavy handed about it.

Just my opinion of course I'm sure we all do things that someone else thinks is bad practice.

oh, you must have posted while I was typing mishflynn. Same approach I think

I did that today The dog waited when she told him to and stood still while she put his halti on so I said 'Oh he did really well today!'

Thanks for all the advice - I'll keep working on her

If she is your friend, then surely you feel comfortable enough with her to point out her error.

If that was my friend i'd simply tell them and then probably have a bash at the recall myself but then again, i'm not very tactful and dont really like to beat around the bush. If it was a stranger I saw doing this every day, then I would have a problem telling them because I dont know them.

Even I manage to control my frustration and anger if the recall goes belly up but the dog eventually comes back because I realise that chastising it upon it's return has the oppsosite effect to what you want!