and then they say to one another 'no wonder the poor dogs not going back, shes mental'

There is a lot of good stuff in this thread.

The pushing 9as I know it) is related to a training method called natural dog training, which is all about increasing the dogs prey drive in relation to interaction from you.

I personally use all/most of the techniques described but add an e collar to them.
Why?
Largely because it allows you to enforce the recall regardless of the distraction/situation which allows you to continue to build on the behaviour and install an automatic response to the command without the dog learning that its optional and taking the run off option is rewarding/more rewarding.

Its also useful for those dogs that find the chase ect more rewarding than anything else because you can take that option away from them.

I also find the average owner has a far easier time training with mixed methods that allow him/her to stop/recall the dog when they need to so they can reinforce it.

Another point is that no one has mentioned time scale here!

Fact is recall is a pretty life saver behaviour and having a reliable one is important. I find you can get a reliable recall on any dog (from border terrier to husky) within a few weeks, even from prey items, at most!

Adam

Smokeybear, do you mean (3rd down) that the dog should go to whoever calls him, or that they come to you even if someone else is calling them?

TBH I`m not sure that list is massively helpful (sorry).
Especially the ones about when the dog is sleeping or eating. Personally, because I want the whistle recall to be a Pavlovian reflex, I wouldn`t use it in situations where the dog might not hear or might decide the reward isn`t worth losing the food in front of it.
Because you always want the recall to work, you sometimes have to desist from using it - like when a beagle is on a scent, or a Pointer is focussed on a pheasant. Interrupt, then whistle, sure - but don`t allow the concept of the whistle being optional to creep in.

I also want my dog t know there are times to relax and sleep and everytime he hears me etc dosnt mean come running....

I definatley dont want my dog going to whoever calls!! The amount of people that try to call him from the other side of a busy road etc - NO way I want him to do that, I dont really want him easily stolen either...

It'squite difficult to alter an adult dog's chasing target, but the best way to do it if the dog is really fixated is to remove the dog from the environment where it gets scents, or visual sightings, of the target concerned.

You can then usually alter the dog's chase target if the said target is chosen with great care to reflect the dog's needs.

Removing the scents/visuals at first can be quite hard, for example if the walks are always in bunny areas and the main target is a bunny, then that area has to be avoided until the dog is well and truly fixated on a different target.

Wys
x

On the rare occasions when a friend walked my dogs (who are whistle trained) I gave her the whistle. However, when she used it, they came dashing up, stared at her, then went looking for me!

Interested but not really understandign what you are saying here C&D. Probably me being a bit slow.

Can you expand please? dx

Now that you mention it, I could see that happening with most dogs youve got a clever bunch!

I know most people are being friendly but I cant stand it when people call him from the other side of a road, he ignores them and I'm glad so I don't discourage it/encourage him to look. I just dont get why people do that though...

I agree with this too - set them up for success....and youll get it. 'leave' would stop mine eating - then I can recall if I choose.

With hunting dogs especially, you have to be careful about when you use your precious whistle recall. The old saying being - You don`t blow your whistle up a gundog`s bum. Meaning that if there is little chance of the dog responding, there is a danger of weakening your recall.
So I might wake them first - then whistle - rather than chance them snoring on happily while I tootled fruitlessly away.