Best way to recall your dog?

[BlueDobeGroup]

Both my guys are very smart dogs (as most Dobermans are) but we are having a heck of a time getting them to come to us off leash. PLEASE HELP!

[Mike D]

I don't have a clue. I'm hoping someone can help me with this one as well.

[Tombo]

i don't know either :( i need help too

[jelly8bean]

I have similar issues and especially when they are playing. I saw a great discussion on another board to make a dog come that I'm going to try. You start in the back yard... just you and the dog (you with treats). Every few min you say the dogs name, when the dog comes near you treat, tell it how wonderful it is, pet it and then tell it to go play again. Repeat every few minutes. Then start asking for eye contact in addition to coming to you. Don't ask for any sort of position and the dog can stand, lay down, sit, whatever. It just needs to come when you say its name with no force or correction. It needs to learn that great things happen when it hears its name. So when it starts coming to you without fail when you say its name, that is the time when you can start running from it so it has to chase you and catch you so it can get the reward. As the dog gets better at learning what you am trying to teach it, then introduce a toy and a big game happens when they come to you. Never ask a dog for position who you are teaching what recall means as they are two separate and distinct exercises.

Sounds good

[Rich S]

Sounds great, thanks for the advice we'll try it today.

[sally]

my dogs are very well trained in the house and do mostly everything i say. however, when i take my dogs for a long walk in the forest they run away!! i think they catch the scent of rabbits. any help would be appreciated.

[sally]

you have to compete with the rabbits and other exciting things when you are out with the dogs so use the dogs favourite treats show them the treats before letting them off their leads and call them make coming back to you exciting by giving lots of praise and that special treat, or play with the dog with a favourite toy which you keep for recalls so that the dog remains excited by the toy practice as much as you can it takes time when they come back lots of praise should be given

[sally]

Lots of practicing with distractions. They like their freedom when they are out and coming to you will ruin that fun. Patricia McConnell has a DVD called Lassie Come! How to get your dog to come every time you call. (888)566-3003 www.TAWERDOGVIDEOS.COM

[sally]

There are plenty of dog training programmes on TV but recall has to be patiently taught at short distance by praise and reward. Just try in the house to sit your dog down, walk a short distance away and then call him and make him sit in front of you when you then praise him a lot and give a small biscuit treat. Gradually increase the distance between you and eventually move into the garden and train him there. When the dogs return every time, try the exercise on their long walks and hope the rabbits don't prove more attractive than the praise and reward!

[sally]

Some dogs are harder to train than others. The bloodhound is notorious for running off after a scent and ignoring commands. Best way to start training is at home. If you have kids/nephews have them come to the house. Give them handfulls of treats and have them hide in the house. Then have them call the dogs. When the dogs find them, they get a treat. Then take them to a local dog park. Let them run for a while. Take a favorite treat or hotdog pieces or something they will drool over. After a while call them to you. When they come give them a treat and let them run off again. Sometimes as owners, we tend to want the dog to come to us when they are having lots of fun. If we are more inviting that what they are doing, they'll want to come back. Depending on the dog, this could take 2 weeks or more to train them to come willingly when called regardless of distraction. Just remember, if you tell your dog to come and then when he does you scold/hit him or otherwise make it an unpleasant thing, he won't want to come to you when called. If you make it the best thing in the world to come when called, he's more likely to want to do so. Hope this helps. My friends is a trainer and she told me to do this for my dogs.

[tomc]

It's rough. I have very obedient Shelties but when they see a squirrel, rabbit, or especially deer; it's like we'll never see them again! It's very scary as they have chased deer and not returned for hours and I'm afraid they'll run into a road or possibly even be attacked by an angry buck or protective mother doe. Unfortunately, your safest bet is to keep them on the leash when you go walking in the forest especially if the forest is unfamiliar and they could get lost. We take our dogs to our private beach and let them run up and down the shore so we can keep an eye on them. However, you may not have a private beach. I know you want them to be able to run around and have fun without being restratined on their leashes. Can you jog with them for exercise while they are on their leashes? Do you have a fenced in area in your yard for exercise? See if there is a 'doggy park' nearby that's fenced in that they can play in. You know what is also a wonderful way for dogs to get exercise and have fun as well as you? AGILITY! My dogs just love the obstacles and since they are so smart; they do very well at it. Dogs that are used to running thru the woods and jumping over creeks and trees that fell down are great at it. Think about it. Dog agility is very popular and there are lots of clubs that offer it. And keep on working with your dogs while on walks when they see or smell rabbits. Do the "leave it" command and get them to heel. A good obedience instructor can help you more with this. GOOD LUCK!

[tomc]

Unless the dog understands there will be serious consequences for not obeying a command, there is little you can do to make them recall when there is a stronger temptation out there then the treat you have in your hand.
What you have described here is the classical method of almost all dogs trained today, no proofing done at the end of training.
I use the Electric collar to train my dogs, especially the recall which in my opinion is the most important command.
My dogs know there will be a correction if they do not listen the first time, every time because they have been conditioned that way.
You can start with the prong and a 20 foot line and correct the dog when he does not respond, but, there will be a conflict and it will effect the relationship between you and him.
That is the reason I like the E collar. Find someone who knows how to use one properly and teach you and give it a try, I think you will like the results you will get!

[tomc]

Buy a very long leash (some come in 20ft+ lengths). let them run while holding the other end. recall them before they reach the end. Or, use your recall when they hit the end of the leash. repeat several times until they get it. Then, try without the least. Should take you about one week in order for them to understand you.

[Rich S]

Buy a very long leash (some come in 20ft+ lengths). let them run while holding the other end. recall them before they reach the end. Or, use your recall when they hit the end of the leash. repeat several times until they get it. Then, try without the least. Should take you about one week in order for them to understand you.

Great suggestion tomc, we'll give it a go.

[Kimbertalkls]

Okay, First of all there are four things people do to ruin their recall.
1. You get up in the night to trudge to the bathroom and you flip on the light just as you realize your left foot is wet... You yell for the dog and as it sleepily approcahes you point to the puddle, swat him and tell him he is bad. This is like your neighbor calling you over and then punching you when you get there. The next time your neighbor calls you, unless arned, you ignore him. If you call your dog for any reason he can only be praised when he gets there.
2. You are walking the dog and he stops to sniff so you say, come on, come on, but you mean on by or hurry up. Then when he is running in the park you yell come on and he runs faster...
3. You open the back door and tell the dog to come. He runs past you into the house. You go to get into the car and you tell him comeon, get in. You are in the park and you tell him come on and are thinking"dumb dog" as he zips back and fourth past you while he thinks..."Where the heck do you want me to go?"
4. You are watching tv and it dawns on you that Snaggle has been out of sight for sometime and is probably into something. You call him but realize he was under the end table sound asleep so you tell him "No,no, stay there." Then when you call hime he comes into sight in the park because now he thinks come means you just want to see him...
Come means to you and sit. Teach On by, get in the car, and put a sign on the back door so the kids say, "Let's go, in the house and not the c word....
Also walk the dog on leash right towards a distraction, cat , squirrel, bike, and when the dog is paying attention to it and not you give him slack and say "NAME, come, then back up about 5 quick steps. If the dog is alert he will whip around and do a uturn. If not he will run out of leash quickly and give himself a correction. If you do this whenever it is distracting the dog will watch you closer in a distracting situaution. Do not put the dog in an off lead situation until he has had not correction but turns and smartly comes back to you. Also whether he came or had a correction and was reeled in the dog is praised the same when seated in front of you. Anne

[DynamicDuo]

Okay, First of all there are four things people do to ruin their recall.



WOW, yeah that all makes sense! And I was going to mention it's best to work with one dog at a time, until they both get it. Otherwise they tend to act like kids.........if one is not going to listen - it seems like they both won't listen!

[Kimbertalkls]

Also, if you have a slow recaller try calling the dog and then turning and running out the back door, closing it behind you. Outside, call and then turn and run around the corner of the building. When the dog comes around the corner, be facing it but back up quickly encouraging the pup to come in front of you into the proper position. The dog will start to respond faster if it thinks it will miss out on the walk or something else because you will disappear. Anne

[MLR]

Sally,

I have to agree with you that the methods you discribe are the best way to teach a dog to willingly come to you off leash.

The problem I have is that there is no dog specific area I can take my two dobes to let them off leash. It's either a fenced in city owned playground at an elementary school or a fenced in track at the middle school. I don't/wouldn't trust either of them off leash out in a wide open area without a fence around it. There are people out there who would steal my dogs just because of the breed and I want them in my sight at all times because of this danger.

This, among other reasons, is why I use an electric shock collar on both dogs. They need to run but under city ordinance they must be under my control at all times even off leash.

Whether they like it or not my dogs come to me really quickly off leash with the shock collar on. Except of course when they come upon a cat, rabbit or squirl. But in the two places where I let them off the leash they don't usually encounter those kinds of critters.

I don't mean to imply that I shock them continuiously; there is a tone feature on the clickers for the collars I bought that can be used as a warning. After they got used to the idea that come meant come and sit meant sit and it meant right now with giving them the shock I find I use the tone more than anything now, if at all when giving thoses commands in the off leash setting.

Funny thing is when we encounter another dog at the playground who has a containment system at home, all I have to do is hit the tone button on one of my dogs collars and all of them will stop fooling around and sit for a minute. One particular dog this has happened with is a lab mix named Harley whose owners and I have gotten to know each other as we encounter each other on walks outside of the playground. My two dobes play real well with Harley and the added benifit of the tone button on the shock collar helps out when say another dog is being walked on the sidewalk outside of the playground. None of the three will go after it if I hit that tone button.

And as they have gotten older I find that they basically just come on their own when I call them. They really don't want to be away from me and they know their limits because we have been going to the same two places for so long. I mean, if I go sit at 'our' picnic table that's where they play or lay down. If I get up and walk over to the toddler slide/jungle gym, they follow without being called and climb up the stairs and go down the dual slide together. (I only do the latter in the evening around 7:00pm so as to avoid small children being there.) Mary Lou

[SnuzerDog]

I have been pondering this same question. Been doing alot of reading on training methods, most of which agrees with Kimbertalkls' perspective of inadvertently associating their name with fear/punishment/embarrassment, and then expecting them to come when we call!
I was your classic 'rolled up newspaper/browbeating' dog trainer with my last dog, and I always wondered why he never truly was obedient. Taking a 4 year hiatus after his death, I committed to learning as much as I could about 'positive methods' training (remember Barbara Woodhouse's No Bad Dogs!?) before I took on another dog. I have really been surprised and pleased with the crazy amount of books, dvds, TV shows, websites and such that is available from so many different sources on training. And you can bet they don't all agree, but in sampling them all I have come to the conclusion that the 'positive' approach is what is best for both dog and owner and simply makes the most sense from a psychological point of view for home ownership.

In particular, I am currently experimenting with clicker training; this was developed by Karen Pryor back in the 70's as a tool to train creatures that could not be punished- killer whales, grizzly bears, etc. It was then logically applied to other creatures such as dogs, cats, birds and even goldfish with great success. I am currently reading her first book (I think) titled Don't Shoot the Dog, which surprisingly is more about training psychology as applied to all living beings (including humans) than it is about dogs- but it's extremely interesting and intriguing. So far, my efforts in clicker training my Deano have been well rewarded. I have been using it for about 3 weeks on our twice-daily walks mainly to train good loose-leash, by-my-side, walking- and while it's taken a bit of time for him to figure it out, I am certain he is making the connection and beginning to extrapolate. Also, it took some effort on my part to get used to the clicker, treats, leash, winter coat/hat/gloves, poo bag and using them all together! But, I figured out a system that works for me, and it is rapidly becoming easier to do, and I can see results, which is my treat! Check out these websites:
http://www.clickertraining.com/whatis (you don't really need to shop, just alot of informative links;) )
http://www.dog-obedience-training-review.com/index.html
http://www.clickersolutions.com/
http://www.kathysdao.com/articles.html

There's really alot of stuff out there, these are just a few pages I had bookmarked- dig deep and read long! Then get your buddy and have fun! :p

[jelly8bean]

Hey, I'm using clicker training with Indigo on the loose leash walk as well. We are not there yet.. but just about. She still gets really distracted by other dogs, but her heeling around the house and in the back yard (off leash) is to die for. Time and consistency are the keys. Her recall is pretty good because I have always carried treats and I did the .. every time she comes over to me treat thing in the backyard. She does well off leash in our obedience classes and the dog park.. but I am not ready for the great outdoors yet.. Other dogs and squirrels are our bane right now.