recall training approach for dog not interested in treats

[cockneydad]

We have an 18 month old staff/collie/maybe something else(!) cross. He is a lovely dog most of the time, very good with kids, quite passive, generally submissive with other dogs. We got him from a shelter as a puppy. He walks well on a halti (pulls a bit on a regular lead). He is trained to sit, wait (to some extent), lay down - but he has never got on with recall. A couple of times he has managed to get out of the house or slip off his collar (pre-halti days) and tears around with glee, which is pretty scary and obviously not good. The only way to catch him has been to wait for him to approach another dog and grab him- he never returns voluntarily. In the dog park he won't come back either - doesn't matter what treats you offer, he is just not interested. At the training school we used he just wouldn't play ball either. We thought about getting a behaviourist in, but really can't afford it. Any ideas anyone ?

Does he like tug? What about recall for a game of tug with a rope? Or another toy that he likes.

A few thoughts:

1. Part of his motivation for recall is to come back to you, so being with you, rather than doing whatever else he is doing has to be something he sees as rewarding. You need to be fun for him to be around, so that he's less bothered about leaving other dogs and happier to come back to you. Try out some different tones and pitches of voices with him and see which ones perk him up. Hide and then jump out on him when he can't see you, generally act less predictably and he might decide its worth keeping an eye on you. Some people find this hard, because, well basically you will end up looking a bit of a wally, leaping around using a silly voice and hiding behind trees and bushes from your dog - but it does work. I have a border collie X belgian shepherd who was an absolute nightmare as a pup, anyone, everyone and everything was more interesting than me - until I started making an effort to be more interesting to her. I once sat at the edge of a flood plain for over an hour with another helpless owner, while our two naughty pups leapt around together in the middle together completely oblivious to our existence, so I do know how frustrating it can be, but within a couple of months of that experience she had developed a really good recall, so it can be done.

1. If he isn't interested in treats, try making them extra tasty, things he wouldn't ordinarily get (try garlic liver cake, sausage slices, cheese) and simultaneously reduce the amount of food he's getting for meals, so that he has to work to get his full quota of calories for the day. If he's well fed and not hungry and also not at all that food motivated, then he won't be interested in treats.

If you can find a food reward that he likes, have you considered clicker training at all? Just starting simply with reinforcing and perfecting behaviours like the sit and down are a great place to start and you can work up from there. There are tonnes of resources on line for learning how to clicker train if you google.

That said, some dogs just aren't very food motivated and if you think this is the case, you need to find out what does motivate him - which leads me to thought number 3.

1. You need to do a bit of detective work to find out what he finds the most rewarding and then use that. Try toys with different squeaks (useful as he can hear them from a distance). Get really animated with them, make them interesting and then only let him play with them when he has earned it. My collie x has a particular squeaky ball that she only gets as a top grade reward for being super good and even then, only a quick play and it goes away again. As a result, she is so keyed into that ball that she only has to hear a tiny squeak of it from the other side of a field and she's back at my side like a rocket.

If you can, try and find two or three things that motivate him and class them as A/top-grade rewards (only for use very occasionally for top-notch responses) B/mid-grade rewards that you can use with him regularly for training sessions and C/low-grade rewards, which you can use regularly throughout walks etc to keep him interested and reward him for spontaneously coming back to you or looking at you etc. Only let him have access to these toys when you are in control. If you let him have free-access to them, you will reduce their allure and they will become less motivating.

Finally, if you are concerned about the running off and not having control, work on the down and stay commands lots and build them into an instant downstay, as this is something you can work on a lot at home and eventually out and about on a long lead. The first thing I teach all my dogs is an instant down, as even if you can't get them to come back to you, at least you can stop them running into danger etc. Basically, you need to work on getting him to respond to the down more and more quickly and build up how long you leave him in the down before releasing him. The clicker is a fantastic tool for doing this as well.