Teaching recall - bloody ^how^??

[KoalaDownUnder]

I've posted about this before, but am currently at end of my tether.

My 4-year-old lurcher's recall is shit. She comes when she feels like it, but if she doesn't - she really doesn't.

We live right near a dog beach and multiple dog parks. She is missing out because she's just too unpredictable: e.g. chases people while they're swimming. Obviously really not okay.

I've tried the long-line reward-based training (increase length of line, reward dog for coming, etc). She doesn't bloody go anywhere! If she's on a long line, she just sort of wanders around following me and looking at me. If I unclip the line, she takes off like a rocket.

I've tried taking her to parks and beaches on a long lead. It doesn't work and is dangerous. She nearly rips my fingers off if she decides to chase something. Lead gets tangled. I get pulled over in the water. Etc.

I've paid for classes and for individual training. I can't afford to throw any more $$ at this right now.

Can anyone who's had a similar problem suggest anything? Clicker training? Techniques I can learn online? I'm willing to put in the hours.

Sorry for long post and thanks in advance!

I do dog whistle, high pitched call of dog, run away from her, get her to chase me. That's worked well so far. Still need to work on the running PAST me thing though.....

try running away yourself, preferably making as much noise as possible This is a very useful trick, as is just walking off after a quick call or whistle. It puts the ball in the dog's court, though it isn't failsafe.

One thing I did (still do) with mine is to play and hide and seek. Now and then, on a walk when he is happily preoccupied with rabbit smell etc I will tuck myself into cover and holler, 'Find me!' He knows I'm there - but where? Similarly, I'll take a random route without calling to him. It makes walks unpredictable, so now he's learned to stop where the paths split and wait for guidance.

If you dog likes to play, is there one special toy you can keep for recall games, ready to brandish at moments of crisis?

I've got a working cocker spaniel, and he was a dream dog until he got to 18 months and he went through a really bad phase. He wasn't remotely food motivated, I tried the Total Recall book (it is very good by the way) but just wasn't getting it right - until we found a squeaky ball! He will literally stop what he's doing in a instant with a squeaker, and we slowly but surely got there and he's now 99% reliable to come back to me - if there are no pheasants!! He's now nearly 4 and we can walk without the ball, but I do take one every so often just as a reminder. One lady I know that also has a cocker kept the squeaker out of a broken toy and just keeps it in her pocket for the odd reminder. You need to find that one thing that your dog can't resist - (excluding cats and pheasants ) and it makes training a lot easier.

These ideas are so awesome!! Difficult to reply individually right now, but I'm so grateful! Will come back to thread later

Hyacinths Either your friend knows me or there are two of us wandering around randomly squeaking!

Or you know me, rather. Sorry, misread!

Lots of great ideas....bookmarking for the future. 😊

I'm currently training a very stubborn schnauzer using theTotal Recall book. Today was our first day using the whistle outside (it's taken about 3 weeks to get this far), It worked a treat!

We mostly use a whistle and recall randomly throughout the walk, sometimes I call his name, sometimes we use "wossis?" and the nuclear option (which we haven't used for a while) is a squeaky ball. We do recall games quite often - recall, then run away, hide and seek and restrained recalls. We always make it fun and every now and then give him a jackpot reward. We also have this fab game called 'this way' which consists of rolling slices of sausage along the path, two peeps of the whistle and calling 'this way', then immediately throwing the treat in the opposite direction and doing the same thing, repeat a few times. My dog thinks this is the bestest fun ever ... and it also comes in very handy if there's something I want him to avoid!

His recall is pretty good now but I don't let him fail (as much as I can) - if there are picnickers around he goes straight back on the lead!

Start recall in the house. Crouch down, and call dog in an OTT excited voice 'ooh what's this. 'come DD' then treat. If she wont come/runs away call her and run in the opposite direction.she will follow you. Treat again.

Can you l meet me other dog walkers? My mums dog didn't have to be taught recall, she learnt by copying the older dog.

No advice as I've never had a lurcher, but chasing swimmers made me laugh! On our beach it's usually mostly labs in the water.

I am also following Total Recall at the moment with 5y/o DDog! Definitely give it a go. Up until now, he's only ever come back to the sound of a Land Rover engine, mainly in fear he will be left behind on the yard...

We haven't actually used the whistle 'on location' yet, just in the house and garden, but I've already noticed a huge difference in how GinDog reacts around me - normally on a walk, he gets let off the lead and disappears for the majority of the walk, only to come back as I reach the end myself.

Now, all of a sudden, he is close to me for almost the entire walk. He's never pulling on the lead when he's on it. He listens when I let him know we're changing direction. I barely recognise him. I've no idea how this has come about as, as I said, we haven't started the whistle on our walks yet. Perhaps he just knows where he stands with me a bit better now? I've no idea.

I am going to persist because, as yet, we haven't met anyone on a walk in the last few weeks, which is when he normally becomes a pain. (He's very territorial and so runs off to find out who someone is, or runs off to see another dog). I'm still chipping away at the whistle around the house, and he comes even just hearing me pick the damn thing up - he's not dumb! So hopefully with more practise, he will be able to come to the whistle if we're ever in the position of bumping into someone on our walks.

I should also add that on the odd occasion where he has been far away and sees a dog he hasn't come back on the first whistle which was my mistake as I let him get too far away from me. However I crouched down blew the whistle again and made exciting type noise which seemed to do the trick.

I would like to reply to people's posts individually but I can't log in on my laptop and I keep messing up the quotes on my phone. 😳

Meantime, a photo of D (sometimes) Dog: