Help me save dog's recall

[PocketNiffler]

Hello! We have a 7 month old puppy. In the house, his recall is excellent (and we use it a lot to keep her practised). If we are out and about and there are no dogs then he is excellent. But he will not come back if he's playing with another dog. I've read pippa mattinson's puppy book, which says to build up distractions gradually, but there's no half-distracted with him - if there's another dog the he just won't come back. I tried keeping him on a man extendable lead but then he nearly throttled another dog while playing.

He's a breed that should be able to handle off the lead and recall. But I don't know what to do to get from where we are to where we want to be.

Well he's very young to have excellent recall so don't get too despondent. I'd use a long line rather than extendable to practice.

And sign up to Absolute Dogs - their Leash Off Game On DVD (which is free except for postage) teaches lots of fun games to help improve recall and generally checking in with you, however many other distractions there are around.

The one thing that really works with mine if she gets distracted is getting down to her level, arms open wide, and then shouting their name in a high pitched silly voice.

She immediately stops and comes legging it back to me thinking I'm being silly.

Have you tried that?

Or some very high value treat food. Practice with it.

Let him run a little call him back and treat. Hopefully then, he realises when you shout,'it's something good

My dog would not come back with distractions so if I spotted a dog or person in the distance I would put him on the lead and walk on until we had passed them before letting him off the lead again. He is now 9.5 months old and his recall without distractions is ok so I have started relaxing the putting on the lead and now he checks in with me before I give him an 'ok' to have a sniff and a play with another dog and will come away if I walk off and call his name. At 7 months of age he would not have done that and I think stopping him from automatically running off with other dogs at that age has helped.

I should also say my dog is a cocker and was great as a small puppy with recall outside the house but as we hit the adolescent period we lost it (as expected) and it is only now we are regaining it as he matures. I never bothered with a long lead or line because of the issue of it getting tangled so it was on lead if I knew he was not going to come back (person or dog approaching) otherwise off lead with lots of recall training which was variable when he hit the teen stage.

Thanks biteyshark, that has been my approach but he's much better at spotting dogs in the distance than me and runs off gleefully after them! So I will keep him on a lead for now I think, after much failed experimentation. Would you let him play with other dogs in a controlled environment (e.g. My friend's puppy in a back garden) or ???

My dog goes to daycare and when he is with the dog walker he plays and runs about with the other dogs but she doesn't have the same problem with recall as they all tend to run back together. Both me and her found it was only an issue when he was being walked on his own so I don't think letting him play in the garden etc would be a problem.