Learning recall

[Mairyhinge]

Hi hope you can help...my pup is 9 weeks & has had 1 lot of injections so he's only going out in the garden.
I'm worried about his recall as he doesn't seem to recognise his name, so I'm concerned about when I do take him out, how will I get him back??!

I found when they are tiny they follow you about as you are their world. However, I did practice recall in the garden. Calling his name then come and patting my legs and rewarding him with a high value treat. I also purchased a whistle and when he ran to me blew it (4 quick pips) and then progressed from there to associate whistle with recall.

The first time I let mine off he was about 4 months but I wish I had done it earlier. I made sure we were in a fairly isolated and enclosed bit and found he just ambled about but kept very close.

I let mine off immediately. He stuck to me like glue when out in the big wide world. Lots of fantastic treats like cocktail sausages. 9 weeks is still very young. Just work on getting him to come to his name in the house first. The garden might be too distracting. We also taught a nose touch. Flat palm pointing towards the floor. When he plants his nose on it 'good boy!!!' - sausage.

When he got to about 6 months he started buggering off and not wanting to go home, so we let him run around with a 5m long line dangling from his harness. It meant we could easily step on the line to stop him running away and then call his name and real him in for a treat. It worked perfectly and now he comes instantly when called.

Some great ideas, thanks.