Owners of dogs with no re call- this way please.

[Tobleronemonster]

Hi,

I have a 15 month old labxcocker and she's goooorgeous, but my goodness she's hard work.

She can be an angel, but there are several things we're working on her with. One being re call.

She used to have some, but now...nada.

We are working with a behaviourist, but she's been incredibly busy recently and we haven't seen her for a long time. We haven't even got as far as taking her off the lead with her yet. Just used one of those really long ones. Not the extendable ones. She'd snap those in 2 seconds!

I wouldn't worry so much, but she's a VERY strong dog, as you'd probably gathered, so it's not much fun having her on her lead all the time and she's got so much energy, so obviously it's frustrating for her.

It's got to the stage where I just don't look forward to our walks anymore.

Any advice? Success stories?

I have a lab who is very strong, though not so much now as she is older.
I have always used a halti body harness when walking her on the lead.
Recall is just practice. You need to be more interesting than everything else when out on a walk. Tasty treats and continual recall practice on the walk. Every few steps call her, bend down, be over excited and give her a treat. Don’t let her run off until you say she can go. Make it a game. It will happen.

No recall here either but at 9 months it's almost par for the course and I'm still hoping he'll grow out of it.

I too have the long line and look forward to one day being able to get rid of it.....

What did your behaviourist suggest?

Oh dear you’ve probably got one of the worst mixes for recall there . Yes, constant practice is the thing. Even at home. I practice it randomly but often, I wait till my boy Labrador is out of sight from me in the garden or house and blow my Thunderer whistle hard, he comes galloping immediately, and he always gets the treat (he wouldn’t give a rats otherwise ) . We did this a lot before trying it outside and when we did I didn’t let him get more than a few steps ahead before whistling. Can’t say he’s perfect though, but he’s 11 now so probably as good as he’s ever going to be!

My cocker completely lost his recall during his teenage months and I hated every walk during that time.

However, I just stuck with it and it came back with both a combination of maturity but also because I stopped 'walking' him and started working on what made him tick. He was actually running off because he wanted to hunt. The reason I mention this is because your dog is a cross with a cocker so you may find she has a lot of that trait in her. Walking was boring so he found something more interesting such as hunting so nose down and off he went. As soon as I stopped walking and started throwing a ball and then hiding another for him to hunt out his behaviour really changed as suddenly I was great fun as he could hunt and 'win' ( find the ball) and because he needed me to help him he didn't ever want to be away from me. Now when he sees a bird or something to chase I just squeak a ball and he comes flying back.

You really do need to find out what she 'values' and for you to be way more rewarding that anything else. For my dog walking through a forest with me wandering about is dull unless I actually get him hunting and chasing the things I throw for him.

Thanks for all the messages so far.

Her behaviourist explained the whole needing to be more interesting than everything else around, but I just can't seem to find what that is. I honestly could take out a leg of lamb with me and she still would ignore me. She's never bothered about ball games when we're out either. She sometimes picks up the ball, but will just runs away and drops it on the floor.

Mine have great recall...

Until there is another person/dog/cat around 🙈

2 year old Goldie here.
He’s great - until he spots a person or other dog then nothing will distract him from his goal of running at it at full speed. This seems to frighten some people ( even though he is a big softie ) so as soon as I spot anyone/thing he’s back on his lead.
Thing is, once he’s properly “greeted” whoever he has run at he will happily come back but obviously this can only be allowed with people we know

Oh and he’s not interested in balls either.

Mine seemed very uninterested in balls at first so I would throw one and he would run for it but then would just pick it up and drop it. But then I started just throwing two balls about in the opposite direction and eventually he realised that to continue to chase it he had to bring it back.

Also with the hunting maybe start by hiding a ball in the house and garden and have a 'find it' command and help her then try outside. Or take along a tug toy and 'play' with her when walking for a few mins then put it away before she gets bored so she wants more of it and keep doing that for a few mins.

My dog would run off (I actually lost him for 5-10 mins in the forest) chasing deer and other things. It was hell. You would never know that now as dogs and people walk by and he isn't interested at all as all he want is for me to play with him. The downside is though we no longer go for traditional walks as I have to be entertaining.

What recall - I have a beagle - until he gets free - then I don’t 😱

DFs boy is brother to my girl.
He had piss poor recall until recently- partly because if he didn't come back first time he got told off (thus had no incentive to come back).
The single biggest improvement came when I started taking him to flyball with my girl.
It's basically a constant recall game and when paired with a very high value treat (liver or tuna cake) worked brilliantly.
It's not 100% but there is a VAST improvement.

If you don't have recall please don't let your dogs off the lead.

Tobleronemonster just keep trying different things to be interesting. Mine is not particularly food focussed when he's out and about either.

I struck lucky and had him off lead within a couple of weeks of starting walks (so, about 12 weeks old) and this instilled a really firm behaviour that he stays within eye shot when off lead, at all times. Mostly .

However, he does have his distractions and so things I use to keep him focussed on me:

• I run. I hate it and look like a twat doing so but I found pretty quickly that he'll chase me because he thinks it's a game. At least a few times each walk I will run off and call him playfully to chase me. If I see another dog and notice he is making a decision about whether to run off or not I call him name happily and run AWAY from him. More times than not he will chase me.

• I hide. If he gets distracted and is not looking at me, I hide from him (though still keep him in my sights). When he notices I am missing and finds me we have a great celebration and lots of praise. Over time this has meant hiding gets harder and harder as he always has half an eye out to see where I am.

• I never wait for him. Whilst I am always keeping a sneaky eye on him, I don't wait for him to catch up. It's 'his job' to keep up with me - running also helps here too.

• I try to take the unusual route. For e.g, we often walk down an old railway track. Instead of just following the track, every now and again we'll scramble down the sides (about 40 feet). He sticks with me because we are doing something new and interesting and a bit strange. I also try to go on walks there there are lots of different ways round so we can choose different ones each time - this means he has to wait for me at a cross road because he is never sure which way is the right way.

• I try and find smelly things (mine is a spaniel too so loves to smell) we can investigate together. This might be an old rabbit warren entrance or and old, fallen tree. If we find a tree, I might jump over it (or step rather inelegantly) and encourage him to do the same.

• I found he loves chasing sticks. They are not brilliantly safe for dogs so we will have to transition him to something else, like a ball, but in the meantime if I have a stick in my hand he is often interested. I just make it condition that he has to come right back to me before I throw it. I also discovered (this morning) that he can pick out a stick that I have held for 2-3 seconds, from of a pile of sticks, using just his nose. He got excessive praise for that because it looks like something we could use in future.

• We established a touch game in which he touches my hand with his nose and I yell "booya!" and laugh and praise him. We did this in the house loads first and eventually moved it outside. He loves doing this and knows that almost all the time it doesn't result in anything else, like the lead being clipped back on, so will recall for that.

• He is not food fussed but still enjoys a game of hunt the treat (presumably because it involves his nose). I just take a small handful of stinky treats and chuck them into long grass and encourage him to sniff them out. This is quite good because he often misses one or two and I can point them out to him - thus making me a bit more valuable to listen to .

• I try to match my energy to his. This means at the start of walk I have to make an effort to be buoyant, energetic and upbeat. Towards the end of the walk we can both settle into a more sedate and calm trot along.

What does your dog ENJOY doing? I am guessing she might like using her nose and carrying things - as her breeds suggest?

I have a patterdale x and recall was an issue for us until he was about 10 months old . We cracked it in a couple of ways although with provisos . Firstly we found something that he really loves , for my dog that is balls , so he is not allowed balls at home at all ( unless he’s being played with in the garden) , this makes them more valuable when we are out and I always have one more ball than he can fit in his mouth so I always have one to attract him with . He’s only allowed off in certain places so our local heath , parks ( without ponds) and the beach as he would otherwise decimate the local wildlife / chase things down holes and get lost . The last thing with ours is that he won’t return to us , I’ve no idea why , so we taught him a very strong down command and when I want him back I call ‘down’ and he drops and waits for me to get to him . This is also very useful if I can see that he is getting into any trouble ie running towards a road / people / other dogs on leads .

Ha! I did NOT realise I had typed so bloody much

As missbattenburg mentioned you do need to become unpredictable. Often they are happy to not come to you because they know exactly where you are. In fact often shouting for them just reinforces that as they are 'safe' in the knowledge that they can run off but will come back in their own time.

I spent weeks in a safe area early in the morning simply walking off in the opposite direction to my dog. Every time he came running past I turned and walked off without saying a word. He 'had' to keep an eye on me then as he couldn't trust that I would be there and started watching and following me.

There are secure dog walking fields you can hire by the hour - it might help run off some energy and act as a good place to practice

Haven't had time to read full thread.

We had to admit defeat with one of our dogs. Her prey drive is too high (beagle). She just yips off into the world without a backward glance.

What we do to cope:

Make our peace with it. There are just some things that the best trainer in the world cannot solve.
Hire a secure field regularly for a proper run
Cani cross (she's brilliant)
Very sniffy walks (can explain more if needed)
Long lead walks
Tracking line on a waist belt

She's such a sweetheart in so many other ways, it's just our way of life now!

Don't set the dog up for failure - so many people inadvertently do this.

So start with longline, which is shortened when other dogs or people are anywhere near by. (Initially as soon as they enter your field of vision).

Then find somewhere you can see further than your dog (I found a great public field with fairly tall hedge, which I could just about see over, to see people approaching but my dog couldn't until they entered the field). We would do loads of recall practice, with no distractions and not when he was busy sniffing something - so it was always worth him coming back for the treat.

Then I gradually started letting him off the lead in other places, but recalling the second someone came into vision and using his wait command to stop him going around corners a head of me.

Very gradually I started leaving it slightly later to recall (literally by a second or two, at a time) and only increasing once he'd recalled perfectly (first time, everytime) for a few days. Eventually we worked up to being able to do it no matter how close another dog or person was.

The other thing was he doesn't seem to hear my voice, when something distracts him. But responds very quickly to me whistling and patting my hands on my thighs - so that's my recall method, rather than his name or come here or other word command.

That was what I did with my Cavalier - it took from 9months old (when I finally figured out the above method) to 12months old to build it up fully in that way - so 3months of hard work but it was worth it in the end.

My cocker is now 10months and won't yet leave my side and is very focused on me on walks. So we can't actually practice recall out and about (we do in the house and garden but it's not the same). Goodness knows when he will move away enough on a walk to start being able to proof his recall out and about. It worries me that it'll suddenly stop one day and he'll run off. He does however walk beautifully on a lead because of his focus.

missbattenburg has hit the nail on the head really.
Running away from the dog is usually a sure fire way to get them to chase after you - I run away and then try to disappear from view and it (almost always) brings him running over.
Still not perfect despite months of long line training so I've got very good at spotting other dogs before he does and calling him back.

Marking place to read thread later when I have more time, I laughed at your 'leg of lamb' description

I have a Border Collie who's recall is terrible, can't let her off lead unless in a secure area, and she's so high energy that being off lead would be great for her.

Try and find a secure dog walking field where you can let her have a good blast to burn off some energy. You will find that at this age, she will be more cooperative and willing to listen if she's tired first.

Get the book Total Recall by Pippa Mattinson. Follow every instruction to the letter. It honestly works. It took me a good year to fully train my dog, but by the end of it he had a 100% recall. He was a greyhound and I could call him off a squirrel or a rabbit in full chase. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I have a lab and despite trying every tasty treat available, racing around like a loon and generally making a total fool of myself, other dogs and people were always far more interesting. She has a very strong retrieve instinct ( no sock or shoe is safe) and much to my amazement we have cracked it. I put an old cricket ball in a old rugby sock and retrieving this is far more interesting than any food or person. Dogs are still a distraction but her sock soon gets her attention.

And as per previous PP she is only allowed her special sock on walks, she is not allowed balls at home. By putting it in a sock if she tries to shake it it clonks her on the head. We were Intending to train her to pick up so you need to prevent them shaking a bird. It teaches them to carry anything very carefully. She has a very soft mouth and can pick up and carry balloon water bombs without bursting them. She is too interested in other dogs to be reliable on a shoot.