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 feel your pain. I’ve got a greyhound who had great recall which is rare for the breed.
A year in and she’s fine unless she sees another dog she wants to play with.

She’s started charging off at top speed, growling and woofing with excitement.
No dog wants to be approached like that, although most get that she wants to play and means no harm. Other owners are terrified - I had a woman literally pick her GSD up the other day.

I used to have a reactive dog and would curse those bloody owners that let their dog run up to mine.

Now, I am that owner

We did Total Recall too Thymelord.

I was so bloody smug when we cracked it. I think we’re going back to basics.

My old lab was everyone’s friend and when he was a puppy would launch themselves across fields to get to someone over 200 metres away just to run round them saying hello. I spoke to a dog trainer and as recommended a remote control collar that puffs compressed air ( with a sharp hissing noise) when I pressed a button on the remote. It wasn’t cheap, about £150 but the first time I used it he launched himself in the air in shock and ran straight back to my side. It took less that two weeks for his recall to be completely reliable, best £150 I ever spent.

The trainer did say that you need to be sure that, if startled, the dog will return to you and not just run for the hills, so we tried it out first in an enclosed field. My current lab will return for treats, she always gets a very small training treat when I call her back.

Total recall.
Plus, for the bolshy dogs, life is always going to be a training course.

I've got a 5 yr old cocker, and his teenage years truly were horrendous. We had a long training line that I didn't ever think he'd come off at one stage. His high value treat is a squeaky toy - instant distraction, and he comes back. Took me around a year to work it out though.... balls, toys, food - wasn't interested!! He can still have selective hearing at times - it's the breed - but the trick is always keeping them close and I find running in the opposite direction and shouting "bop bop bop" noises will always make him follow..... even if I look like a total plank . I've also got a whistle (Acme silent one) that seems to grab his attention too if he's snuck off further than I'd like. You will get there, honest.

Don't feel bad, so many dogs off the lead shouldn't be. The owners can't get them back when they really need to and the dogs put themselves in danger as a result. In our area it seems like there is a different lost dog every day on Facebook who ran off and wouldn't come back and is lost for hours if not days. We have given up with our terrier apart from when we are on the sea wall where his options for buggering off are very limited. Thankfully he is at least polite to other dogs. Our spaniel is good as gold thankfully and always has been. I don't think there's any shame in walking along with a dog on a lead.

I have a wire haired fox terrier over here. Notoriously bad breed for recall. Escaped out my front door on three occassions as a pup, twice ending up in the park and the third at the pub. Recall a nightmare, only food would work unless he got the sniff of a squirrel and he was off. Didn't try him off the lead until he was 18mths due to the escapes. Treats in hand, started off in the tennis courts (quiet early morning), we would stand at either end and call him and give him a treat when he came when called. Long lead when not in the area, lots of positive praise and treats when he responded to us. Took a long time to get him to a stage where he is on the whole safe off the lead, he will still at times turn on his heels when he fancies but doesn't run off but I have to walk over to him to put the lead on, will take off after a fox but does return. We don't need to use treats now but with his aloof nature I always keep a little something just incase. He wasn't interested in ball games either!

When my two start slipping a little bit with their recall (labxgoldie and working cocker) we start playing hide and seek at home so they have to follow the whistle.
Much fun when I had my cub pack on the beach last week and DH didn’t realise so walked the dogs there and all the cubs heard my DD say “is that Dad and girl dog? Well where’s boy dog?” So they all started calling his name.
One whistle from me and both dogs came over, said hello got a big lump of wood and went back to DH for their walk when he whistled.

Bookmarking very interesting topic

Definitely Total Recall book and hiring a secure field to practice. My spaniel gets bored easily and goes off to hunt, she has to be busy and working during a walk. We play finding games when I chuck a tennis ball into long grass, or practice agility running between trees, or a bit of obedience. Someone else mentioned flyball was helpful. If you can give them a 'job' which you can learn separately, like obedience/agility/flyball/tracking then you can start to incorporate those skills into a walk. Some working dogs prefer the actual work to the toy/treat that's given as a reward

The dog books are not right every time for every dog. Our pup is very young and is supposed to follow us and search if we go out of sight. Supposedly every puppy does this. Our puppy hasn’t read the books and would rather explore.

Me too Arse I used to let him go on beaches just so I could smugly stand there blowing my whistle. Ready to start training new boy this weekend, using the same book. He's a prey driven loon so it should be fun....

My dog has zero recall. He’s a breed not know for their brilliant recall, and I’ve only had him since he was over a year, so we never had the ‘small puppy attentive’ stage, plus his history probably includes being used for hunting. It made me quite sad at first - when you think of a happy dog you picture them frolicking about in a lovely meadow or on a beach (well I do, maybe it’s just me...) but he gets to go on long walks on his lead, and I let him wander around and sniff whatever he wants, and he does agility (sort of...slightly hampered by the same reasons he can’t be off lead) and sometimes I hire a field where he can run around (it’s not terribly close, or I’d do it more often). We used to do off lead training very early in the morning in the tennis courts in the park, but then the council started sending people dressed as dog walkers to give out fines...I see their point, but there’s nowhere else which is secure for people who want to be responsible and not let their defective non-recallable dogs maraude around all over the place (someone asked if there was an area which could be made secure for dogs...the reply was ‘dogs shouldn’t be off lead anyway’. Helpful )

Wow! Lots of great advice. Thank you. I'm glad this thread will help others too.

I agree with the pp , some dogs have not read the books if I ran in the opposite direction to my dog he’d just use it as an excuse to find a fox hole to bury himself down , he certainly wouldn’t chase me or worry about me being out of sight .

I have an English pointer x Lab, he does come back but travels long distance before hand. I can't use a long line as can't hold him if he goes, he's 45 kilos of pure muscle. I have played games, loads of training, do agility, always have treats and toys, if he sees something he will just go, he will come back but will cause mayhem, so can only let him off in an enclosed area or where there is lots of space and no one around, he is 3, so I live in hope one day I can let him off with people and other dogs about. He's great at agility as he is so forward thinking I can just stand there and tell him where to go from a distance and he will do a whole course without me hardly moving 😊

Thanks for the thread. We are attempting to train our Patterdale/JRT cross who is approx 6 months old.
He managed it (just) at the beginners dog training classes but they have a nice secure field area and our local parks aren't like that.
We are currently experimenting with a ball and long-line which worked for our old JRT but former terrier was ball obsessed and new puppy isn't as interested and has a stronger prey drive. As one local park has wooded area with squirrels etc. am not sure that I trust him there.

I have two terries, one is great at recall, the other ‘usless’ Trouble is he also just legs it, he’ll go completely out if site and has a nasty habit of car chasing so he’s now always on a lead. We have lots of farm land close by but as he just runs off we can’t let him off he lead there either