Teenage Recall

[5amisnotmorning]

Hi, we have an 8 month old male Cockerpoo who has working spaniel mum and is very much a spaniel in personality.

We have done LOTS of training but recall has gone out of the window when he gets a scent and nothing gets his attention. I have tried ball, flitpole (which he loves in the garden), hide and seek with me (which works unless he gets a scent), high value treats such as chicken, hotdogs, mackerel.

He has such a strong prey drive how do I teach him that the learned reaction to a scent is to come and check in with me rather than chase it?

I have a working cocker. I found it was best to work with the drive rather than against.

We chase balls and hunt them all the time on the walk.

You are at a difficult age though with the teenage phase and recall can go for many months.

Have you tried either recalling and then releasing at once to hunt again (so that recall doesn't mean that the fun is over), or the stop whistle (followed by either recall or release)? I have a very wide-ranging working-line dog and this has worked with her. I can go on a walk and stop her at a distance and do various things from there - throw a ball, call her in, release her again, walk up to her and reward her or do a spot of off-lead heel. She never quite knows what will happen next, which keeps her attentive. Because I do lots of fun stuff with her, she knows it worthwhile keeping tabs on me even if the fun stuff only happens sometimes.