Bad recall and too confident!

Ok people, need a bit of help please.

Ralph is 5 and a half months now. We've been going to training with him which is positive reward based and he is doing really well. All the basics (sit, down, leave, stay, paw, etc.) were well and truly mastered when he was 12 weeks. All good.

My main reason for the training classes were the recall and socialisation. I wanted him around as many dogs as possible so that when we're out, I know I've done all I can to help him have a good temperament, and also importantly for him to come back to us when called. With the Staffy reputation, I wanted him to be so well behaved. :-)

I also wanted a confident dog, to me nervous = potential for aggressive.

Anyway, recall was going ok, whilst we were out, we made sure to have treats and to keep calling him back and rewarding him with lots of praise and a titbit. He was doing well.

The only issue with him coming back was when there was either other people or other dogs around, so if I saw another dog, I'd put him on the lead until we went past, but as the trainer said, we need to allow him into the situation of coming away from another dog, which won't happen if he's put on the lead. She also said that this may cause other issues with Ralph thinking, hang on, they've put me on the lead again so I must need to be scared of this situation. Good point. Hadn't thought of it like that.

So now we don't do that, but are so struggling with him coming back if there is another dog or person.

Over the last few days he has run off through the woods to get to another dog and just won't come back. He'd gone way out of sight the other day I had to leg it up the path and found him with another dog and owner, at which point I just held his collar until they'd gone and let go of him again. Things like this have happened more than a few times. I'm not getting the chance to reward him coming back, because he just won't do it!

Over the last couple of weeks, Ralph has got more confident as well, going really far ahead of us on walks and I want him to stay in sight.

Sorry for the long winded post, but wanted to tell you as much as possible.

Is this normal for a pup? Am I wanting too much too soon? He is only 5 months, but I want him off the lead to run with confidence.

I thought about clicker training for recall...

Was having a read of this:-

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t8579-clicker-training?highlight=Clicker

Would it confuse Ralph to just use it for recall and have any of you used it?

Also, what about him becoming more confident and going far ahead?

Thanks for reading all this waffle!

Clicker training works really well but the sound only carries so far. We use a lond lead in lieu of letting Suki off completly. This way she can roam if she wants to but we still have the ability to get her back and keeps her from running off.

I have this problem with Buster. I keep him on a long line so he still has freedom to run around. When I see another dog I call him then reel him in. Lol. When he gets back to me he gets a treat. Slowly he is getting better as more often he has started coming back without me needing to pull on the long line. I think the biggest problem we have with Buster at the moment is his age because some days he's perfect, and other days he goes back to blanking me

Hmmm. Thank you both. Going to give the line a go as we've been getting no where with this since I posted!

I was hoping someone would come up with a magic trick as I'd love for him to just be off lead. He is only just coming up to 6 months so I can't expect too much I guess! X

My ava has just turned 7mnths and i have the same problem, BUT it is totally normal a dog of this age who is happy friendly and confident wants too investagate any new person or dog and have no reason too fear this situation!!! Its a tough one In all my years of training i agreed with your trainer they need too learn off the lead too come back too you and this does take time and sometimes you have too look silly make it in too a game call him in a excited voice take toys as well as treat if he looks at you walk quickly or run in opposite direction the whole principle is too make him think your more fun than the other dog or person, Its become tougher recently as some people are staffy prejudice now a days, and also i don,t want Ava too get turned on by another dog so i am cautious, it will take time though bare with it x

I would have to disagree with your trainer about leaving him off lead; the more he gets to practise and self reward with the running off, the worse it'll get.

You can absolutely just use clicker training to train just one thing but you'll probably find it do good you'll want to use it for everything

Here are a few good little articles on recall:

http://www.clickerdogs.com/perfectrecall.htm

http://www.clickerdogs.com/distractionsforyourrecall.htm

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/reliable_recall.pdf

http://www.apdt.co.uk/documents/RECALL.pdf

http://www.dog-secrets.co.uk/how-do-i-stop-my-dog-chasing/

crystel wrote:My ava has just turned 7mnths and i have the same problem, BUT it is totally normal a dog of this age who is happy friendly and confident wants too investagate any new person or dog and have no reason too fear this situation!!! Its a tough one In all my years of training i agreed with your trainer they need too learn off the lead too come back too you and this does take time and sometimes you have too look silly make it in too a game call him in a excited voice take toys as well as treat if he looks at you walk quickly or run in opposite direction the whole principle is too make him think your more fun than the other dog or person, Its become tougher recently as some people are staffy prejudice now a days, and also i don,t want Ava too get turned on by another dog so i am cautious, it will take time though bare with it x

Exactly what she told us! Do whatever, throw your arms in the air, sing and dance! Lol!

As you said, because of the reputation of our lovely dogs, some people panic when Ralph is bounding towards them even though he's just a pup!

The thing is, I haven't had one chance to give him a reward as he just WON'T leave the other dog and come back to us!

Galadriel wrote:I would have to disagree with your trainer about leaving him off lead; the more he gets to practise and self reward with the running off, the worse it'll get.

You can absolutely just use clicker training to train just one thing but you'll probably find it do good you'll want to use it for everything

Here are a few good little articles on recall:

http://www.clickerdogs.com/perfectrecall.htm

http://www.clickerdogs.com/distractionsforyourrecall.htm

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/reliable_recall.pdf

http://www.apdt.co.uk/documents/RECALL.pdf

http://www.dog-secrets.co.uk/how-do-i-stop-my-dog-chasing/

That's brilliant. Thank you so much for posting those for me, I'll have a look at those now. X