Recall!

Hi all,

We have just started taking our 12 week old Pup out on nice walks with our other dog (Shih tzu) Zeke loves it.

Now what is the best way to start training your pup to come back to you especially at busy places such as the beach as this is were we often go.

Thank you!!

Use treats, and lots of them!

Find out which treat he likes the best, the most effective, and give him that everytime you call him and he comes.

Another thing which I done with Zeus was when he was off lead and ran quite far, I'd run the opposite direction and he'd come running back to me. I'm not sure if this is the right way to do it but it was very effective.

Yeah, Ive started taking treats out with me as he would do anything for a treat!

I will try the running back thing see if that works!


Thanks

Have you thought about using a long lead? This will let him roam so you can practice recall but also lets you maintain control as well

The long training lead used with a high value treat as reward such as small pieces of cheese should work well with recall training.

jstaff wrote:Have you thought about using a long lead? This will let him roam so you can practice recall but also lets you maintain control as well

Kathy wrote:The long training lead used with a high value treat as reward such as small pieces of cheese should work well with recall training.

Training leads are super beneficial for a lot of things when training a pup, so I too would recommend them. I have used one with Logan and it has worked very well.

Best way to start is somewhere quiet and open and practice with treats, as you progress you can go to noisier/busier places to make it more of a challenge.

I'd prefer using the long line to start off with, so you still have the safety of being in control if he doesn't come back. Call him to you and when he comes back, make a massive fuss of him and give him something tasty, like a piece of hotdog or something.

Don't start training recall in a busy place with lots of distractions as it'll never work. You need to start in a quiet and boring place and very gradually work your way up to environments with more distractions.

Choose a word that you'll never mistakenly use at another time (a dogs name for example shouldn't be used to mean 'come' as a dogs name gets used for all sorts of things.)

Use really high value treats like tiny bits of cheese or chicken, something your pup goes mad for.

Never call your pup to you only to do something he doesn't like such as going in the bath or having a toy taken off him as he will learn that coming to you means bad things.

You might find the following links helpful

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/reliable_recall.pdf
http://ahimsadogtraining.com/blog/teaching-come/

Think I'll have to try the long lead again as I'm not as confident having Charlie off lead as my husband is. Trouble is when we first tried it out it must have gotten caught under his back leg a few times and made his skin sore

Thanks guys, I will try the long training lead as it will make me not as worried as Im scared that he may run away.

I mean when we first started training 'recall' we let him off and he did come back, but you know what puppies are like. >

Puppy training on the 28th, Bring on the fun!!

Good luck with the training

The long leads def do give you total confidence which makes the rest a lot easier

I use the "watch me" command with Lyra, I have found this to work brilliantly to get her attention when there are distractions around. The command I use for recall is "what's this?" Quite random but it works well with her, she associates it with her treats so she always comes back (she's very food orinatated lol). I also have a training lead but find because she's so little it gets tangled up more often than not atm lol so I tend not to use it. I started off giving her a treat everytime she came back and now I use them randomly so she doesn't know if she's going to get one or not so its like a little game for her, I always give her loads of praise when she doesn't get a treat and fuss her and tell her she's a good girl. Everyone has their own methods I think its just about finding something that suits and works best for you

I have just started doing recall with our puppy.
Like everyone has said we use high value treats and practised indoors first and have built it up and now take him to field when it's quiet on a long line with a frisbee and practice his recall. Otis is very food orientated as well. In training they tell us to be very exciting and if they leave you walk in the other direction and give them loads of praise when they come back even if you are frustrated with them. Hope you find something that works.

long lead, high value treats and you have to be the MOST exciting thing out there. i struggle with the last one, im a big laid back guy, always embarrassed to put my high pitch girly voice on and act silly. but you gotta do what you gotta do i guess.