Recall

Ok so since we have had Misty she has come a long way. One of the last issues we need to work on is her recall. We recently went to an off lead dog park and she loved it- playing with all the dogs - she saw a whippet and left the dog she was with to run over and meet the whippet. She ignored me and then actually went back with the whippet to her owners which was behind a hill so totally out of my eyesight.

We have bought dog whistles and have been training her to come to us when we say the word 'Touch' this means come back to us- touch our hand and get a food treat. In training class she is amazing, recall is perfect. Mostly in the park (on the long line) she is good.

Today however hubby took her to the local park and she met her friend Ruby who is a spaniel mix around one year old. They absolutely adore each other- playing/chasing etc. So hubby and Rubys owner are walking around the park when they hear some dogs barking. They call both dogs to them and clip them onto their short leads.

In walks two German Shepherds (off lead) and Rubys owner is very nervous and tells my hubby that last week the dogs pinned Ruby very aggressively and made her yelp several times. Ruby was very shaken after the event but the dogs didn't bite her- just scared her. So hubby and her walk the dogs opposite the GS and keep them on the leads- after a while they then change course so they are well behind the GS who are far off in the distance.

After a while Ruby and Misty are let off again to play-hubby takes long line off as Ruby gets very tangled in it. So they are playing and chasing when suddenly Misty ignores Ruby and runs down the whole of the field to meet these GS. I dont think these GS invited her over or anything - I think she just went of her own accord. Now hubby blows the dog whistle- ignored- calls her name and Touch- completed ignored. She runs up to the dogs and luckily they had a lovely play together- the GS are lovely and they are having a great time. The owner sees hubby running up and makes his dogs sit so hubby can get Misty easily. He was a really nice owner and laughed about how bad Mistys recall is. However that isnt the point- she could easily have got into trouble by ignoring hubbys calls.

So Rubys owner said maybe when Misty does bolt like that- catch her and put her on the short lead for ten minutes or so to calm her down and hopefully stop her doing it in future. Once she has calmed down then put her back on the long line or take the lead off completely.

What do you think? Hubby says we need to start trusting her more and let her run and play with dogs but I hate the fact she can go into this zone where I dont even think she hears us- if she see a dog she wants to meet she will just go. Its even more exasperating as she was playing her with friend. It wasn't as though she was desperate for a dog to play with she ran off- she had Ruby right with her!! Its Mistys constant need to greet every dog there is in a park and she isn't happy just having one to play with she wants them all. Hubby is saying we should just let her play, try to call her back, if she doesn't then put her on the lead and relax. Im worried that she will go up to the wrong dog and not leave them alone if they dont want to play and end up getting bitten again.

Tough one Emma. I'm in favour of trusting our dogs as much as possible but within the confines of safety. You only let Misty off in a dog safe area so that bit is covered but I would be wary of other dogs for two reasons. 1) it can be considered bad manners for another dog to run up to an on lead dog 2) you don't know how other dogs will react.

In the instance you describe all was fine with the other dogs and you know Misty is super soft so no harm done other than recall. I'm a little bit obsessive about this in the main because I think we as Staffy owners need to show how good they really are.

I'm not sure that clipping Misty on the lead after the event will work as she may not realise why but I would put her on lead as soon as I got hold of her and then wait until she has calmed down. I do know it's not easy when they have selected hearing and decide that that great looking dog over looks like more fun than a treat

I would practice the recall a bit more hen as its handy as soon as she has reel her in as it were as soon as she has ignored you its no misty sometimes but other dogs aren't as well mannered and would stop a potential bad situation should it arise it is a pain when they get tangled in the long line with other dogs but misty is coming on in leaps and bounds everytime you are out with her. it isn't an overnight cure but you have to realise you are taking the time patience and responsability and thats the important thing , a young dog takes less time to process and and learn but with an older dog takes a bit longer but well worth the end result. keep up the good work you.are.doing emma you are doing a great job!!.

Do you still use treats when you're doing recall, Emma? I think I'd be investing in loads of really high value treats and treating her every time.

It sounds completely counter intuitive, but instead of clipping her on after she's been playing, I'd also suggest actually letting her go and play again. Do recall practice using playing with her friends as part of her reward. Wait till she's playing, call her and give her a treat, then tell her to go and play again. That way, she comes to you for something yummy and still gets to play (yay!) instead of being clipped on (boo!).

Thanks all for the advice.

Its such a tough one as she is excellent on recall when we are in class- she is actually used as the 'show' dog in class when the teacher wants to do any recall practice and Misty is straight to us- no distractions or anything.

Yes Liz we do always have food on us for her- Cant leave the house without a bag full of chicken or bits of treats. She is so food orientated, we are constantly rewarding for good behaviour such a non pulling etc. She really loves sprats so when I last took her to the off lead area of the lakes I took a bag of sprats and only used them on recall- trying to get her to think ooh yes the best treats ever when I come back to mum. It worked beautifully until she saw one dog and that was it- she was gone.

When she is playing with her friends I do normally give her a few recall practices and she is straight over (her friends seem to be very food orientated too so always come back to see what goodies I have). She is always so good until that one time she isnt.

When I first took her to the off lead area I only went in as I met a man with a staffy x pug and he asked am I going in and I said no as her recall is bad. He told me to come in with him and he would look after us- I think everyone thought I was completely mad as when in there the first time she was excellent returning every single time. They couldn't understand why I hadnt taken her in that part of the park before! They told me like you Liz to call her back and then release her so it meant coming back to me wasnt the end of play. Again she was perfect- I even put her lead on a few times in there and released her to play again.

The next day we went in again and she was playing with a Visla then boom off she runs to play with a whippet. She leaves the Visla standing (poor thing looked so upset as his owners said he is a very nervous dog and doesnt play with dogs but he loved Misty for some reason) I run (or make that very fast walk) to catch up as she has gone behind a hill and I couldnt see her or anything that was happening- Eventually I see her trotting along happy as Larry with the Whippets owners.

I mentioned this to my trainer and she said its because the whippet is a completely different and to Misty more exciting dog- faster for her to chase etc.

I completely agree with you Ian - recall is so important as I know if she were to run off and anything happened she would get the blame and also its dangerous as she could get lost or stolen. I know there is no chance of that in the off lead only park but in the normal parks we go to she could easily be snatched if she ignores me (Im such a worrier) Plus Im very aware of dogs on leads and I dont want her running up to them. Luckily this hasnt happened yet- the only negative in a normal park was when she was bitten last year and the time she ran up to a dog (off lead) and the guy completely went mad at me.

We went to the local park last night (on her long line) and met a lovely German Shepherd- well I say met- we were on the way out so she was on her short lead and she saw him coming down the park (on a flexi lead) she lay down and refused to move. His owner laughed and said I think she wants to say hello. The GS came up and they had a great sniff and then Misty tried to entice him into the game of chase but of course they were both on leads. His owner said he is on a lead because he will be off if a dog enters and will run up to them no matter how far aware they are. I laughed and said its exactly the same as her. I felt bad as I know they both wanted to play and his owner said he loves to play chase but I had to leave the park then. Im going back tonight and if they are there again and its quiet I might drop her long line and let her play.

Its just when she does ignore us- it can be so scary. Recall is something we have practiced the most of- both with whistle and without but at certain times she can just completely ignore it. I think maybe she gets into the 'I must go and see them' sort of zone and she actually doesnt hear us, she is just so focussed on going up to the new exciting dog. We have tried to make ourselves more exciting by putting on exciting voices etc but she doesnt respond.

Hubby is really debating just going to the off lead park again and letting her off lead as she cant escape and all dogs there are off lead and but the only thing that is holding him back is the fact she can sometimes be a pain and if a dog is nervous of her she wont go away and leave them and hes scared in case something goes wrong. Also if she repeats what she did with me - ie running over the hill then she is out of his eyesight and he cant run (bad lungs).

It will come good Emma. It may not always be perfect (who is) but it will get better with time and practice. The not hearing zone is down to sheer excitement I think. Lets be honest, if your favourite food was on offer and you didn't get it because you were distracted then I think you would be a little miffed so keep going with it.

You will learn to trust Misty like I did with Flo and you will still end up apologising occasionally but it will get so much better

wb a toy emma like a high pitched squeaky ball to grab her attention? im not a fan of squeaky toys but this looks good https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B004YCJQYG/ref=mp_s_a_1_22?qid=1461264814&sr=8-22&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=kong+dog+toys&dpPl=1&dpID=41EmDFnYuIL&ref=plSrch and its the dog cant get access to the sqeaker

Hi Emma, just wanted to say thanks for posting this - I was going to and then saw yours

I'm like a mad hatter at times with squeakers,tuna homebaked stuff and liver paste, doing the pantomime "run away" while calling to her

Hi Emma, I went through this with Daisy when she was about this age. They start to get a mind of their own don't they? I found the trick was to make myself more exciting than the other dog by using high pitch noises and running the other way. You could try calling her then laying on the floor, they can't resist that. I also whistle trained Daisy and am currently doing it with my new pup and it is coming on a treat. I only use a real high value treat that is exclusively for the whistle. I blow the whistle and treat straight away when they are with me a couple of times then try it when they get a bit further away. It should eventually work if the treat is tasty enough. Good luck, it will get better x

Thanks All- much appreciated-

Crystal its a good idea with a squeaky toy but she doesn't respond when she is in the 'zone' as we have tried before but that was last year so I will take one with me next time.

Ian if there was my favorite food available I would be there like asap!!

Ang and Clare- yes I have tried doing the run away thing too- if she looks at me then this can work however sometimes she is so focussed on a dog then she wont even look at me. Love the thought of us all in parks running away from dogs while shaking bags of treats and whistleing Ill definately try the laying down trick as I hadnt heard of that until now!

Well so last Thursday we went to our local park and she was on her long line (with me holding it) and there was a tiny puppy nearby on a flexi line- Misty just lay down then did her half walk/half crawl thing she can do (which I think looks quite bad- bit like stalking) and the puppies owners said can they meet. I did say I was a bit nervous and Misty can be a bit of a jumper on dogs and I would hate for their puppy to be hurt if she does. Well they said its fine she likes a bit of a roughhousing so then they let their dog off lead. This pupy was so tiny and only six months old. She literally came bounding up to Misty and they were playing together for about half an hour having a great time of chase and a tiny bit of bundles- I watched like a hawk to make sure Misty wasnt being a clumsy oaf with her but she was fine. They did start to go a bit too far so I used my whistle and Misty came back perfectly (lots of treats were given) and the little pup decided to go and meet another dog behind a tree. The next thing we heard was the pup getting very told off and she then flew back to us. So they were having a great time with in came Mistys best friend Reggie (sprocker) they then all had a lovely play but Reggie was so taken with this pup he really ignored Misty. I was so impressed with how she acted- she did try to entice him into chase several times but ramming him with her nose but he had no time for her. She just looked so upset poor thing- even his owner was saying Reg just please chase Misty but he had only eyes for the pup!! I was so impressed with Misty as normally in any situation with dogs she is the centre of attention as she is the one who will play or chase any dog and to have her best friend pretty much ignore her I wasnt sure if this would lead to a huge amount of frustration. Obviously she wasnt happy but dealt with it perfectly- I think actually it was good for her to understand that sometimes she will be left out.

She was a complete star and really responsive to this whistle. I think sometimes the thing is to catch her before she legs it. For example there were two dogs across the park- Misty and the pup were running but I called her back before she got out of what I call a safe zone. She hadnt yet seen the dogs but because she was nearer me then them she came back. The long line really is so valuable to me!!

Will keep on practising!

Well done you and Misty, it gets there in the end. Your right, it's all about getting them back before they get too fixated. xx

It's so lovely to hear how well Misty is coming on, I've been showing this thread to Una as motivation