Training Recall

[SheltieChe]

I agree, recall classes should be dirt cheap, and every dog owner should take them and have a test to pass in order to keep owning the dog maybe that will decrease amount of stupid dogs and their owners, strays and dogs dumped in the shelters for various behavioral reasons...
Reality of life is pet owner classes are rarely very helpful, I would say it is common problem for any part of US. Some classes are just substitute for doggie socialization, some classes geared toward obedience heeling exercises and rarely helpful to the owner who then goes to dog park and tries to recall his dog there.
And unfortunately world class team members who teach agility will expect you to show up for class with already well trained excellent recall and nicely built relationship with your dog.

 

[Sharon]

Recalls

I agree, recall classes should be dirt cheap, and every dog owner should take them and have a test to pass in order to keep owning the dog maybe that will decrease amount of stupid dogs and their owners, strays and dogs dumped in the shelters for various behavioral reasons...
Reality of life is pet owner classes are rarely very helpful, I would say it is common problem for any part of US. Some classes are just substitute for doggie socialization, some classes geared toward obedience heeling exercises and rarely helpful to the owner who then goes to dog park and tries to recall his dog there.
And unfortunately world class team members who teach agility will expect you to show up for class with already well trained excellent recall and nicely built relationship with your dog.

Not true!!!And as far as the world team members who teach agility what you said is so not true.

 

[nbrard]

Working on a good recall is why Mikos is back in training class. I use the internet as a resource, but for me personally I find that physically being in a class is much better because I can get instant feedback on my technique. The training facility we now attend has all levels of obedience and agility training but the beginner and intermediate classes are geared towards pet owners and I am very pleased with the techniques and program.

We are back in beginner class to try and develop a fast recall for Mikos. Getting him to get all silly excited while training has proven to be quite a challenge because he tends to be a bit on the serious side (a sheltie, who'd of thought!) but I am finally starting to make a little headway. I think achieving this will make a huge difference to our recall efforts, plus also playing some of the games suggested here. Hopefully Mikos will soon be Mr. Rocket Recall!!

 

[take4roll10]

Never call if your dog is not likely to come
Never call if your dog is not going to like it, go get your dog
Never chase your dog, let your dog chase you

These are very good tips. A recall should always be positive and fun. Never ever call your dog for something he doesn't like. Like grooming, a bath, etc. Practice by having your dog chase you.

Put your dog in a sit/wait (or have someone hold him), call him and start running. Reward with a tug toy or food.

I agree, recall classes should be dirt cheap, and every dog owner should take them and have a test to pass in order to keep owning the dog maybe that will decrease amount of stupid dogs and their owners, strays and dogs dumped in the shelters for various behavioral reasons...

That would probably cause more dogs to end up in sheltiers! While I agree that every dog should have a great recall, there are just some breeds that are known to not have good recalls and that is their breed's characteristic. Trying teaching a Shiba, who are known to have a mind of their own, to have a perfect recall.

There are no stupid dogs. Only stupid / lazy owners .

 

[k9kreationz]

Okay, my thought on this......who trains that "reliable recall"? Where you have a specific emergency recall word? Is it this one?

Anyhow, the one reason I like this one so much is because although yes, it's going to take time and a LOT work, is because it's your emergency word. You use it when you need to, which means, most likely, you'll never poison it. For example, how many of us use "come" as your recall word? How many say "come here" or "come here spot" etc? And we use it for everything. Come here so I can feed you, brush you, trim your hair, bathe you, get the mud off of you, etc. We poison the cue by asking them to come for things they very much dislike. That weakens the cue.

So, you can teach them a general recall command and an emergency one. If you choose not to, then I suggest you pay attention to why you call your dog to you and only call them to you when you really need to, not because you're being lazy and don't call them to you for things they dislike doing.

I always remember a trainer telling me her story. Her dog ran off after a ball at a park, heading straight for the street. She yelled his name, his recall word, but nothing worked. In an instance, she thought about the one thing that always brought him back to her.....the word for dinner. The word she used everyday for the past 2 years and didn't think about. She yelled the word, the dog stopped, and immediately came running back to her. By accident, she trained an emergency recall word.

Koji's super food motivated, so I thought I'd try that. I have to admit, it's hard to associate one word with ONLY uber positive stuff. His recall sucks at home and outside. In agility, it's awesome. But it only works when we're doing agility.

Sigh. I'm not sure if that's the right DVD or what. I would suggest classes, but honestly, they will teach you the correct way to train, but obviously the training is 100% up to you. I would suggest a DVD over online course because that way, you can go at your own pace. I took a one-day training class and honestly, that's all I really needed to learn what to train. The rest was up to me. I admit, I still don't have a general nor emergency recall.

 

[SheltieChe]

Not true!!!And as far as the world team members who teach agility what you said is so not true.

Sharon,
admittedly I am very opinionated person
yet, my opinions are just my opinions. I find invalidating my opinions by stating they are not true is neither kind or effective for conversation and decidedly more personal than I want to hear on this forum.

 

[SheltieChe]

That would probably cause more dogs to end up in sheltiers! While I agree that every dog should have a great recall, there are just some breeds that are known to not have good recalls and that is their breed's characteristic. Trying teaching a Shiba, who are known to have a mind of their own, to have a perfect recall.

There are no stupid dogs. Only stupid / lazy owners .

I have thought about that and I think that recall is closely related to the level of relationship person has with his/ her dog. It would be my opinion that most dogs end up in shelters because their owners do not care enough to develop relationship with their dogs, thus no recall either. But sure enough, kudos to people who can teach perfect recall to their shibas or huskies or whatever other breeds are out there that will say "see ya" the moment you unclip their leash. I am not big enough trainer for this and therefore am sheltie snob
John Rogerson in one of his lectures suggested that people who have dogs with separation anxiety should talk to people who own " independent" dogs because if they can teach each other what they are doing we would not have either problem

 

[Sharon]

Recalls

Sharon,
admittedly I am very opinionated person
yet, my opinions are just my opinions. I find invalidating my opinions by stating they are not true is neither kind or effective for conversation and decidedly more personal than I want to hear on this forum.

And you are entitled to your opinons as I am to mine and not everyone agrees with what everyone has to say .When you say stuff about world team members for agility then it is so not true.

 

[SheltieChe]

I do not know about your "forest" but in this neck of woods like tends to flock with likes.... competitive people tend to look up and train with highly competitive trainer that has many achievements, titles etc. so whether it is intentional or happens that way.... I have not seen highly competitive trainers teaching pet agility owners. No disrespect to trainers that do teach regular pet owners "heard about agility and decided to try it out and see what happens", one of them we took lessons from is amazing greatly respected teacher but in that group of people we met few dogs who once they off leash do anything but agility
OTOH great amazing trainer world team member Dana at our facility does teach agility foundation for puppies but who takes her classes? mostly same highly competitive people who are on their new second, third or forth dog... i.e. their puppies already come with bunch of skills...
as for Recallers on line class, pricing and who needs it... I know there were at least 4 agility world team members who took it, and there are plenty of trainers I see on our forums... go figure...

 

[KarenCurtis]

I agree, recall classes should be dirt cheap, and every dog owner should take them and have a test to pass in order to keep owning the dog maybe that will decrease amount of stupid dogs and their owners, strays and dogs dumped in the shelters for various behavioral reasons...

Wow, that would result in a lot of dogs needlessly ending up in shelters. I don't want to take recall classes- I have free will, I've trained for recall myself-I like it that way. And that is definitely my opinion, which I do not expect everyone else to have.