Hi,
I have a year and a half old golden retriever. She has passed her cgc and tdi training and has a very sweet disposition. She obeys the come command 100% in a confined area, but when I take her out to the woods to run, she doesn't come back some of the time. I have worked with the long line, but it seems when she goes out 50-75 feet, I can't seem to really give a good correction for not getting back to me as quickly as I would like. Sometimes I doubt myself as if she hears me or not, expecially when we are around water and if that could be the reason she is not responding. What would be a good way to work on this? I really want to enjoy our time together without having to constantly keep her on a long line and constantly untangling her. thanks, dc

Hi Darlene:

It sounds like she's not completely distraction trained. Also, you could use a good remote training collar and Ed has an awesome training video on the collars. Good luck.

What kind of reward are you currently using on your woods walks?

Cheers,
Jennifer

Also what do you feed your dog?

Jennifer

I use treats and I feed her iams dog food

I have a hard time doing some distration training as I am my moms care giver and I don't have the oportunity to get my dog out too often. Most of our training is done in the back yard. That has been one of my biggest downfalls. Is there a way to do some distration training when we are kind of stuck in our fence in the back yard.? Any suggestions would be totally appreciated.dc

There are ton of distractions you can add in your back yard. If you can have people come over, use them, or their pets, or have them toss a ball or make any distraction while you are recalling your dog.

Also...don't forget to have your dog on a long line while beginnig those distractions, when he's mastered that, remove the long line.

I do not have any experience with an e-coller, someone else recomended Ed's dvd as a place to start if you are going to go that route and I would agree.

I do walk my dog off leash every day in the woods.

It sounds as if the reward of being "out in the woods" is more rewarding to the dog than coming to you for a reward. You did say yourself that the dog is not able to get out in the woods often, and this may be part of the problem, it is very novel and stimulating to a dog that spends most of their time in the yard. Is there a special reward that could be used only on walks (toy or hot dogs or something)

I was going to suggest that if you fed kibble, you could not feed your dog the day of the walk, and then give your dog the alotted kibble by hand on the walk. I would prefer not to use any command for this, just when the dog comes up to you naturally on the walk, it gets some kibble. You would start on the long line. This can show the dog that great things happen around mom, and she is interesting even in the woods,and I should check in with her. This will only work if food motivated, or you could skip a couple meals before the walk for a hungrier dog.

There is a lot of focus and distraction work you can do in your yard, and it would be a good pace to start. However, you already said you have a reliable recall in your yard, so eventually you need to slowly increase the distractions outside the yard somehow.

Also are you expecting the dog to walk by your side in the woods, stay within sight? Are you having problems with the dog following you along on the walks, or just with the recall?

If you phisically walk through the woods to go get your dog (without giving a command), does your dog play "keep away"?

So much to consider in the woods! When I was trainning my dog on recall, I never asked my dog to "come" when I knew he wouldn't! I know that sounds weird, but I did not want him to learn he could ignore me! I would just go and get him, praise or treat him for letting me take him by the collar/or put him on lead instead. What I am getting at is don't ask your dog to "come" when it is chasing a squirril through the woods. It will only learn to ignore you. You have to work your way up to that level of distraction. Train for success. Other commands need to be worked on as well-such as "leave it".

Anyhoo, I think there are more questions than answers in this post so I might wrap things up. If you don't have the time to train for the distractions of the very distracting woods, you may not be able to walk your dog off leash there. Since you have a Golden, maybe some retrieving in a non busy area would be better off leash excersise?

Cheers,
Jennifer

Oh I forgot. If you think the dog can't here you (they can have selevtive hearing ), you could train the recall with a whistle.
Cheers,
Jennifer

Hi again, thanks for some great advice.

Yes, I don't call her either if she is out of range and I know darn well she won't respond. I too don't want to enforce the habit of her ignoring me.

As simple as it sounds, I guess I never thought of just having someone else out there in the yard with me doing some little distractions. And it is true, that is probably exactly what I need.

No, in answer to your question Jennifer, I don't usually expect her to stay beside me when we are out in the woods. I kind of figure that is her time, although, when she does come near and I know I have her attention, I call her to me and she does come. I just know that when she is far away, I don't think she will. Well, let me rephrase that, she doesn't.

That is where I need some help. The last time we were out she wanted to go down into a little stream and I called her to me and she didn't pay me any attention, so I went over to her and firmly grabbed her by the collar and scolded her the whole way back to where I was standing, clipped on her leash and then I led her slowly back over to where she was and showed her that she could go in and play, but by my terms.

We've never been able to have any kind of formal obedience training, I've read tons and tons of book and I guess I must be doing something right, we do have our cgc and tdi and second leg in rally.

But my thing is the recall. I want it soooooooooo bad.

I haven't had her off the long line in quite some time so when do I try it again?

I don't know if she will know that she is off and then will not listen and then will I have just lost all the training to come on the lead if she doesn't respond?

I did pick up a whistle and have started using it with a prong collar in the back yard. I wait until I see she is paying attention to something else and then I whistle and if she doesn't come instantly, I give her a pop. So far, I have had to do this only 3 times. Now, she comes instantly.

Is this what I need to be doing out in the woods when I can? You sound really knowledgeable and it is nice to pick someone's brain who can actually answer me back...Thankyou so much....dc