Okay had a bit of a situation last night. OK not really, but it made me realize I had no idea what to do in this scenario.

Setting the scene: so my yard is partitioned into 2 sections. One is a doggie Alcatraz (I have a couple escape artists and fence aggression problems) and the other, much larger section, is fenced but with chain link and backs onto a busy public area, so the dogs aren't allowed out there normally (some can be with supervision, after I have carefully scanned the park for offlead dogs).

So anyway my young male (22 mos) is one of the luckier ones who gets to go out there for a run on rare occasions. I always make him sit at the gate and I go through, then he gets to come through.

Last night I was mowing the lawn in the bigger back section and didn't close the gate. I told my friend that but he misunderstood that I had left the gate open and let 2 of the dogs out (luckily, not the escape artists). My 22 month old blew through the gate which kind of surprised me since I thought I taught him not to go through, but technically I was already through, so anyway...

Suddenly I realized my dogs were out. I shut off the mower and called to the dogs. My female came right away but my little boy totally blew me off. (Luckily we were on my property, fenced, and no distractions. What a great place to figure out your dog's recall is less than perfect, lol).

Now my question. What do I do in that situation? He knew perfectly well what I wanted him to do, but he would much rather sniff around and eat pears. Ed recommends in his articles to go to the dog and give him a correction. WHen my dog saw me marching over, he came right up to me (kind of met me halfway so to speak).

So... do I correct? After all, he approached me. I don't want to foster a dog that plays "catch me" whenever he is off lead. ALso he had on a flat collar, and he's fairly hard... so I wouldn't be able to give a good collar correction anyhow.

Do I praise for approaching? Remain neutral? March him inside and play the "fun's over" game?

I don't want to destroy the progress we have made (or I thought we made) so far with the recall, I don't want to foster a dog who avoids me when he sees me coming, but I also don't want a dog who thinks recall is optional.

Suggestions????

I personally wouldn't correct the dog in that instance, unless I had an e-collar on him and could correct at the moment he ignored the recall. I always want my dog to associate turning around and coming to me as a very positive experience.

If the dog associates being caught or returning to the handler with punishment, you are punishing those things, not the blowing off of the recall.

Well, I've had a similar situation (dog on long line, playing frisbee and bolts into the back yard of the house next door...cat poop aplenty over there)

She did this 3 or 4 times over the course of a month; same thing, she'd approach me when I came toward her, but blew off my initial recall. I had the same reaction as you; not sure to correct or not, so I didn't the first two times.

When she did it a 3rd time, I corrected her, even though she came toward me. And one more time with a correction, as I recall.

Now, when I see her heading in that direction, I remind her with a loud 'no!', and she has listened every time (so far), stopped, turned around and then come back to me.(at which point she gets lots of praise and a treat)

I may be hijacking a thread, but a similar thing happened to me last night.

My dog ignored me completely in favor of a bunny. We were in a fenced training area, so I knew it was safe, but I was still not happy about being blown off. After about 10 minutes of walking him down, calling his name, telling him to "COME" he turned and looked at me as if he'd been off planet for the last 10 minutes. I managed to thank him for coming back to me, but in my heart of hearts I wanted to give him a correction. I wanted to give myself a correction for letting him off-lead in the first place!

Today I'm reading about re-training the recall. Thinking about going the whistle route, but am worried that if this happens again I won't have a whistle in my pocket. Would it be better to invent a new recall word instead? One that gets rewarded and proofed, and proofed, and proofed again?

If anyone's done this and has advice to share, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks!

Edited by Meredith Hamilton (07/15/2009 12:19 PM)
Edit reason: apologies for possible hijack

Well, let me just cast my lot in with you guys/gals.

My dog did this, too, a few weeks ago.

I am trying to go back to re-training the recall.

I got my new bait bag (haven't had the chance to start with it) and I plan on keeping her on lead and take occassions thru the day to have her come to me.

I haven't let her of lead since she blew me off. I didn't correct for this either because it was my fault and I didn't want her to be punished for coming to me.

Are you guys gonna use a different word? Any helpful hints from all you wonderful trainer are appreciated as I expect peeps (Yeah, I know, my new lingo is groovy.) from all over the world will be following this thread.

 Quote: Kristel Smart

I personally wouldn't correct the dog in that instance, unless I had an e-collar on him and could correct at the moment he ignored the recall. I always want my dog to associate turning around and coming to me as a very positive experience.

If the dog associates being caught or returning to the handler with punishment, you are punishing those things, not the blowing off of the recall.

Yup totally agree ..

I'd go right back to the beginning with this dog though. Back to a long line or e-collar. Lots of fun stuff for him on positive recalls (tug, treat etc what ever works for this dog) and I'd be reeling him or stimming him with the e-collar on the recalls he gives you the finger on.

You can't let him get into the habit 'he has tasted it' and it will just get worse over time if you don't reinforce positive recalls. As like you found out you never know when you will need that 110% recall. Your dogs life could depend on it.

 Quote: Geoff Empey

I'd go right back to the beginning with this dog though. Back to a long line or e-collar. Lots of fun stuff for him on positive recalls (tug, treat etc what ever works for this dog) and I'd be reeling him or stimming him with the e-collar on the recalls he gives you the finger on.

This is the only thing that works in the long run IME. A dog that ignored my recall once would not be given the opportunity to do it again. BUT coming to the handler/being caught by the handler needs to be 100% fun and awesome, 100% of the time. I can't warn enough against correcting when you catch the dog. By the time you catch them, it is far too late for the dog to understand why it is being corrected. From the dog's point of view, you are correcting him for being caught, or for turning around and coming to you.

My dog has a super recall, but unless I have an e-collar on him AND we are in a remote area, he always has a line on him.

I don't know if this helps, but in the 'free streaming video' section on this site there are restrained-recall videos. I tried this with my dog using a whistle (I bribed my daughter to hold the lead) and even bought the fun fleece tug. With practice and repetition it turned my dog's 'good' recall into a fast and fantastic recall. Now when he hears the whistle he comes running like he was shot out of a cannon because now it is an ingrained habit It was a blast to train too.

 Quote: Kristel Smart

I personally wouldn't correct the dog in that instance, unless I had an e-collar on him and could correct at the moment he ignored the recall. I always want my dog to associate turning around and coming to me as a very positive experience.

If the dog associates being caught or returning to the handler with punishment, you are punishing those things, not the blowing off of the recall.

Yup, you are right, and in hind sight, in my case I imagine she associated the correction with eating the cat poop, not blowing off the recall...

Lynne, I just noticed that both of our dogs "Got It!" in our sig pics

And it's probably true that your dog thought she was in trouble for poop eating.

 Quote: kristel smart

Lynne, I just noticed that both of our dogs "Got It!" in our sig pics

And it's probably true that your dog thought she was in trouble for poop eating.

Chula loves the flying squirrel, too! (and now back to blowing off the recall...)