Hi everyone,

Our 4 month old Czech/DDR GSD pup is giving me a bit of a hard time with her recall. She does great during focus training, and comes immediately during training (with treat rewards). I noticed that she wouldn't come during off-training times though, so I put the long lead on her and would call with a tug when she didn't come. So now she does great with treats or with her lead on, but will not always come at other times.

Any thoughts on helping her consistently come in all situations? I've thought of trying the electric collar on the lowest setting, but she's pretty young for that.

Thanks in advance.

Puppy Ping Pong.

One of the most fun ways to teach the recall, for you as well as your dog, was a little training exercise I learned with our dogs through some pretty good dog trainers. It involves two people, your dog, and lots of treats. You start real close together, about 6 feet apart, and call your dog's name and the recall command "Come!", showing the treat. When the dog gets to you, you party like heck with lots of praise and reward with a treat. Give the dog just a second or two and then have the other person do the same thing. Hopefully, your dog picks up on it and learns it's really fun to go back and forth to get huge amounts of praise and a treat. Do this for about 10 minutes. Eventually, you increase the distance and pause a little to let the dog calm down before calling him or her each time. Early on, we would do this exercise two to three times a day, increasing distances to include going out of sight around corners or to other rooms in the house. It's a fun exercise and it not only reinforces the recall command but it also gets them tired. We do this exercise a couple of times a week still and our dog is 8 years old now. She still loves the game.

At some point, especially if longer distances are involved, you may find your dog wanting to pause to sniff or explore something else. Rather than get upset or show impatience, you simply move toward the dog, use a really happy voice, and wave your hands toward you in a real inviting manner, anything to entice the dog to you and finish the recall.

They eventually get it and love to play the game every time afterward. Ours sure does. The recall is something we reinforce almost every day. At random times, we recall our dog if we're in another room, making sure we have a treat on hand, and, again, party and treat like crazy when they come to you. Should result in a 100% perfect recall in a short time.

I like it! This is something my wife and I do with our older boy at the park during our morning walk, except he will come every time with no treat! It's a great way to let him run and really fun to watch.

We'll try this with our girl. Thanks for the tip!

 Quote: Joel Smith

Hi everyone,

Our 4 month old Czech/DDR GSD pup is giving me a bit of a hard time with her recall. She does great during focus training, and comes immediately during training (with treat rewards). I noticed that she wouldn't come during off-training times though, so I put the long lead on her and would call with a tug when she didn't come. So now she does great with treats or with her lead on, but will not always come at other times.

Any thoughts on helping her consistently come in all situations? I've thought of trying the electric collar on the lowest setting, but she's pretty young for that.

Thanks in advance.

My quick 2 cents worth:

I would never-ever recall an Untrained Dog unless it had on a long-line, so you could "reel it in" if it did not obey the command -- Allowing the dog to effectively disobey a recall only trains it to IGNORE you at will ... If she's not wearing a long-line & you need her to COME then try running away from her while acting silly & eating something that SMELLS delicious, or whatever it takes

Bottom Line: Until she is well-trained & reliably proofed in the recall, your dog should not be offlead on any occasion when you might NEED her to come to you right away.

Personally, I never use an ecollar on a dog that is Not Already rock-solid in obedience commands while ONLEAD (especially Not a Young puppy) -- This would just be Unfair to the dog, IMHO.

Ditto with Candi!

NEVER call a dog if you think there is a chance it wont come.

NEVER call a dog when it's distracted.

NEVER call a dog to correct it.

At this age you ALWAYS want to have a reward handy to reward the dog ANYTIME it comes to you even if you didn't call it.

You ALWAYS want the dog to believe that being with you is the best place on earth.

Every time you call the dog and it doesn't immediately respond then it's being taught that it doesn't have to.

I don't really think this is ignoring when they "refuse". It's just that the lack of consistency creates a situation where command doesn't have real meaning.

All of these things require working through distance and distractions.

The long line is your friend!

 Quote: Bob Scott

Ditto with Candi!

NEVER call a dog if you think there is a chance it wont come.

NEVER call a dog when it's distracted.

NEVER call a dog to correct it.

At this age you ALWAYS want to have a reward handy to reward the dog ANYTIME it comes to you even if you didn't call it.

You ALWAYS want the dog to believe that being with you is the best place on earth.

Every time you call the dog and it doesn't immediately respond then it's being taught that it doesn't have to.

I don't really think this is ignoring when they "refuse".

It's just that the lack of consistency creates a situation where command doesn't have real meaning.

All of these things require working through distance and distractions.

The long line is your friend!

YES, at this stage, Alakso, your pup is still in the Learning Phase of her lessons -- She has not yet been Proofed in her Commands through the "distance, Duration, and DISTRACTION" levels of Obedience ... So she is Not yet Trained, technically speaking

You don't want to give any strong corrections to a dog who doesn't really know what you expect it to do yet -- What your pup needs at this stage is GUIDANCE in Learning to do what you Want her to do, and that's where the long-line is so HELPFUL ... It is a "friend" to both of you !!!

And I very Highly Recommend studying these Two FREE Articles below...

http://leerburg.com/philosophy.htm

http://leerburg.com/theoryofmotivation.htm

Thanks for the input everyone! I'm hoping to get her off the lead as soon as I can so she stops getting it tangled up on stuff, but I understand at this age she might need it on for a while longer.

I do understand the importance of not allowing her in a situation where she can not obey and get away with it, thanks for the affirmation of that. That's what lead me to start this post; my little girl calmly looking at me when I tried to call her with no lead & treat!

Thanks again!

 Quote: Joel Smith

Thanks for the input everyone! I'm hoping to get her off the lead as soon as I can so she stops getting it tangled up on stuff, but I understand at this age she might need it on for a while longer.

I do understand the importance of not allowing her in a situation where she can not obey and get away with it, thanks for the affirmation of that. That's what lead me to start this post; my little girl calmly looking at me when I tried to call her with no lead & treat!

Thanks again!

(ooops) I somehow got you mixed up with a fellow poster from Maine named Alakso, sorry 'bout that, Joel -- Too early in the morning here for me to be posting, LOL

I don't think there is anything wrong with "relying" on treats for now, I was careful to always have them available for quite a long while with both my dogs to make sure their recall was 100%, and I still use them off and on!

"Off and on" is the key here.
Puppies/dogs should be weaned off reward based treats randomly but never totally eliminated.

"Relying on treats" to me means they could be used as a bribe in order to get compliance.