Take this how you will - I'm no trainer. But this worked for me: I have a few different commands for him to come to me. Each mean a different thing to him, i.e:

c'mere - come as soon as you're done sniffing over there
bei fuss - come immediately no matter what!

I whistle too and when I do, he flies to me. Don't know why but if you can whistle, dogs seem to really respond to a whistle.

But, the bei fuss command was meant for the same thing - get your butt here instantly. He was lagging a little in this many months ago (he was young so maybe that was a part of it). Anyway, I decided he didn't really know that I wanted speed too so I put a flat collar on him, put a six foot leash on him, stood right in front of him and asked him to sit. I then took 2 steps back leaving just enough slack on the leash for me to be able to pull him to me at the right moment if he needed it. He did! So I would give the command and almost instantly pull him to me and as soon as he got to me, I'd praise him slightly. He came to me but was lacking speed still so I would praise him so he knew that coming was a good thing BUT I only gave him a lavish praise and treat if he came at the speed I wanted and without me needing to pull/tug him.

I picked up my speed as he seemed to get the idea that speed was KING. I would sit him down, run backwards and say the command and he would jump out of the sit and run to me. At this point I knew he understood and took the leash off.

I continued to give him treats for awhile but I don't really do this anymore. Every once in a while I do.
I personally would never use the e-collar to get speed out of my dog. I just don't think it's right. I prefer to use the e-collar to correct him for behavior that is downright wrong.

I think if I zapped him to get speed, he'd learn that coming to me meant discomfort and I don't want that.

Hi Scott. Once again, newbie commentary.

In terms of "speed on the recall" we break that down into 3 basic components.

1) Fast and powerful response the second the recall command is given. (and same desired response for send out, etc.)

2) Speed down the field. (same desired result for send out, etc.)

3) Speed through the finish of the recall. (same..)

For us, this breaks down into 3 distinct pieces, just to address the speed and power part. Are you also viewing the recall work this way? If so, what particular segment of the recall (and speed) is of concern to you?

The main reason I ask is that the way we are learning this, any sort of collar correction is only mildly in play on step 1. I know it will come into play again on the post speed finish, but for us that is still down the road a piece.

Beth

Two suggestions:

A) Carry her daily meal rations ON you in a bait pouch (or 2-3 bait pouches, depending on the size of each meal) -- Don't feed her at any other time or any other way & whenever she obeys the !Come! command, give her a handful of food...

B) Also, don't wait until after the marker word (NO) to nick her anymore -- Miko already understands the !Come! command & is just "thumbing her nose" at you now by waiting to obey UNTIL she hears the marker, because Miko's learned the nick will not be administered unless she refuses AFTER hearing the word No...

So, it's !Come! wait a second & if she doesn't obey, then nick without using the negative marker; but if she ONLY gets fed one bite at a time for coming on command, then she won't need that nick for long -- Once she gets the idea, then I would ONLY give the food reward IF she does NOT wait for the nick before coming...

Do you see how this incentive progression works ?

Thanks for all the good tips, everyone. I'll be putting some of those into action.

st

I have an 8 month old female GSD. I have had her 2months. I had plans of spending the money for the Board & Train but after listening to your podcasts I have ordered the Basic obedience DVD.

I traded golf for dog obedience. I am walking the dog a minimum of a hour a day, quite often it's an hour and a half. She has a crate and is on a leash when in the house.

What is the difference in the recall command and the come command?

The come command IS the recall command -- Some people train 2 different recalls, using COME for the formal/precision "obedience trial" type of recall, and HERE for a casual/informal type of recall <:-)

Woohoo! Miko passed her CGC test tonight. She stood up during the 3 minute out of sight stay but didn't go anywhere. Not bad for an 8.5 month old Akita!

She was so wound up when my wife came home before the test tonight, like she knew she was in for something big. It's just amazing how they know things. Now if I could just get her to pick winning Powerball numbers

We are hoping to get into a beginning "attention" class next. I think this will help us with our off-lead stuff. She's doing much better off-lead and we have started being less patient, i.e. quicker on the draw for an ecollar correction.

One of the things we've been doing for the last few days to increase her drive is to put her in sit-stay, then walk 100 or 200 feet away, then tell her to come. This has been working pretty good, and she's actually broken into a run a couple of times which is huge for her, she *never* runs on a come.

st

 Quote: Scott Traurig

Woohoo! Miko passed her CGC test tonight.

Congrats! Its gotta be fun to see all that work pay off.

Good for you & Miko !!! Keep up the great work <:-)

Congratulations!!!! You must be very excited. Great job!

Beth