My lab puppy Darcy (13 weeks old now) is picking up her training very quickly and in the most part I am a very proud mum!!! :D

I have been taking her for short walks in the park and as suggested by the books I have read I am letting off the lead from an early age.

She is absolutely brilliant at recall when there is no-one else in the park infact she rarely leaves me, just trots along happily next to me. but as soon as she sees someone else she does a runner and no amount of calling will get her to come back.

How do I work on her recall that is brilliant the rest of the time and should I keep her on a lead

Rachel,

Do you take Darcy to training classes? Because this is one of the best places to start training a recall as they have all the others dogs that are great distractions. :)

Try not to do a recall when you know she is not going to obey you as this only teaches her to ignore you but for the time being if it was my pup I would let her off the lead while you are out but as soon as she see something she might go after call her back to you and put her lead on and praise her. This should stop her getting herself into any nasty situations.

I am sure someone will be able to give you better advice (maybe John?)

HTH a bit

Tracy

WE do do training classes and her recall there is very good because she knows I've got a bag of treats in my pocket.
Should i take treats out with me when we walk.
I'm worried about overfeeding her because she already has a very podgy little tummy.

If she is foody then take some of her food out of her rations to use as treats. Evn if you use treats as opposed to her normal food, y7ou have to adjust her food intake accordingly.

Most certainly take treats with you on walks to make yourself more interesting then the distractions.

How energetic are you? You could try this...
As soon as Darcy takes off after something then run away calling her excitedly. Run to the right or left of her at an angle so that you are not directly behind her and are in her line of vision! You may be enough of a distraction yourself to stop her and bring her back to you.
Lots of fuss and praise if she does!
If you feed her a dry food then you could take a handful of her food (deducted from her daily portion) with you for treats or a toy. Has she been wormed? Nothing to do with the recall but maybe connected to the very podgy little tummy!
Lara x

yeah she has been wormed. THe vet says its because she wolfs her food so quickly she fills her tummy up with air, which is why she ALWAYS gets the hiccups after eating as well. Havent managed to slow her down yet though

Charlie is a terrible hiccup-er as well!!! Poor little mite, he always looks so confused, and does this little grumbley noise after each one :D

I read somewhere that if you put a few (good sized so she can't eat them!) stones into her bowl with the food, then she will have to get the food from round them and it will slow her down.

Sarah

If she is on dried food, another way to slow her down is to scatter her food on the floor so that she has to pick up each piece separately. :)

Rachel,

Don't worry too much about that Bailey went through a phase like that then just grew out of it! :) He has just started top eat at a normal pace and he is 15 months :D

Tracy

Hiya, I have to agree with Lara's suggestion.

I did this with a 4 month old GSD and a 6 month old BC, they were absolutely terrible and were always running up to people and other dogs.

I did exactly as Lara has said, and my dogs immediately stopped, looked at me like i'd gone totally mad :D and then ran after me!!
I would carry on calling them until they reached me. They soon learned to come when they were called, and enjoyed learning it too!!! :D

Lisa

Please correct me if i'm wrong but I was always under the impression labs'retrievers,G.s.d's needed not too much exercise at this age because of hip development ,exercise in the garden 10 mins on lead dog class once a week is quite sufficient ,so I was told and careful feeding.Thats what my breeder advised anyway and certainly no free running outside of your garden till much older?However i'm open to what other people think,
maybe i'm too over cautious,what do you think?

Hi Briony,

Your breeder is right. Exercise should be restricted, until the bones have fully developed.
I have to admit, I wasn't told that when I bought my first GSD, and so he did have more exercise than he should have. (luckily he's ok!!)

My bitch was on restricted exercise until she was 1 yr old (a bit of roadwork on the lead, and socialising in town, and also some playtime in the garden. My 16 wk old is also doing this)
You were right to ask and not over cautious at all :)

Lisa

Briony,

How big is your garden? If it seems to be getting smaller as your pup gets bigger, then it is fine to talk you puppy for short, easy walks on the lead for 20-30 minutes, including stop and sniff time. No running. No jumping. No mountain climbing.

Basically, you avoid anything that will cause stress on the joints.

Stacey

Hi Rachael,
Treats only need to be tiny, like half the size of your little fingernail!
My puppy is now 10 months, and for a while it has been a case of not coming when called if there is something more interesting, like another dog! In training class we have no problems, but I think that's different. Anyway, what I find works really well is one of those high-pitched dog whistles, and he always comes to that. (when he does, he gets a treat). You will have to condition your puppy to it first, so that he realises if he comes to the whistle he will get treat. I know you can argue that you can use your voice, but it's a completely different sound - dogs hear our voices all day, and their names often enough, so it becomes monotonous to them. A whistle for recall definitely gets a response quick.

That sounds like a really good idea. She ignores her name cos I use it so often for so many different reasons.

Any ideas where I can get one

Hi Rachael,
I just got mine in a pet shop for about £3 - it's like a little silver coloured one, quite high pitched, doesn't sound loud, but apparently can carry about 400 yards to a dog.
Or you might find one at Crufts if you're going there.
When you start with it, just try it round the house - blow whistle in front of puppy and give him treat, then you can do it from a bit of a distance, say another room. He'll soon learn to associate the sound with the food!
Hilda

Gundog Whistles: how to use them and where to buy

Hope this helps! :) Monty's Mum

Can i just ask in general what age you would expect a pup to respond ( with distractions) . As Rachael says our pup is also very good at recall when we are on our own ( he is ok at training class too if we use treats but there are only 4 other dogs there) but i doubt he would respond when out with various distractions about
Lel

Are you asking me, Lel?

It is a very individual thing. All puppies are different. A very sensitive pup may never leave you in the first place. A very confident, independent pup may take months to reliably leave a distraction when you call him. It can also depend on his age. Puppies quite often have a period of forgetting everything they've ever been taught and you feel your training has been a waste of time. It hasn't, but you'll need to go back to basics and reinforce all the previous lessons before you can move forward again. Also, it depends on how consistent you have been with the training. Some people don't find it very easy to think dog at all or may lack the patience that is sometimes necessary, and they may always struggle with teaching a dog. Others just seem to have a knack.

Sorry, this isn't really giving you an answer. The best advice is to be patient, don't expect miracles, don't issue a command if you think it may be ignored, break the learning down into small steps so they are easier to learn, be consistent and when the pup does learn something, to practice it often with plenty of praise for getting it right. :) :) Oh, and don't worry about whether your pup is learning at a different rate to another of the same age, that's just the way it goes! We're all different! :D

Monty's Mum

Sorry MM- I meant any one in general .
Pup is quite confident and he just LOVES meeting other dogs and other people( especially kiddies) .
He is coming up to 19 weeks old so I wondered what people thought or expected a "rough" age to be .
I know patience and consistency is a must when training but i feel the first step has at least been learnt which is learning to come back at all .
:)
Thanks
Lel

Our pup is 10 months today/tomorrow. She is very good at the recall when other dogs etc are around - however, she has now started digging huge holes in one particular field that we go in and no amount of calling will get her back. It isn't a major problem - just another little step backwards. More training needed before she is let off in that field again :( The main thing to remember is that if you know that she/he isn't going to come - don't keep on calling, and try to avoid getting in the situation that you know will be a problem.

Daisy

A good piece of advice given by our trainer was not to keep on shouting and being ignored as you are actually then training your dog to ignore you
Lel

That's correct, Lel. Always set yourself up for success.

"i feel the first step has at least been learnt which is learning to come back at all"

That is good. Now keep reinforcing it as practice makes perfect. You can gradually introduce distractions at home quite easily. If the puppy is doing something like playing with a toy, call him to you. If he is wandering over to another household member, call him to you. If the reward is of high enough value he will leave the distraction to find you and the reward. Every successful little recall is one step closer to your goal of coming away from other dogs or people in the park. Keep practicing! :) :)

MM