Can anyone help??

My 15 month old Pointer wont come back to me when i let him off the lead in the park. He comes when i call him around the house and i have tried all the usual things like lots of treats before i take the lead off, I have tried walking away from him when he ignores me, and i have tried taking him for a walk with other dogs that do come back when called (he plays with them and runs the other way when they come back) but he wont come back.

Has anyone got any advice? I would love to let him off so that he could have a good run.

you need to give him a treat when he comes back not when you let him off. Don't get angry with him or this will make matters worse. Wait until he has eye contact with you neel on the floor and call him back, as soon as he returns give him lots of fuss and treat him. Do not expect miracles it will take a while.

When he finally does return, how do you react?

we do try and keep calm and call him back excitingly, even when we have been calling him back for up to an hour he will get praise and treats, (which is very difficult to do when your wound up by him). We never scold him when he comes back. The treats are given before we let him off so he knows weve got lots of nice things for him to come back to us for.

You could try getting a long rope or something and call him and if he ignores you tug it slightly to get his attention and lots of praise treats when he does come and after a while leave the rope on him but let it go so if need be you can tread on it and then pick it up
hope this helps
Hannah

Has he ever actually been taught the recall step by step?

We can call him from anywhere in the house and he comes pounding towards us, its only when we take him for a walk that he wont come back. He sometimes comes back to around 25ft away from us and then runs off again. We have found a field which is fenced in and we sometimes let him off there because we know he cant escape, another fellow dog walker found him by one of the three exits of this field where he was sitting waiting for someone to come along and open the gate. Luckily they had the sense to not let him out but im not sure why he wanted to get out of the field. We have tried the rope trick but didnt/hasnt worked.

Hi Angela, I have a 10 month pointer who did exactly the same thing and still hopes that coming back to within 15 feet of me will do! I think pointers are naturally curious and easily distracted and they do go out from their owners quite far, having seen mine and spoken to other pointer owners. We put him back on a long line in a tracking harness and started by rewarding him whenever he looked at us, throwing his treat so he ahs to catch it as this needs more concentration, then letting him out further and further when successful. We also exercise him before meals so he is hungry enough to value a treat and come back.When off the lead I tend to move about so Morse has to keep his eye on me - I hide in bushes, change direction etc and we play hide and seek. If you have a failed recall go back a stage. It will take time but keep at it. There is a good site on clicker training by Karen Pryor - I find it helps. If you read Downhearted you'll see I have a teenage dog too and am far from sorted, but my dog's recall has improved lots. Good luck and let me knowhow you get on.

What I found worked with mine when they were being proper little g*ts and didn't want to come right up to me (although I thought I was putting on a happy voice, they could tell that inside I was seething!) was to crouch down and pretend to examine something on the ground, saying "Oooh, look at this, what's this then?". Dog, being nosy, had to come and see, too. Then he gets the treat and praise, and ideally sent off to play again.
:)

if bradley does not come back when i call. i call him whilst running away, he soon comes. (A little scared of being by himself bless). he then gets a lovely treat alot of fuss and then he is off again. We are in the early stages of the recall so i do a far bit of running (ive lost half a stone already).

We found with our pup that picking a long piece of grass and waving it around saying "What's this ?" nearly always worked :)

Daisy

Dogs don't associate what they learnt in one place with what they are supposed to do in another - you have to teach again in most new environments until they learn that when you say 'X' it happens - where ever you are - go back to basics.....

I have whistle trained my 7 month old dobe. It took no time at all. As soon as she hears the whistle she returns to me and gets a treat. She isn't perfect and I would hesitate to say it would work as well if we were say in the park with lots of distractions, needs more practice, but she is 100% better using this method than before when I just shouted her. She wouldn't take any notice of me, though she doesn't run away and even waits for us if she gets too far ahead. Also she used to get really excited when I got her lead out and would take ages to get hold of in order to go out. So I was really patient, and she only got to go out when she came to me and sat down for her lead to go on, this sometimes took half an hour or so, when she promptly got a treat. Now whilst out walking as soon as she hears the lead rattle she returns and sits in front of me so I can put it on, she then gets her treat. It takes patience and time but if you persist it should work.
Bev

Our dog was always good most of the time at coming back but sometimes it was like she had selevtive hearing! "i can hear you...but i'm gonna ignore you!" type of thing! LOL

At training classes, the "come" command was taugh step by step. At first, you make the dog sit in front of you and you say "come" (or whatever word you want to use for recall) and then give them a treat. This is repeated over and over with the dog just sitting at your feet - so that they associate the word with a treat or praise.
The next step was to have them on the lead and sat at arms length away from you. You say "come and then tug the lead gently so that the dog comes and sits in front of you for his/her treat. This distance in increased gradually until there is no lead involved and then it moved to the stage where they were incouraged to go and play with the other dogs at the far end of the hall and then called back.

It will take a while and i know it can be frustrating but don't give up as it is an extremely good discipline for your dog to learn. Take a long lead or rope and lots of treats to a secluded park or field where you wont be disturbed and then start the training from square one. Good luck :)

HI Bev cool whistle! We meet a chap with a 3 year old pointer on our walks who has his dog trained to a whistle and he says it is the best thing for pointers. My husband would like to try this -how did you do it?

Hi, it actually wasn't too difficult really. I bought 2 dog whistles (just in case I lost one:D). We have a really, really big garden, so she can be out of sight a lot of the time, and often up to no good, digging or something, and she would ignore my shouts, so I thought a whistle would be a good idea, actually the instructor at the classes suggested it too, as when I was chatting to him at the end of a lesson, he blew his and got her attention straight away, so we thought this would work, especially out in a big field. To train her in the garden I simply blew the whistle and she came, probably out of curiosity at first, simple as that, but as soon as she did she got a treat, and every single time after that, so can't really take the credit for it she just did it. I now don't give her a treat every time, but most. But literally within 24 hours she would return from anywhere in the garden and sit at my feet for her treat. As I said out in the fields she isn't perfect, but a huge improvement.
Bev