My girlfriend and I have a fantastic 7 month old springer dog, who up until recently was doing well with his recall.  However in the past week that has all gone down the drain!  He has now become deaf when ever we try to call him back or instead tries to turn it into a game by running around us or sitting just out of arms reach.  We have resisted the temptation to chase him which I know will make it into an even bigger game.  A couple of nights ago we spent much of his walk sitting 30 feet apart and calling him to each of us, rewarding him with a treat and loads of hugs.  This seems to have worked well and last night he did really well....... Apart from JOGGERS!!  He just loves em, normally they are upon us before we can get him on the lead and he just loves it, jumping up and running round them and completely ignoring me and really really embarrising us !  Not only that but I am worried he may hurt someone jumping up and that would just be terrible.  Can anyone offer any advice?  Also when we call him to come back to us, we say his name and then "come here", should we just use one word?  Any general help with recall etc would be really helpful.  Thanks

Sounds like you are having fun!!

At 7 months old, your lad is a teenager - and selective deafness (espesh with recalls) is very common.  Everything else is just too interesting!   The yo-yo recalls you have been doing are excellent, keep doing them - but I'd restrict it to a time when you can be sure there won't be anything distracting for him - like joggers!  It's important with a recall to build up to big distractions; for example, a dog that will happily come in an empty field probably won't come if that field is full of rabbits :)

When there will be people around, I would have him on a lead - you can start on a 6ft till he's more reliable, then work up; i start on a 6ft lead, then a long flexi, then a 30ft longline, 50ft longline, and finally a 100ft longline (though I'm not there yet - those darned rabbits!).  Hopefully your guy will be reliable enough with training so you won't need the 50ft or 100ft - they are a royal pain to work with!

Start by calling him when he's coming to you - I have found that it's most effective if you say "dog, come!" or whatever your word is.  I found "come" works well because it starts with a hard sound - and it's easier to get across firmly if you need to say it louder.  One very imjportant thing - *never* use your recall word if there is *any* chance he will ignore you, unless you are sure you can correct him.  This will only teach him that he can ignore you and get away with it - keep running around and sniffing stuff - and it will set your trainnig back.  I've made that mistake myself with both my dogs, and it does make it that much harder to get a reliable recall- even when they are very reliable on lead, I find (espesh with my dobe) that once he's off, he remembers he can ignore me and will do it.

The joggers - keep him on lead if there's one around (or likely to be), and when they get near, start giving him little treats - soon he should start associating the joggers with great stuff, and start looking to you.  If he stays on the ground when one goes by, give him loads of praise - the whole shabang, daft high happy voice, jackpot reward (loads of great stuff like hotdog), the works.  He should soon get the message!

Once you've got him reliable on a regular lead, you can move on to a longer one - some people don't bother with a flexi, but I like to; the whole retracting lead thing makes it a bit easier while you keep working on that recall.  When he's reliable on the longer lead, go a bit longer - if you can get a light but strong longline, so much the better - it will put less drag on the collar as you are walking, giving the suggestion of freedom to him.  He might become a little less reliable then, but that's fine - more opportunities to work on it, and remind him he must come back.

For the actual training, here's what I do; in the first stages, I click and treat for any time the dog comes after I've called it, doesn't matter how long it takes (well, up to a few minutes anyhoo - I'm impatient!).  You don't have to use a clicker, but a uzz-word helps - like "good boy", "bingo!", anything like that - anything that will make his returning to you stand out as the thing you want.
Then I start upping the criteria - I click and treat for returns within a set time, not after.  As an example; right now, my dobe is on a 10-second recall.  If he returns within the 10 seconds, clikc/treat.  At the 10-second mark, I (gently) pull on his flexi until he comes back.  When he's in front of me, I ask him to sit, and say "good", in a calm, quiet voice - he knows that him returning is what I want, but he also knows the reward isn't amazing - makes the click/treat stand out that much more.
In a week, he'll be on an 8 second recall - same thing.  Return in 8 secs, c/t.  No return, slight pull till he does.  A week later, it'll be 6 seconds and so on, till I'm only rewarding the turn-on-his-heels recalls.  Then it'll be the turn-on-his-heels and *run* back recalls.  That's called shaping; molding the behaviour you have into the behaviour you want.  Be careful - just this morning I made the mistake of clicking as my other dog turned towards me, only to watch her get distracted again and investigate something.  I clicked her for looking at me, not coming back; make sure you breward only when you're sure he will come back, same as when you use your magic recall word.  Be sure to always use the same word, too - he'll associate it with good things happening, and every time good things happen, the power of that word will increase.

How long your boy takes I couldn't tell you; I'm working with two very, very independant dogs, so it's taking a while - not to mention the immense hurdles of rabbit and squirrel temptation.

Good luck, sorry that was so long!  One method doesn't work for every dog, of course; this is one I've developed through talking to a number of different people, owning different dogs - dobes, rotts (my other dog is a rott X), french bulldogs, weims, all sorts!

One last thing; I recommend a book called Don't Shoot the Dog, by Karen Pryor - it explains all about learning theory in all mammals (ourselves included), and is very useful when working with any dog.

That was a fantastic reply, many thanks, we will take all that all on board and try it!  Thanks again!

no problem!  One thing to add - when he's getting reliable, start randomly not rewarding his recalls - that's known as variable reinforcement (one name for it, anyway).  Once he's learn the recall, if you reward him every time indefinitely, he'll start doing the minimum he needs to to get that treat - if you reinforce it randomly and (eventually) not too often, he'll keep up the effort in the hopes that *this* recall will be the one with the rewards.

good luck!