Hi there - I am new to all this so please be patient with me!!
I have a 9 month gsp who has been pretty good up til now with his training but over the past month things have swiftly gone downhill. He has been whistle fed since we had him at 8 weeks so has always had a good recall when out but now he will completely ignore me. I try every trick in the book I know but he will not come back to me- he knows!!
I would be grateful if anyone could tell me what tasty treats they use for training (I clicker train so get through quite a few) which will entice him. I tend to use really pongy cheese or hot dog sausages but not the value one's as he spits them out! This morning I even dropped cheese on the ground for him but to no avail!!!
If this helps he was castrated over a month ago now so I know its not that but he even peed on our bed last week!!
Help!!

Sounds like he's going through the oft described "kevin stage" - happens to the best of them :)

He may well not be particularly food motivated anymore - not all dogs are even at the beginning and those which have been soon find new ways to try our patience.  It may be worth adopting a new regime for his attention by playing with him as a reward rather than using treats.  Perhaps get him focussed on a particularly exciting toy which he has no access to unless you are in control and it's during a training session etc.

If you wish to try and persevere with treats try lamb hearts or kidneys as an alternative - but only for training purposes.  Another point worth considering is using his actual diet as a treat - i.e. when he's genuinely hungry and has to "earn" his dinner rather than forego treats which are extras to his diet anyway.

They do outgrow this phase but it does require patience and more than a little invention on our part!

HTH, regards Teri
   

Thanks for that - I walk him before he is fed in the morning so you would expect him to do anything for food! I also keep a toy which he loves just for his walks which really excites him. Unfortunately this morning we were already playing with it when he decided he wasn't going to come back so I couldn't entice him to come as he was running around with it already.
In the end I had to pick up a stick and pretend I was going to play with him to get him interested!!!
It's all good fun but I sometimes think I must be mad!!!!

That's nowt - wait to you resort to the "rugby tackle" :D :D :D  Takes all manner of maneouvres sometimes from running the opposite direction, hiding behind bushes, crouching on to your knees playing with a "pretend" furby or even lying face down on the grass :rolleyes:

rugby tackle's a good 'un though :P

had to rugby tackle my small mongrel in the summer due to the tasty enticement of sandwiches and picknicks.
only problem is judging the side of you they are going to take as they pretend to come. it is a very useful technique to have when it works tho :D :D :D

I have always trained with chicken soaked in chicken fat so it is not dry and then pop it in some tin foil in my pocket, never yet had a dog turn it down and I quite enjoy a little nibble myself when my dog isn't looking. :-)

Hi - I'd suggest you put a long line on him and use treats which are tastier than hotdogs and cheese.

Try smoked fish or anything fishy, a chunk of banana, a piece of apple, a random dog treat - try to keep your recall treats interesting and varied.  Every time you go out, take out a bag with about 5-6 recall treats in it and call him back, give him a treat and then let him go off again. 

If he doesn't come, use the long line and give him a "standard" treat (hotdog or cheese) when he gets to you.  He will learn that he must come himself, without the long line and on the first command to get the "super" treat.  Only call him once or you're training him to ignore you.

Yep, definitely don't allow him to actually practise this  a long line will prevent this (may be a good idea to put him on harness/line combo to prevent any neck jerks) :)

Train, train, train and yes, I'd be happy to make him really work for his food (ie you could divide his food into portions - 10 per day - and if he ignores you, that portion gets put aside, he may get a wee bit hungry but will soon realise he needs to work for his grub ;)

Also you may wish to follow some more detailed training as you already  use clicker;  go to www.learningaboutdogs.co.uk, search for the new gundog clicker training book by Helen Phillips who works Vizslas. Lots of info in there about how to use the dog's drives and how to get good recall etc.

Good luck
Lindsay
x

I was advised by our trainer to remove a third of our pups food & make him earn it throughout the day. So far he has earned it all back, no problem.  Livercake is a treat favourite - he goes mad for it. A smelly favourite - fish skins from Burns - be prepared for smelly hands & pockets though!

Another tip, always make sure you have another toy that is the same value or even better, so that if he takes off with the toy you always have something else to entice him back with.

basicaly you have trained to come back for treats but not for you he understands the commands your giveing, they mean come back if you have nothing beter to do and you can have a treat, if he wants a treat more than other things he will, if he has more interest in something else he wont, that will not change now with those methods.
I suggest you find a trainer like those on dog borstal, your dog is not yet as far gone as those dogs but if this carries on he soon will be.
Check the dog borstal posts some names are on there and some people have used and know the trainers so they can put you in touch. Such a shame for a young dog to go down hill like that but he has outgrown that type of training, he really needs to be on a lead for safety untill you get a proper trainer.

Dennis (dimple) if anyone wants to be put in touch with Rob Alleyne i can do it for you LOL LOL as he is from the ukrcb :D which I recommend a lot (although I did not agree with everything Rob did on the programme).

Lindsay

I forgot to say - make sure you do loads of training around the house and garden, calling him 20-30 times a day for a treat, so it becomes an conditioned response.

My gsp is 7 months and he has 'Kevin' days more at this age than when he was younger.  Sometimes when he is at ring craft he just cannot be bothered to co-operate and he just sits down then does everything he can so you cannot re stack him.  I think age has a lot to so with it but the tips and ideas everyone are posting are very good.  Have you spoke to the breeder to see if any of the other puppies are at the same 'rebelious stage'?  Good luck!

My dog is 8 months and is going through the same stage, she is ok at recall when we are out but at training classes its all gone wrong. She was doing really well really paying attention to me and the commands we were learning, but the last two times she has been completely ignoring me just sniffing the ground and just looking for any treats that might have been dropped by others, she even seemed to have forgotton the sit command (very embarrasing ). I am trying to practice at home and that is fine but when we get to classes its a complete nightmare,  I am hoping its a phase.

When recommending the use of lines and harnesses to posters it may be a good idea to recommend gloves.............  also the effective use of a harness and line really requires good skills and timing so people would benefit from some tuition before trying it out alone............... IMHO

Merlin has turkey usually as it is cheap, sometimes if i roast some beef he will have that cut up into little chunks, if we take dog treats he responds when he wants as he is indifferent to them, he is spoilt. As for not using treats, for my breed i was told by other owners that obedience would/could be a struggle, treats work so i use them and he loves them and behaves, this equals happy dog and happy mum.

I've got an 8 month old who is highly selective about the value of treats -v- the benefits of pleasing yourself which isn't helped by him not being very food orientated in the first place. So while he could win prizes for obedience if I was prepared to carry the carcasses of recently dead and already half-eaten birds, rats or rabbits around in my pockets, I have to go for the next best thing. There's not a commercial treat on the market that he's bothered about but garlic sausage, ham and frankfurters are current favourites. However, if anyone has a good recipe for liver cake that I could cope with making (bearing in mind I'm not much of a meat eater at the best of times) I'd be ever so grateful to get it!

Brilliant recommendation from Tohme and crucial because you end up without any nails that's for sure!  I tried some training with a lunge line yesterday having read about it here.  My young pup has an enormous prey drive and we've had a few hiccups with recall so I thought I'd try some recall training on a lead.  He's only a small cocker but there was the potential for him to pull me off my feet.  Fortunately (or unfortunately) he's smart enough to know that we were there for the purpose of making him behave and he was an angel.  Food doesn't work - I took franfurters out with me but he wasn't the slightest bit interested.