Having reached the adolescent stage I now have a problem with re-establishing myself as the centre of attention when walking.

At training class his recall is perfect ,as it is at home, and he is quite happy to ignore the other dogs when we are doing an exercise which involves walking between and around other dogs. He will ignore them when he is either the walking around dog or the sitting waiting dog.

However on a walk it is a different matter. I always put him back on his lead if we see a dog in the distance ( we walk mainly in woodland and only meet other dogs there at the beginning of the woods) but as we approach them he will pull to go and see them and he is getting to be a big dog (11 month old GR).

I know that I have to make myself more desirable than any distraction around him but it is this that I am now finding to be a problem.

He is only toy orientated at home - takes no notice if out or at training. We use liver, frankfurters or cheese for rewards - again fine at home or at training class but hit and miss when out and about either for recall or distraction purposes. He does come back when recalled but although he returns to me it is at a slow amble with a quick sniff on the way and perhaps a wee as well before he actually gets there. I haven't used a long line as he tends to fight his way through the undergrowth rather than walk on the path and I am worried that it will get caught up on things.

So how do I increase his enthusiasm and what other treats can I try that will make him see me as better than anything else on offer?

If we are at the beach he will totally ignore other dogs, people etc if we are throwing stones into the water for him to chase but I obviously can't throw stones when out walking and he has no interest in retrieving anything else - a non- retrieving retriever :D :D

What I do may help - I'm not into *formal* training but do encourage good manners and of course recall is an important part of that.   I change the come command to "sweeties" :)  Don't feed at all before off lead walks so your youngster is hungry and don't use the same treat (no matter how smelly/tasty) for out door work as you do for training at home, garden, club etc.  Perhaps keep roast chicken or lamb hearts for off lead.  Mine can be deaf as a bat for any command but turns on a sixpence for the word "sweeties"  ;)

HTH, Teri

Hi Teri - quick question - do you prime the word sweeties first at home?  My English Setter is pushing the boundaries further and further with me at the mo! :)

Yes - should have said that :)   I put said sweeties into a crinkly bag (empty Malteezers works :D ) I first give them a random sweet or two (real Malteezers or similar) for doing something silly like "high 5" etc so they know the word and also the sound of the crinkle with the bag.   Obviously the sound of the bag wont travel if they've started to tear off into the horizon but they are very quickly conditioned to the word "sweeties" :)  You have to save it for the right situations of course otherwise it becomes just another word/treat etc.

HTH Teri :)

That's great - Thanks Teri - he's a smart boy but can be a cheeky monkey! and does like to try his luck!

I guess you also (like the recall) want to aim for 100% success and avoid failure (always easier said than done hey!) :p

Thanks Teri i will give that a try. I only go to the local training class more as a socialisation thing and to get other input on training methods - I too only want a well mannered dog.

As he is raw fed finding something different to use as a treat is not so easy as he has quite a variety of different food already.

I was wondering if commercial liver sausage would be an alternative as it has quite a strong smell and is not something I would normally feed to him?

Thorntons - works for mine ;)

Adolescence, ah, that lovely time :D

Part of what is in your first post makes me think you need to do 2 things: firstly find out what is his total favourite thing ever - experiment. Don't "assume" - let him show you what he loves. It may be warm roast chicken, or a toy on a rope he can retrieve, or a squeaky toy, or a rag, or you playing chase - try to list 20 things in order of his favourites ;)

Then, instead of using whatever you feel might work, take several things out with you and make sure you use the rewards not as distractions but as rewards, and actually be aware of what you are doing when reward wise. For instance if he does something really good, huge reward :)

IF he comes slowly, mediocre reward. Use jackpots and get to know about withholding rewards and also using things he loves to do as rewards. For instance if he pulls towards othere dogs to say HI, ask him for a Sit first. If he doesn't sit first, say "oh, too bad" and just take him away. Next time he may well try out the Sit, then say "good! OK" and release him to say Hi :)

It's about knowing when and how to reward. Also, dogs don't generalise well, so a Sit in dog training club isn't the same as Sit outside amongst trees. YOu may have to train behaviours from basic many times before you get what you want :)

Hth a bit

Lindsay
x

I whistle train all of my dogs. Sometimes I can be walking as many as 12 Labradors off lead, (in my own fields I hasten to add). It's extremely simple to train them to come to the whistle. Firstly, you need a whistle. Most good pet shops sell them. Mine is a gundog whistle. If you have a gunshop or country sports shop near you, they will have one. Start by blowing it in the house when your dog is near to you and immediately giving him his favourite treat. Within a couple of days he will associate the whistle with the treat and come running from wherever he is. The advantages of a whistle are that it can be heard from a long way away, dogs hearing is more receptive to high pitched sounds, if you are in a park, the whistle will cut through any other noise and if somebody else ever has to walk your dog for you, it's not your voice he's listening for, just the whistle. My dogs are so tuned to the whistle, I can even whistle them off a rabbit or hare and they will come back to me.

I have been considering using a whistle so it is something I will definitely try.

Thanks Haley/Teri,
Amber is older and we haven't even tried the off leash yet (too scared to loose our puppy) nor have we started training classes.
Great advice we will bear all that in mind for furture reference (I've been crazy about Malteezers for years!!) :-)

Well I'd cross two fields and vault a five-barred gate for some Maltesers! :D The dog would much prefer me to rattle a sweetie bag containing a nice decomposing rabbit, mind.

Of letting pups off lead, I know it's always a heart-stopping moment but it's actually a good idea to do it (in the safest of circumstances) as early as possible while they are still more worried about losing you than they are interested in going missing. Nips was 12 weeks old when he had his first off lead walk in the fields and he spent a good deal of it checking that I hadn't done a runner!

What I'd also done, from the moment he came home at just under 8 weeks, was to train him to come to me in the garden - this was much more about play than formal training, I hasten to add - but it got him used to his name and started to instill the concept of recall.

Yes, we have done a lot of recall at home from day 1 (come, stay, lie down, go out). How can you not, from the moment she wakes up she is around around our feet so we have never actually considered that as training. It works and we don't give treats for that (praise usually puts a smile on her face). It is away from home that we are not so brave/tough (same as the OP is finding her pup not listening when meeting dogs outside but is perfectly ok at home, training club etc..)

I guess there are also so much more out there to attract Amber's attention. Never thought she could also be worried about loosing us, good thing to know (and it's a wonderful feeling too actually!!) :-)

>Never thought she could also be worried about loosing us, good thing to know (and it's a wonderful feeling too actually!!)

The more confident they become when out, the sooner the owner becomes boring and the pup wants to explore further. So off-lead recalls are best started as soon as possible in as many (safe!) places as possible. By the time the pup approaches adolescence the opportunity's passed, and you're struggling against their desire to explore the world.

Couldn't agree more, off lead NOW, run and hide from her, change directions without saying so etc, or the opportunity for a lifelong great recall will pass by. :)

Ditto Roz, JG and Goldmali on letting pups off lead - mine are off lead immediately and they stay close! 

It is scary the first time you try it but you'll be amazed at how eager they are to keep you within easy reach and ALWAYS well within sight :)   It definitely helps the recall fall into place and has a feel good factor second to none :D 

No - Amber is much younger with Harley being 11 months old. Amber is just a puppy :)

I posted something similar to this a while ago - I have 9.5 month old golden retriever too - after we found she was becoming increasingly deaf when at the park. She's similar in that she couldn't care less about toys (unless she's retrieving them from a lake! :rolleyes:) and we found that treats weren't really having a great effect.

After some great advice, my husband and I did some recall training using distraction - if you do a search (perhaps under my user name) 123 gives some excercises that you could use and are really easy. We've done this a few times and with the right high value treat we're getting great recalls. I would say we're at about 70% right now which is a sight better than a few weeks ago where she ignored us full stop.

Now, if she runs off, we do anything we can to get her attention - whether that's screaming and running in the other direction, flinging our arms in the air, etc. We've mostly learnt to not bother calling her if we know she's not going to come back too - we're pretty good at spoting when this might be now. We only call her back when we're pretty sure she will and now because she's coming when she wants to, it's been easier to start to make her come back even when she doesn't. Quite unbelievably she'll come to us during a game with a doggie friend which is a fantastic achievement for us. So basically we set her up all the time so that she chooses correctly to do what we want her to do.

We also used to keep her on lead all the time when other dogs approached, as we feared that she'd never come back but now we know various dogs over the park we let her off - she'll have a play, but now when we walk on she's started to follow us. We used to have the fear that's she'd play all day but she doesn't now.

I would say as well, since we've had these really positive steps forward with her, she's bonding even more with us. She's now started to hang back for us on walks and she's even more soppy round the house...

I would say as well, since we've had these really positive steps forward with her, she's bonding even more with us. She's now started to hang back for us on walks and she's even more soppy round the house...

Great post. :) And yes, the more time you spend training a dog (with positive methods of coruse) the closer they will get to you. I often wonder if all these people you see who have done little or no training realise just what they are missing out on -they will never have the same close relationship.

Totally agree :)

It's so important to train - not just go out for a walk with the dog, but get involved and be doing with the dog ;)

Lindsay
x

my dog used to have a rubbish recall and i implemented all the things suggested here and now i have to say smugly that it is very  good. I still especially like, at this time of year, to hurl my self into the corn or long grass when he has trotted on ahead and when he thinks he has lost me the speed he runs back at is amazing, then i jump  out in front of him like an imbecile,

>and when he thinks he has lost me the speed he runs back at is amazing, then i jump  out in front of him like an imbecile

:D :D

Yep! Been there! A couple of months ago, Nips thought he'd stop rabbiting in the undergrowth and hedgerows at his convenience rather than mine. The OH had taken him out for his evening walk a couple of times and had been standing around, like an eejit waiting for the dog to emerge so he could go back on the lead and all the while he did this, the dog was quite happy with the arrangement. I put a very quick stop to this by calling Nips once and when he didn't respond, leaving him in the hedge while I walked back along the farm track. Next thing I knew there was a frantic panicky yipping from deep inside the hedge which was followed by a Jack Russell terrier trying to break the land speed record in order to catch up with me!