I am a jack russell owner (two rescues both from 4 months old and neglected/untrained but very good natured when I first got them) and I am fully aware of the limitiations of terriers when it comes to recall.  However, I am also a great believer in training and I really could not have done more recall training without making it a 24 hour a day activity.  Yes, I have done the "Billy/Maisie come!" routine with treats (tasty fresh chicken, bits of sausage, cheese - you name it).  I have sat in various parts of the house rattling boxes and calling, "Come" when they least expect it.  I have taken them over the small recreational ground and walked backwards with tasty treats whilst calling, "Come" in an interesting high pitched voice.  I have, with gritted teeth tried to be polite when doggy experts (who can sometimes be quite scary) have told me to work harder on my obedience with my dogs who can sit and stay like Crufts champions in the home ( I do this everytime I feed them).  If only they could see this, but I know they didn't believe it.  I have used training leads, attached them together on the lead so at least one will bring them back. 

So I have been feeling quite smug with myself when these literally years of hard work paid off.  People cooed and said, "Aren't they good?" as I demonstrated Billy's perfect recall which I keep reinforcing with treats on the local recreational ground which we call the 'doggy field'. 

However, over the past few occasions, he has been a little less keen on coming back - nothing too major, but the niggling doubts returning.  Then, this morning, we took him to our local nature reserve (dogs are encouraged to come here) for an extended walk.  All went well.  Then he ran off and, he would not come back!  He had sniffed out IN THE DISTANCE an area full of rabbit warrens and he was off.  OK it only took about 10 minutes or so to get him back, but it was 10 minutes of hell as we called, "Billy come, Billy come" until our throats dried up.  I am not very mobile, so I found it a struggle staggering across the uneven ground and my husband did his back in as he tried to get into the undergrowth and tripped up on the opening of a warren. 

Yes.  I hear you say.  What does she expect with terriers and rabbits?  How can I compete with this.  How can I ever be more interesting to my dog than this so that he comes for me.  Luckily, Maisie ran straight to her dad and stayed with him when she heard the fuss (which is quite amazing in itself when I think of some other occasions when she was younger!) 

I desperately want to give my dogs freedom and take them to interesting places off the lead, but this has knocked my confidence again and I know that he will pick up on this.  If I over protect him he will rebel as soon as I give him an ounce of freedom - I know how he works.  Yet at home, they are both respectful, obedient, fabulous well trained and well behaved dogs and I am very proud of them.

Help!

I empathise owning a breed with similar tendencies :D  My Jozi now 8 has mde me wait half an hour at her pleasure grrr  :rolleyes:

My 3yo is a food scavenger, as she's not discovered rabbits yet.  Her recall is perfect until she sees someone feeding the ducks - and she's off like a bat out of hell!:rolleyes:

I wish I knew the secret of the 100% reliable recall......and I wish other dog owners and park users would have some sympathy for me when I'm calling her and they're feeding her bread.

I'll be watching this topic with interest.........you have 100% of my attention!

Yep as mentioned on another thread it is the scavenging that is my downfall.

Oh to have the perfect dog!!! (perhaps it would be boring).  My Meg 'escaped' yesterday as I put the Christmas tree out of the front door (it was completely naked by the time it landed on the lawn leaving all the needles in heaps behind).  Meg saw a neighbour walking his dog and made off down the lane after it.  Oh I felt so jealous when he told me that his collie (bought when he saw mine after saying he wasn't going to have another dog) could walk off lead down to Tesco's and sat outside waiting for him.  He only tied him up because he insisted on sitting right in front of the doors to wait!  Mine couldn't even stay inside my garden and then only came back when this gentleman walked back with both dogs for me to retrieve mine.  Oh for an obedient dog!  Mine had been to puppy class and agility class - I work so hard but mine will never be like his.

Oh and she scavenged someone else's bag of treats in agility this morning and you could almost see her growing two horns as she found them and made off with them.

I have a pastoral breed and wouldnt dream of letting them off in or near fields where there could possibly be sheep or cattle as I feel thier natural instinct would come to the fore (have done herding test with one and she has a strong herding instinct)
Thier recall is spot on in all other circumstances in the parks we are their focus as we have thier balls other dogs can come and investigate but they ignore them , I started the ball fascination from  very young pups playing football in the garden ...mostly I also do the recall in the house for tasty treats as you have said in your post.
You sound to me as if you have a well trained dogs compared to others I would resign my self to the fact that I cant take a terrier breed into a field of rabbits etc off lead and find other places to enjoy.

We have a terrier cross who came to us from a rescue at 5 months old. I sympathise with the recall :) Indoors and in the garden he has a brilliant recall and most times when out and about in the woods he has a great recall if you spot the signs that he is about to leg it and get in with the recall very quickly:)

I have had a few times when he has disappeared off because my attention was on our other dog - much bigger and lovely recall. I had a heart stopping incident in the woods when he first did it and went missing for 15 minutes or so. I had no idea where he was as had been distracted by taking a bramble out of Harley's tail and didn't see him go. I called and whistled for ages and could hear a very faint barking in the distance so knew he was a long way away At the point when I had phoned home and told them I had lost Cooper he suddenly appeared on the path in front of me trotting back towards me with a jaunty grin on his face :) I was really worried about letting him off again after that episode and left him on a long line for a few days.

What I do now each and every walk is keep him on a long lead for the first 15 minutes of his walk and practice lots and lots of recall with him, rewarding him every time he comes back to me. He then starts coming back without being called and I reward him then as well. When I then let him off lead I don't recall him for the first 5 minutes or so because it would just be setting him up to fail. After the 5 minutes I recall, treat and let him free again. I still reward when he returns of his own accord and give him lots of praise. The middle part of his walk is off lead and then he goes back  on for the last part and we practice some lead manners. When he goes back on his lead I don't recall him for that I just wait until he has returned of his own accord and pop him back on as I didn't want him to associate recall with end of free running.

He has got so much better at recall (hope I am not tempting fate here ) but we still do have moments when he is out of eyesight for longer than I feel comfortable with. He is so very different from our GR and the training is taking so much longer.

Harley  Thank you so much.  That's a really good idea.  I have saved some breakfast sausage for him (I know it's not healthy but I need a high value reward) and I'll try this out when we go on our long walk later.

I'll let you know how it pans out!!!

I have saved some breakfast sausage for him (I know it's not healthy but I need a high value reward)

I don't think it matters that it isn't the healthiest of treats :) I have been using some of the gammon that we had over Christmas and he loves it. It has to be healthier for him than being lost out in the woods :)

Hope your walks become less fraught and you start to enjoy them again :)

Terriers seem to be very high input dogs :D

only the other day my dog did what he hasnt done in a couple of years and that is deliberately ignore me. i was livid, like you i have worked SOOOOOO hard, i have probably let it lapse as i thought he was so good now and been spoiling him over xmas, now its back to basics for a while. Oh ! dogs with personalities!!!! keep you on your toes dont they!

It has to be healthier for him than being lost out in the woods  

My feelings also!