Hi folks...

not been on here for a looooooong time lol but I could do with some help with my male staff so i thought id drop in and see of you lovely, intelligent (grovel grovel lol) people could help.

Ok, so as i said, i have a male staffy called Benson who, like most staffs is a little exciteable (never in a nasty way, just the usual staffy bouncyness lol) but in general is well behaved and easily trainable....usually lol

Ive not been able to let him off the lead outside for about a year now because his recall is almost non-existant when there is anything else going on around us - whether it be birds, ducks, dogs or whatever... Ive tried treats, balls, sticks, jumping up and down waving my hands in the air, talking in as high pitched a voice as i can manage and nothing seems to work... im still nowhere near as interesting as everything else.

Im sure that its not him not knowing to come back because in the house/garden he trotts over whenever i call his name..

can anybody suggest a way i can teach him to come back when outside?

back to basics once again I'm afraid little steps .....

you could put him on a long line when in the park so he gets some exercise they pick up on that very quickly, treats such as real meaty sausages garlic sausage tasty smelly food I have even had salmon in my bag I walk around training with a pack of dogs behind me LOL

you are doing most of the correct things just got to find what makes him tick .

I practice recall all day long in the home even when they are in thier beds sometime get a treat sometimes not but always worth coming just in case.!!

Can I just add this quick point.  Make sure you use a nice soft long line.  Reason being a strong dog on a long line can give you quite a burn on your hands.  I tried this with a rope washing line and a v. strong GSD.  OMG it was v. painfull for quite a few days!!

thanks for that guys... for the long line would washing line (obviously not a rope one though lol) be a good idea?

Im not sure if id trust those extender-leads... they dont look strong enough!

never really thought about good, stinky treats either... im sure he's more likely to follow his nose :)

If you get a lunge line (like on of these here) http://www.twenga.co.uk/dir-Sports,Equestrianism,Lunge-line, you know it is kinder on the hands and has the snap clip for the collar.

We find them very useful :)

Hi Andyboro - sorry - my response is of no use whatsoever, just wanted to sympathise!  i have exactly the same problem.  And my boy (ridgeback - 18 months) wont even sniff a treat when out on a walk - the same cheese that'll have him drooling like mad in the house has no appeal whatsoever in the outside world!  I've tried liver, chicken, cheese and even pork pie.  Works a treat ('cuse the pun) in the house - he'll come from anywhere in the house but outside - no chance.  He generally comes back eventually (unless its one of his favourite breeds - dobermans, boxers or fellow ridgebacks!) but its a nightmare - am having to start keeping him on the lead as its totally unacceptable not having a good recall. 

If you do crack it, do let me know - i'm going to go back to basics as the other posters have said, using a long line etc.  Also i've heard whistles can be quite effective. 

Good luck!

I think this is the age that you have to work the very hardest on a determined breed, which is what you have. It is really hard to get that recall back and the hardest time and you cannot let him NOT listen to you. If he gets away with it once he will remember that and continue, and so he gets deafer and deafer. I had this with my Rottie and we are working hard all the time together, really hard.

But it works!! And its great when the hard work pays off.

Good Luck

i have real problems with my staffie cross, she is so good at home but once she is out and see another dog i have no chance, she needs so much time off lead as she is so high energy.

Lucily I live on the edge of a forest and mainly we only meet people we know. I avoid very busy times But once she gets excited there is no getting her back until she says hello.

At the beginning I thought she was not getting enough exercise but the amount of off lead running dosn't make a difference.

  

Go to a pet shop and buy a dog whistle. When your dog is close to you in the house, blow the whistle and immediately give him a high value treat, such as chicken , cheese or whatever he likes best. Do this several times a day until he immediately looks as soon as you blow the whistle. Then keep doing this when the dog is in another room. When you are confident that he comes running whenever he hears the whistle, start blowing the whistle when he is in the garden, always followed by the treat when he comes to you. Then take him out on a long line and do exactly the same thing, blow the whistle and when he comes to you, give the treat. After a very short time he will be conditioned to come to you for a treat as soon as he hears the whistle. The advantage of a whistle is that dogs hearing is geared up to respond to high pitched noises and the sound of the whistle will carry further than your voice and will also cut through any background noise. I regularly excercise up to 8 dogs free running, (on my own land I hasten to add), and I can whistle all except one determined little blighter off a hare or a rabbit.

Have you tried a remote spray collar, used correctly turned the corner for us!! And lots of off lead heel work and distant 'SITS'

I'd second the whistle. My young golden dog loved trying to greet every dog we saw. The whistle works so well for him I've called him off a deer with it; a baby that he was definitely going to catch. I use the Acme as I can replace it with a whistle of the exact same tone if I lose it. I have gun dogs and use the 211.5. My friend has a Newfoundland and the Thunderer 560 works better for him.

I wouldn't use something like a spray collar. Get it wrong by even a split second and you have a dog that associates coming back to you with something unpleasant. If you want to teach consequences for not coming back there are, in my opinion, better ways. To can practice coming from distractions in the garden too. Get someone to help by holding a treat out, make sure he can see it but not get to it. You don't want them to be exciting, just stand there like a big boring store dummy. Then you call him, he'll probably stick to the treat at first but keep up your I'm exciting dance and he will come to you eventually - ta da reward. Do it again and he'll usually come back to you quicker next time. Practice with another dog in the garden if you can too. If he comes back he gets a big reward and gets to go play again. If he doesn't everyone gets to share some roast chicken except him - he can watch you all eat it. That will teach him there are negative consequences to ignoring your recall command and great rewards for complying. I think th emore you can reinforce that recall doesn't mean end of play the better off you'll be too. If you can meet up with someone and practice lots of recall, then play again he'll learn you really don't want to spoil all his fun.

You'll get there. :)

thanks for all the replys guys :) (its good to know im not alone with this too lol)

So after reading through, im gonna give the whistle and the lunge-line a go - made me laugh that i have to resort to something listed under 'equestrial accessories' for it to be strong enough for him though lol.

I shall be sure to let you know how i get on too :)

I don't think it's been mentioned. If you use a long line a harness is better than a collar. You don't want the poor boy to choke himself if he gets up speed. A pair of gloves to save your hands wouldn't go amiss either.

we have a harness for him but im not a fan to be honest... he had it when we got him and its a bit 'look at me and my hard dogish' (leather with studs n stuff) plus, he used to have a knack for locking all of his legs out if he really didnt wanna go where he was told lol.

would it work ok with the halti? 

No, I definitely wouldn't use a long line with a head collar. The reason I mentioned the harness is if a dog has a long line it can get to running quite fast and if the line can stop the dog quite abruptly. Imagine being jerked to a halt by your neck; not nice. If you don't like the look of the harness you could just put in on when you're doing your line training and take it off other times. I used to walk my dog down to the park on his regular collar then suit him up before letting him off on his long lead. Of course I looked a picture with my line over my shoulder, harnesses, treats, toys - I looked like I was going on some survival test. The soft nylon harnesses don't cost much and they don't look very tough so that would be another option.

Ditto back to basics my CS did the same and now we go back to expandy lead and treats until its second nature, Then off again and the first time he does not come back, back on the lead immeditley. Seems to be workeing I get a recall every time, even if somethimes its via a nasty smell.....

aah yeah, didnt think of it that way with the collar - very good point!

I'll pick up a normal harness too..

Definitely a harness with a long line. Our small terrier can get up quite a speed on his long line and would probably have broken his neck by now if he had been on an ordinary collar. The long line does work - Cooper's recall, brilliant at home and used to be great when out, became non existent several months back and I have been using the long line for a while now. His recall is spot on when on the line and we are now back to having some off lead time again which he loves.

Hi,

I neither recommend a long line (the dog will very quickly learn if it is wearing it or not) or a harness, as the dog will also quickly learn to pull in to the harness.

Start teaching the recall using a 2nd person, get them to hold your dog a few feet from you and you call the dog to you, using voice or whistle, or even hand signals. Reward the dog for the correct behaviour, ignore the dog if you dont get the desired result.  You can slowly build up the distance and add distractions, once this is going well, you can dispense with the assistant and try it alone - always in the early stages reward the dog for every recall, but as you progress ONLY reward the dog for the fastest recall - easy :-)

Mike

I neither recommend a long line (the dog will very quickly learn if it is wearing it or not) or a harness, as the dog will also quickly learn to pull in to the harness.

Have to say my experiences have been different :) I use the normal collar and lead to walk to the area where I would normally let my dogs off lead and expect well behaved walking manners to that point. Once in the normal letting off lead areas I clip the line to the harness and let him run around as he likes, he associates the harness with being allowed to have some tension on the lead and the collar as walking manners required :)

For the past week or so I have gone back to walking off lead and not on the line and - really hope I am not tempting fate here :O - have had 100% success with the recall, even calling him off a pheasant plus calling him back but letting my other dog continue to run with 3 other dogs. I reverted back to the long line for a good 3-4 months before allowing off lead again and his on line recall was spot on for a month before I let him off. I also had the positive attitude of expecting him to come back rather than worrying that he might not.

Obviously all dogs are different but it the long line method is working with my asbo boy :)

> Have to say my experiences have been different :-) I use the normal collar and lead to walk to the area where I would normally let my dogs off lead and expect well behaved walking manners to that point. Once in the normal letting off lead areas I clip the line to the harness and let him run around as he likes, he associates the harness with being allowed to have some tension on the lead and the collar as walking manners required :-)

SNAP :) the only difference I have is if I shorten the long-line, and give a 'walk' command, Buster then knows no more tension is allowed on the long-line, so I can do 'heel work' with either the long-line or standard lead :)

I also found that a harness was the best way to stop my dog pulling during heel work :) (he would pull on a standard collar to the point of coughing/choking without it bothering him :( )

I neither recommend a long line (the dog will very quickly learn if it is wearing it or not) or a harness, as the dog will also quickly learn to pull in to the harness.

The purpose of the longline is to enable the dog to learn a solid conditioned response.  It sets him up for success so that he can be rewarded for doing the right thing and not get the reinforcement of doing the wrong thing whilst learning that the recall cue is actually a pre-cursor to running off to say hello ot another dog or finding an interesting smell etc.

If the dog is just doing as required whilst on the long line then he hasn't learnt a recall, probably because coming back has been rewarding enough and therefor hasn't become a conditioned response to the recall cue.

I use a harness when my dogs are allowed to pull, if a lead is attatched to a flat collar then that means they walk without pulling and if on a harness they can pull.