I was wondering if anyone has any tips or advice on the best way to train my 10 week old Pharaoh Hound to come back when I start taking him out. At the moment he is a very good little puppy and does sit, stand, down and wait etc. When I call him in from the garden he stops running around like a looney and runs straight to me which I am pleased with. I know sighthounds can be difficult to get to come back once they catch the scent of something but I am hoping that he will copy the other dogs (westie and cocker) when we go out and he won't have to stay on the lead.

Any help would be much appreciated

Clair
xxx

Best way to recall a sighthound - with a photo?

sorry could not resist :D

With perseverance it is possible to train some sight hounds to do recalls. We have an afghan in one of my obedience classes who does and is currently working for her gold good citizen.

Christine

Good luck with the training but I have to say I think you are trying to get a square peg to fit a round hole :D Some breeds it is just better (and safer) to accept they can't be let off :-)

:D thats what I thought. Anything is possible if it can be done with an Afghan :-) (no offence Afghan owners)

Hmmm,
With Dill (15 week lurcher) im just being more firm, and more consistant taht i was with the other two!
This means, brilliant treats when he comes back to me, only asking him to come back when i am 99% certain that he will. Not letting him associate the recall with anything at all negative, (so no recall comand when im gonna put him on his lead just yet, i either go adn get him, or look like im doing something he will want to do (ie eat something) till he comes back), not calling him for any kind of reprimand.
So far he is doing very well, and comes back every time!!!!!!!! (i do make sure i have pockets full of treats!)

Good luck!

Em

HA HA HA VERY good christine.

Made me laugh for a while did that one!

Mark

p.s Whilst we're on the subject does anyone know how to recall two happy go lucky labs?!!! John? any ideas?!

Look up some of my replies about recall in a search. We finally found a toy that she would recall for and ONLY used that toy on walks and started and ended the game ourselves.

Some you will be able to recall train fairly reliably and others you won't. We've been lucky but it took almost 2 years with our first girl. Our second is MUCH better but I think because she follows the example of the older. She is also just that bit more clingy.

Seriously it takes LOTS of work and repetition, and not just in the back garden, but also in strange places. Keep in mind if they catch sight (not scent) of something interesting they can be off - so if you can try to watch ahead for things that might interest them before they see them and distract them. I'm not overly familiar with Pharaoh's but I imagine they're not too different from the whippies - bag, leaf, bunny, cat - all the same to them.

Wendy

I just wondered whether having a visible lure might be of help. Say a white plastic bag attached to a length of line. Would this being dragged along for the dog encourage them back to you???

Just wondered, a different slant on the toy theme. From what I have seen of lure courcing they chase after a cloth on a rope, and dogs )not just the digh hounds) find this fun. It may also work to focus attention on you as being interesting.

What do dighthound owners think???

What we use is a bright orange frisbee. We play frisbee with her a few times during the walk. Back when we were having trouble recalling her in the first place we finally found she had a 'frisbee drive' and since we always started and ended the game she would always come running even if involved in the most fun play with another dog.

My concern about the 'lure' would be that the dog would actually be hounding you all the time - or that since it's always available it's not a novel thing for the dog.

In theory it's not a bad idea if you could find a way to teach them about the 'lure' originally and to keep the lure hidden during the walk until you need them (or want them to play).

Wendy

That is what I was thinking, something that only came out for recalls!

I used a toy attached to a long lead for one of mine and it worked really well, must remember it for my Lurcher
Anne

Thanks everyone for the advice, any info is a great help because he is my first sighthound, I've always had Dobes before :D. I'm really pleased with him hes doing really well, we took him to our local field for the first time today along with a pocket full of treats :-) and just made it really fun for him to be around us and the other two dogs who tend to stay close by anyway, he came back every time we callled him bless him :) We are definately going to try the frisbee game, hopefully that way if he does catch sight of something I can try and distract him. Do they get to an age when the hunting instinct kicks in and they suddenly start running off?

He's in his bed chewing on a stinking tripe stick at the moment :(

Thanks everyone

Clair
xxx

There is almost certain to be a time when he is young when he won't comeback, but this may be due to the normal puppy exploring attitude and not necessarily to the fact that he is a sighthound :) So if this does happen don't lose heart - we just carried on with the training after using a long lead on a harness for few weeks.

Good luck :)

Lindsay