After weeks of work on control Master Morse has been a delight to take out, repsonsive, playful and obedient, recalling happily when called, usually when I see a dog/person in the distance and arrest his desire to go introduce himself, and you know whats coming dont you? Yes another GUIDE DOG incident. Minibeast has chicken pox so Im off work for a week and keeping Morses routine going with walks/training at 6am, noon and 7 at night. Hes missing the noon gang show with his pals ( tough). So I had the Minibeast and Morse out today, all went well till she called out to me and Morse saw guide dog first - he lies down focused on other dog, Im calling and waving arms happily ( cursing that I havent brought a toy to throw) he wont come, so I shout Stay and he does till I get close enough to touch hm, then hes off. Order was restored when I got in eye contact range and between him and Guide Dog.  The blind lady was yelling at her dog who forgot his duty and wanted to play with Morse, I apologised profusely and she was very kind. It actually took longer to type this than the incident lasted.

So serious recall practice follows, but what else can I do? We do well until the distractions reach a certain level so how do I overcome this? Sorry to bore you all again.

Lorelei, possibly the worst dog trainer on the planet.

If you think that makes you the worst dog trainer on the planet you do need help:-)
As far as I can gather you actually stopped the incident, albeit not as quickly as you would have liked. I really am a poor dog trainer so all I can suggest is more of the same, it sounds like you are nearly there anyway. Best of luck.

Lorelei,

Just because someone has a very easily trained dog, it doesn't necessarily make them a better dog trainer ;)   The better dog trainer has a very challenging dog and STILL manages to train it, albeit slower than the easily trained dog.  With some dogs just getting them to come back at all once they're away is a major acheivement so don't beat yourself up about this, from what you've written you managed to control the situation :D so you're doing something right ;)

Don't know if this has come out right :( having a senior moment

Regards
Dill

It sounds like you're doing brilliantly to me, though everyone (and every dog) will have setbacks. Just keep at it! I reckon 90 % of the posters on here would be delighted to have their training going as well as yours is... :-)

Thanks for your encouragement everyone :) We'll keep at it and remember Rome was not built in one day, old heads on young shoulders etc Have adjusted Morses runs so Silverback is now taking him to run riot over the fields in the early morning this week, I have made a note not to go out without my squeaky toy and to beware of perfectionism. Weve actually made loads of progress in our first year together when I think back. Promise not to bore you all in future. :D

Hi Lorelei, I have a similar issue with my 16month Lab Emmy. She sooo wants to play with anything that moves, training her has been tough to say the least!

I use a whistle to help with my recall. She is such a greedy pig, and no matter where she is in the house, she can here the fridge door opening and comes running. So I used this to my advantage and would blow a whistle at the same time. She'd always come running and I'd give her a treat. After about a week doing this in the house, I started outide in the fields and it works every time... EXCEPT when she's spotted another dog, playing obviously comes higher on her list of priorities than food! Once she's said hello and I call her back she does this fine, but it's the initial running off and ignoring my commands to stay that is beating me! I've tried a long line on her, but she is a BIG lab and me a mere 7 and half stone wimp, needless to say I've ended up on my backside a few times, I struggle to hold her.

So I think we have the same kinda problem and if any one can offer advice it would be great. The only thing that seems to work for me is turning and legging it in the opposite direction, 9 times out of 10 she will follow me... but I would love to be able to walk past another dog and have her completely under my control, but I just can't see this ever happening!

It will happen!  If you are relentless and consistent especially during this difficult adolescent period then you will reap the rewards of hard work; you must prevent failure as each and every time the dog succeeds in doing what it wants rather than what you do will reinforce the habit.  Also the importance of it can be kept high profile in your mind if you remember that the next time the dog runs off "initially" could be the time she gets badly bitten or run over :( 

Have you tried not feeding her at all EXCEPT for recalls when you are out?

Hi all
I had a very embarrassing recall problem this week. My husband is the caretaker of our primary school and we live on site. It is extremley important that Buffy doesnt get out onto the playground at all during school hours, well my 5 year old thought that it would be funny to let her out at 8.55am. I then had the prob of getting a very excited 14 week old pup back into the house without the headteacher spotting her.
At this time in the morning there is probably about 200hundred children and aslmost as many adults standing out there, all the kids wanted to play with her and she wanted to play with them. All my calls where falling on death ears, she stopped once and looked at me and i thought thank god she's stopped but just as i got near enough she ran, i nearly ended up on my bum and everyone was laughing. The whole thing lasted about 10 mins and in the end she went to my 6 year old who brought her home, by the end i was almost ready to walk away and deny that she belonged to me :).
Anyway it all ended fine and she is now pad locked into the back garden in the morning untill the kids go into school.

Debbie

Debbie, I feel for you! :D Did you mean to say DEATH ears? A freudian slip there. Ive been known to shout " RIght, Morse you are ging to be a HANDBAG and MATCHING GLOVES!" which does nothing to train the dog but relieves my feelings! :D

Please...this is not a bore.  My Sadie is 10 months.  It is so good for me to read what others are experiencing from the minor stuff to the major stuff  and ideas sent.  I just wrote in on another posting because I feel like we have very good recall for a pup...when there are no distractions of other people or dogs or interesting things to roll in...other than that we have good recall.  That sounds funny as I write it.  But, I am looking for ideas how had to get control back when the dog is out of physical reach.  I have no choice the pup has to spend some time off -leash or she will go insane.  As my yard is not large enough to satisfy her needs, I take her to a community wooded area where others occasionally bring dogs, jog, walk, fish, etc.

As the others have said, I think you have a very long way to go before you can claim anything like a "worst dog trainer" award! The fact is, as anyone can tell by reading your posts, whenever you meet a problem - you ALWAYS do something to put it right. Every challenge and every embarrassing moment is a training opportunity to you, which is the way it should be, and what's so good for the rest of us is that you share them with us, so we don't feel as though we're the only ones struggling.

(And anyway, how many of the rest of us have such good taste in music? ;))

Hi Darling! Bet Sadie looks great :) For this I use the dreaded long line - a horse lunge rein 30ft long some use a washing line attached to collar that dosent tangle in the woods, anyway the idea is STEP ON IT when shes about to bomb off and call happily, reward when she comes. I have to have Long Eyes to spot trouble when its on the horizon and act fast - the guide dog incident occurred when I didnt spot it fast enough. The other thing which occurs to me ( cos Ive been there and you get the benefit of my painful experience!) is to make yourself the most interesting person on the planet and focus her more on you than the horizon and yes I do know how hard this is with a Pointer as Morse is a Pointer Plus. So when shes in the yard play with her and take the special toy on walks, keep her on line/lead more than running about free so she has only you at times. Can you change your walks so you feel less stressed, at least sometimes. Distance control is a sophisticated thing and Im not nearly there yet at 17 months! An exercise I find helpful for focusing is to take a good treat and hold it in my hand above my head, gently rock my fingers back and forth in tiny movements while Morse sits boggling at it, then throw it like a dart aiming for his tail. When she gets the idea that she hears her name something fantastic happens, shell look quickh whn you call. Im also improving my voice tone so I go from Sergeant Major to sweet mummy very quickly. Nobody tells you quite how daft you need to be prepared to look when you get a pup do they? :D

My pup is afraid of the dark and she will only wonder about 10feet from me after dark, so i let her off the lead then and call her back. I give her a treat for every few times she comes back. Seems to be helping but i still won't risk it in the daylight when she can see to many interesting things, also she is still only 14 weeks and far to young i think to be off the lead when out.

Debbie.