Hello, ive a 4 month old collie, and his recall is awful, he point blank refuses to come back when we are out on a walk, i let him off the other day and he ran off to a group of people, ignoring my calls, i now have him on a long horse line but yet he still refuses to come when i call him, he sometimes starts to come and then just sits down with his back to me, i thought collies were supposed to be intelligent, he is not getting the idea of coming back, will it get better if i keep him on a long lead and keep trying! NEED HELP!

Hello guest!  4 months is still very young and he is really still a baby, so maybe you are expecting a bit too much just yet!  Try offering a treat to entice him back (maybe in your garden where there are no distractions) then make a big fuss of him!  Eventually, when he is a bit older, I think that he will come back without the treat just to please you!  Whatever you do, never tell him off when he eventually comes back to you or he will think that he has done something wrong by coming back!!

You don't say whether or not he is a BC or a rough collie, if he's a BC I would have him on a long line & a round collar so that if he heads off you can step on the line & recall & treat him every time he comes back

At 4 months he's a bit young IMHO to be running loose unless he has had lots of training

I assumed he was a Rough Collie!:)

One of the other things to try is instead of running after him and calling (so long as it is safe to do so) try calling once and then hiding behind a tree, lying down or skipping away from him. Chances are pups curiosity will get the best of him and he will come back. Make a huge fuss and reward with a toy or treat. Especially at that age the chances are that he is not very confident on his own ;)  

I expect your dog is extremely intelligent, hence why he is not coming back...........

The only thing you need to do to train a reliable recall is to make sure the dog WANTS to come back to you more than anything else.

Find out what he wants or better still make SURE he wants what you have to offer so that he does it without question.

For example, divide his daily ration up into small bags say 20 and feed him ONLY on recall ie one command, instant response.  No response, throw food away, after a couple of days of going hungry and you ONLY feeding him for coming back I think you may find his response a little better.

Alternatively get him hooked onto a ball, play with it yourself for circa 6 weeks, occasionally dropping it by "accident" and then letting him have it for a second.  Eventually he will be ball obsessed.

This presupposes that your dog understands recall and you have practised in the house/garden etc.

LOL Tohme I've had my puppy just a week & he's already toy orientated(& food as well ;)) just realized I must train that way without thinking about it :)

Ive had my collie x off lead on walks since 12 weeks (when i got him).

At that age they dont WANT to leave you, which makes it way easier to train a recall.

The top reasons WHY dogs dont come back would be:

1/ It means the walk is over
2/Its boring
3/Dog gets shouted at for taking its time to come back.

Obviously there may be more reasons than that, but generally they are the main ones. Once you figure out what it is, you can solve it.

Many people have problems with recall because the dog simply doesnt expect the owner to 'vanish' so why SHOULD it come back. The solution to that one is to vary the walks, dont pootle about nattering to friends, sitting on benches, walking the same route each time. Take toys and treats, play games, hide out of sight if the dog gets too far ahead, play hide n seek.

From small pups, i let ALL my dogs think that if they take their eyes off me for too long, ill be gone, and they wont know where. This keeps them coming back voluntarily to see where i am, for which they get rewarded.

We try nto to do the same walk each day, and if i can manage that with no transport, i think most of us can!

Because i dont have a fenced garden where dogs can play, walkies are also play times, which my dogs expect, and that also doesnt happen at the same place each time either.

And finally, i vary where the leads go back on and off, and its very rare (occasionally the saluki x ratbag will do it) that any of mine will not ocme back to go on the lead.

It wasnt always that way though -- when i got in the habit of walking round a park, same route each time, nattering to friends, my dog took to vanishing, and not coming back at the end of the walk to go home.

If you arent amusing your dog, he WILL amuse himself!

Em

I know this sounds harsh but people who train gun dogs either buy or hire an electric collar when dogs have this problem. wen the collar is on you have a hand held control you press which gives a small shock. After receiving said shock the dog doesn't know where it came from so runs straight back to owner who called him just before giving shock.

I know it does sound harsh but it would just be used as a learning thing for dog and not permanant thing. Also shock is not bad enough to hurt dog. Hope this helps.

Don't ever use an electric shock collar on a collie They are only of use to professionals & then only  a very last resort This is a puppy & does not need to be shocked into submission

I suggest you use the search facility on the subject of electric shock collars.  You will find that the vast majority of posters here consider them cruel.   It would appear from posters who work their gun dogs in the UK that they are not generally used at all here and that the UK gundog world manages to train their dogs perfectly well without resorting to such methods.

people who train gun dogs either buy or hire an electric collar
Not the gundog people that I know!!  They manage to train their dogs without the use of these devices!! :)

>people who train gun dogs either buy or hire an electric collar

Only if they're rubbish trainers!

i agree with everything theemx and tohme have said :)

people often ask me when im on a walk to explain why their dog will not come back when called.  I laugh to myself for a brief moment because it is obvious why!  So many owners stand around talking or just walk the same route everyday or even just walking without really paying attention is enough to send a dog to amuse itself.  You HAVE to be more interesting than everything else otherwise of course ur dog will not respond as he will find everything else far more amusing!  Teaching ur dog fetch is a good one, i have one dog who is highly toy motivated and will come back everytime because she loves playing frisby, and my other dog is highly food orientated, we have trained a conditioned recall with her and now everytime i recall her she is salivating before she even gets to me,lol.
I especially think that using the dogs food portions for the day as rewards for returning is a good idea because the dog soon learns that if he doesnt come back first time, then he goes hungry.

Once your dog understands what 'come' means in all situations and circumstances, then u need to vary when u give a treat, so if ur dog comes back first time, then only give a treat when he comes back to u first time, if he comes back second time, then no treat.  Once he is coming back everytime no matter what, u can start only rewarding for returning quickly and slow responses dont get a reward :)