Hi,

My lab is now 6mths old and we are ready to move outside with his recall training. I have read a lot about training with a long line and have decided this is the way to go. Is it the longer the better? Do I start off short and get longer? Where to start?
Many Thanks!

H there

Have you let your pup of the lead outside before?  We are thinking of getting a long line but my labs recall is pretty good at the moment and where I walk her, the dog owners are great.  She has been let off her lead at the park since she was about 16 weeks ish (you soon forget).  She is now a week off 6 months.

Sorry I cant be more helpful but will watch the post with interest

Thanks Lablover - yes I've let him off pretty much since he was allowed out - I live in the country and we have plenty of enclosed fields. He was great to start with, but in the last few weeks has hit a bit of a teenage stage and began to completely ignore any attempts at recall! We took him right back to the start with indoor training, then garden etc etc, and are now ready to go back to the fields. That's why I was researching the training and the long line seemed to come up a lot. He's got to earn complete off-lead priveleges again now!

Hi Blondie

I misread your post I think cos I thought you meant you hadnt let him outside to do recall before:rolleyes:  It sounds to me that hes turning into a teenager!  My pup has sellective hearing sometimes.  We're not that interesting when theyre own kind comes along  The long line seems like a good idea.  I have heard that of they are good pups before the teenager years set in, they normally come out the other end as a good pup too.  Ive just bought a dog whistle and am gonna see how that goes.  Sick of sounding like a fish wife and complete looney

i've not used a long line before, but when i've come across them on here, 15ft seems to be a common length, although you can get much longer...? I would have thought it'd be better to start with a slightly shorter one (say 5 mtrs), and get the training correct at that length, then maybe increase the distance to bring on the distance training. Not sure if that's right though!!

Within reason, the longer the better.  The lighter the better as well.

Long - because then your dog can be further away from you and you still have him under control and can practise recalls from that far distance.

Light - because your dog will be less likely to notice the line trailing and it will be easier to cut it shorter and then remove it without the dog noticing.

Washing lines are quite good, by the way.

!5- 21' - I use 21' horse lunge line.

Don't forget to use a body harness with it instead of a collar though ;)

I have tried to use long line.. a long 15m webbing leash we bought in the US.  ...  but I only have public areas to train in and other dogs use the parks and so dogs just rush over to us and jump on my dog and tie themselves up in the line and it really does not work the way the books and magazines show it!  We just end op playing spaghetti dogs and dealing with some grumbling owner saying how dangerous doing this is.

And if the area is private and just us there and no distractions I have always had total recall anyway.

But I think it is a good way to train if you can make it work.

Let me get this right - other dogs rush over to yours, and then their owners complain about how dangerous it is.....??

Other dogs should not approach your dog off the lead.  If they do, they are in the wrong, and if they then grumble about how dangerous a long line is, you can tell them that their dog should not have come up to yours off lead, anyway - how did they know your dog would not be aggressive?

But those are the distractions you need to be able to train through them! ;)

Thanks - I can see the long line being a pain too. The field is usually empty so I'm hoping it will work. I need to get his recall spot-on alone before I take him anywhere with distractions!

I'm glad you have total recall, but as I don't I can't see any other way of doing it.

I found that the thin light weight ones burnt my hands and also tangled up too easy. I now use a john humphris one. It has rubber grips along the length and does not tangle so easy.