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come/recall

Posted April 24th, 2009 by alemon

One of the biggest reasons I found the level training system interesting was teaching the dog to behave properly off leash. Since I've started at level one, I can't take the dog to the park anymore (there's no point at this stage, she's terrible at walking on a leash too).

What can I do about my backyard? This will be her third summer here and she's hardly spent any time in her own backyard. We had an issue last year with a neighbour's cat pooping under a big tree that my dog would go roll in, but that's been solved. The biggest issue is getting her to come in when called. She's shown some success in the past, but only some.

Training her to come has been the hardest task to teach because of a combination of laziness and lack of helpers. But I've seen this dog regularly come when called from 100 yds away or more at the park so I really don't think it's a lack of understanding. I truly believe it's just not in her best interests to come inside.

I really don't like the idea of waving her inside with a sandwich or piece of pizza every time I want her to come in; do I have intermediate options other than training her? Is luring her inside ruining training in the future? Also, depending on the distraction luring doesn't always work anyways.

This cycle is mostly the reason she doesn't get to go out in the backyard very often. She won't come in when called, so I don't want to let her out there. All of a sudden two years have gone by where she isn't allowed out back. Is having a proper recall trained the only answer here?

Chris

Comments

re: come/recall

On April 24th, 2009 pos4015 says:

Hi Chris, did you miss my response to "The dog that's a drag"?

Don't lure, use a target. Have her touch the target in different places around the yard, then have her touch the target just inside the door, then give her her treat and let her back outside again.

Repeat a few more times. Problem solved.

re: come/recall

On April 25th, 2009 alemon says:

Thanks Aidan. No I didn't miss it. I wouldn't have thought of that, only because I can picture her sitting twenty feet away from me and refusing to come touch a target instead of just coming! But I will definitely try it, and I know she likes to see the little target stick I have.

Ok as of now I have tried this, and it worked. She was hesitant to leave her tennis ball, but she did do it eventually.

Great idea, thank you.

Chris

>>Ok as of now I have tried

Aidan's picture
On April 27th, 2009 Aidan says:

>>Ok as of now I have tried this, and it worked. She was hesitant to leave her tennis ball, but she did do it eventually. <<

Hehe! Allow me to be smug :-)

That's quite a test, doing it while she is with her tennis ball. I guess if you had a scale of difficulty from 1-10, that would be somewhere over 5? Try to get a lot of repetitions in below that level of difficulty, and work your way up to the 9s and 10s later.

One way to make it easier is to move closer to her, then when she touches and after you have clicked and treated you can move a few steps closer to where you want to go and try it again. That way you get a lot of EASY repetitions in.

Targeting is very useful, and surprisingly powerful.

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com

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