Recall Training

[nikki1984]

Hi everyone hope you and your houndies had a fab Christmas! 

We are after some advice please if possible, I'm wanting to let Brandy off lead but at present her recall is very poor and I don't fancy springing after her  So wondered if anyone has any tips or advice at how to sort out her recall? I'm off work now for a couple of weeks so hoping some intense training may help! 

Thanks xxx

[kamkay]

Good luck-I know that people will be along with excellent advice and I hope it works for you. Jet has the recall of a gnat despite all my best efforts. He normally plods along by my side quite happily, but I know that the arrival of a squirrel, rabbit, cat or hare would mean all bets are off and I am no Usain Bolt!

[nikki1984]

Dec 26, 2013 15:43:58 GMT -5 kamkay said:

Good luck-I know that people will be along with excellent advice and I hope it works for you. Jet has the recall of a gnat despite all my best efforts. He normally plods along by my side quite happily, but I know that the arrival of a squirrel, rabbit, cat or hare would mean all bets are off and I am no Usain Bolt!

Lol me neither! I'm concerned as she has started going all daft on her lead, she is on restricted exercise til Tuesday so I think she has too much energy at the moment! Oh and my garden looks gorgeous awful! The grass has gone totally! 

[andywillow]

After all the years we have had sighthounds, if anyone can let me know too I would be grateful

It really does depend on the dog, I have had so many greyhounds as fosters who I would never trust offlead, my second girl Willow was a non chaser and is fab offlead, she loves every dog she meets and just perfect. Do you have any tennis courts near you to let Brandy off in? Its one thing allowing them off somewhere safe to somewhere that a squirrel or cat or small dog could make an appearance. They are all so different, if in doubt, or if you cannot run at 40mph to collect your dog, keep her/him onlead

[julies]

TBH your recall needs to be totally reliable before you think if letting her off anywhere ... Greys haven't a clue about roads or traffic or any other dangers which isn't a good combination when they are so fast my grey is very obedient until there's anything more interesting then she's deaf I started with her on a harness and lunge line and when I walked her I'd call her to me and rewarded her with very high value treats .... She was always very obedient on this - and not obedient off the lungeline. I used an indoor riding arena to run her and practice her recall and I practice 'leave it' in case I need that too . A local National Trust property has put sheep fencing round their fields so i've put her muzzle on and I've been letting her off when its very quiet .. so far she's only met a spaniel off lead and he could scoot under the fence ...she is very keen to hunt so I'm very careful. I'd only ever let her off in a safe, enclosed area until you are certain she will ignore everything else and come back when called. J x

[jodav]

In full agreement with everything said before, knowing the dog and making -safe the environment are essential. Both of mine were off-lead on Christmas morning - speeding around together on heathland - that said, it was around 7am and I checked that absolutely no other animals were around before they went off together. They are spectacular when they run together but their sheer momentum can be enough to scare some other breeds off. One of mine is regularly off-lead and the other less often but both started in the same way - firstly a long-line and then when nobody was around, small excursions sniffing and walking ahead of me a small distance and then straight back on request for an irresistible treat. Very gradually build up the distractions but never be complacent, they could easily have spotted something moving which you haven't. Keeping Brandy safe and happy is the priority and if this means she has fun only on-lead or in an enclosed area that's the right thing for her. Good luck.

[emmajane]

I love love love teaching recall - it is just one of THE best things to teach, and the more imagination you can use the more fun it will be

The way I do it is to break the recall down into the smallest steps you possibly can and to make sure the dog is super happy with each step - the best bit about teaching it like this is that you can work on one bit without ruining the whole recall.

So I start with first having the dog comfortable with having someone get hold of his collar - no point him coming back if you can't get hold of him, and lets face it a lot of times when you're out and about you need to get hold of the dogs quick so you tend to grab at them - which is pretty scary unless you have made it a brilliant game to play in the first place. Just have the dog next to you and gently take hold of his collar with one hand and feed him a super yummy treat with the other, let go and repeat repeat repeat. Very short sessions maybe 3 or 4 collar grabs and then play a game of chase the toy or food. And when I say super yummy food I mean THE BEST food you can think of Very gradually over time increase the pressure on the collar. If your dog doesn't like having his collar touched then start by having a lead on him and touching the lead at first until he's happy. This game was vital for Seamus my foster because he would bite out of fear if someone reached towards him - he loves this game now and it literally is a lifesaver.

You need to teach him a recall word - whatever you are happy with, but make sure you use the same word all the time. This is one of my favourite things to teach coz I start it from the sofa (lazy?? me??) Enlist the help of the family, or friends popping over for a brew, and have one sat/stood at one end of the living room and one at the other end, all with yummy treats - let him know you all have the sweets and the more excited he is the better. So the first one starts by calling his name/recall word and when he goes to them he gets a treat, then the next one calls him and he gets a treat and so on and so on. If he refuses to leave one person (ie Mummy) then up the treat value of everyone else and downgrade yours. Call him once only - you want him to get into the habit of coming on the first call for him, not the second or 5th or after 20mins lol. You're looking for his head to snap round as soon as he hears his name being called - once you have that you know you are building enjoyment for the word

The last part is the coming to you - sighthounds are ace at this bit because it involves a chase The more stimulating you can make coming to you the better, so pick a time when you know he will be super excited (like as soon as you come in from work, or just before tea time or when he's just yelled at the postman) use your imagination to get him to chase after you (starting in the house/garden) Will he run after you if you have his favourite toy/his tea in his bowl/yummy sweets etc etc etc - when he gets to you play with him/feed him whatever floats his boat. There are loads of variations to play this - have someone hold his collar while you run down the garden, they release him as you call him, if you're on your own chuck a rubbish (in his eyes) treat on the floor a little way away and as soon as he eats it run off in the opposite direction and call his name.

Once you've mastered these games you need to start testing them with distractions - little ones at first and build them up as you get success. Recall isn't something that you teach in one day, it is something you work on over a lifetime and you need to look at it like a piggy bank - each practice you do that works is like putting a £1 in the piggy bank, when you recall him in a real life situation you're taking money out of the bank, the bigger the distraction the more money you're taking out and once its gone so has the recall. Therefore you always need to be making sure that Piggybank is as full as possible


Please make sure you take the advice of the others here, always make sure an area is safe to let your dog off, ours aren't like normal dogs (as I'm sure you know lol) they can be a very long way away very quickly. That being said get out there and practice practice practice, some failure is normal - you have to get things wrong sometimes to truly understand what is right and the dogs can't read a book of rules they play a guessing game all the time and their only clue that they are right or wrong is being rewarded or not by us. Training recall like training anything else should be fun for dog and person - if one of you isn't enjoying it then work out why, if training your dog doesn't make you laugh out loud then stop the session and try again tomorrow because you're not having enough FUN

[jodav]

Just about the best guide to recall in greyhounds you are ever likely to read from emmajane. That being best practice, I would just add a word or two about the pleasure of hounds being off-lead.

Make no mistake, when you see any dog with excellent recall (even Border Collies need guidance), give a thought to the hours of work that have gone into that recall - it really didn't happen by osmosis. We can all think of incidents where an owner has repeated a dog's name, louder and louder with absolute futility, leading to nothing more than a dog that is super-interested in something else and an embarrassed owner.

My experience of walking a hound off-lead is that it is a special thing. Having a dog want to walk next to you and want to be with you, give immense pleasure. I use the word "close" when I want her next to me, "steady" when I want her to tread carefully and "come" when I want her back. If she takes a detour and a lengthy sniff to get back, she is rewarded, never reprimanded (It's me that needs the work not her) I put her on-lead when she doesn't expect it and off again so that she doesn't become complacent, sometimes put a treat between my fingers for her to follow - sometimes not. As emmajane says, it should all be about fun.

Jo

[emmajane]

Thanks Jo but its just a mishmash of other peoples ideas - I take the route that smarter people than me spend hours thinking about this stuff so I don't have too

If anyone is interested this is quite a good Facebook page to have a nosey on www.facebook.com/absolutedogs if you want some ideas on training.