Recall

[munstyman]

Can anyone give me some advice or tips for recall - it's by no means 100% with my WCS. Thank you.

Give the dog more reasons to come back than stay away, and balance the reward for compliance with the distraction
I would also recommend training the stop/sit and apply that first before recall in distracting situations to re-focus the dogs attention. you will need to flesh out your situation for more specific advise

[james milnes]

Best tip I can give...
Do whatever it takes to be more interesting than whatever the dog is doing at the time of the recall command

[Springfield Pointers]

Best tip I can give...
Do whatever it takes to be more interesting than whatever the dog is doing at the time of the recall command

There is no way you're going to ever make yourself more interesting than what a dog is doing at the time if you're hunting. The trick is to develop the response by gradually adding the distraction and making trust a non-negotiable. The dog must understand that you have its best interests at heart, and it must understand that there is a working partnership. It's not about "being more interesting". If I were more interesting to my dogs than what I wanted them to be doing, I'd have gone seriously wrong with my plans somewhere. Dogs must be bird focussed and driven - birds train bird dogs.

[james milnes]

My apologies I was talking of the initial stages of recall training.

[MDP]

I’m doing the initial stages of recall training now with the 4 week old pups. Recall whistle at feed time! 2 days in and they’re sharp on it now

[trekmoor]

This thread is beginning to worry me ! Bog-off type dogs are a horror of mine and, up to now, I have managed to avoid ever having one by taking pups for walks in the woods. The pup is allowed to run-free ….self-hunt is another name for it ….. then I hide behind a tree or a bush before whistle recalling the pup. If this is done while the pup is still young enough to feel a bit "insecure" then the result often is that the pup will try very hard to find me... it may even become a bit panic stricken.

I call this anxiety training and it has worked well for me with all breeds of dogs. I can no longer do this , I can't walk far enough to do it often enough and so my daughters GSP pup , now 6 months old, is fast growing out of the "anxiety" stage of his life . He would definitely bog-off if something, game for example, caught his interest.

He has had no "formal" recall training done outside of the house or garden so I have nothing much to fall back on if/when he decides to go and not return.

This afternoon a gundogging friend came to visit me bragging about the bottles of wine coming his way. A local man has been letting his 9 -10 months old GSP pup off lead to free run up on U.F.O. Hill and although that pup is only intended to be a pet …..it doesn't know that ! It's genes are telling it to hunt and hunt it does ! It does not recall , it has never been properly taught to.

The dog then attaches itself to my friends spaniels and gets taken home by him , then the frantic owner of the dog turns up to collect his dog and hands over the wine bottles !
------- I can easily foresee this happening to me in the near future and my daughters pup hasn't even seen or scented game yet !
I wish she'd dump the positive only training and at least teach him a very definite recall !

Wullie

[Stacia]

This is how I taught mine Wullie, either hiding or suddenly changing direction when they aren't looking also food recall in the house to their meals.