ESS Recall..

[alfie&ronniesmum]

I have been lurking on this forum for a while and have read some inspiring posts and thought it was about time I posted for a little advise.

I am new to the ess world, I got my two ess males after I lost my border collie.
Alf and Ron are 8 months old now, up to now they haven't given me any major issues I know they are still young and they have a long way from being perfect we have mastered sit, stay, leave, down and almost heel in the house and out on walks.

I am just having one issue with Ron recall ! I have used the whistle since he came home and in the house he is perfect in the garden he is perfect and out on are usual walks he is perfect ( by perfect I mean he stops what he is doing and comes to me) but when we go somewhere new or somewhere we haven't been for a while he goes completely death ignores the whistle to the point I have stopped using the whistle when I know he isn't going to come back because I don't want to become death to the whistle if the makes since? he does eventually come back but when it suits him, I always have a pouch full of cooked liver tripe ect. we have even tried taking him out on an empty stomach as he gets his breakfast after the whistle that didn't work.

Alfie is brilliant off his lead and im a little unsure on where to go next or what i have done wrong with ron so i need some advise please?

[LJR]

Maybe have a read of Total Recall - you may need to change and re-train your recall command for 100% success.

If you can, feed all his daily food by hand using the recall whistle.

[alfie&ronniesmum]

I'm just reading through total recall as we speak.

[Naj]

Dogs learn by context, so when you teach any command, by whatever method, you need to re-train the command by starting from scratch in many different locations, so that the dog will eventually learn that it doesn't simply apply in the context of the garden or on familiar walks etc. but must be responded to wherever the dog may find itself. It's called 'generalisation' of the behaviour. The same goes for distraction. You must train the command initially in areas of low distraction & then gradually increase the levels of distraction so the dog learns it must respond in any environment it is likely to find itself in.

Naj

[Nonehpets]

Do you always train the two together? If you do try taking them out individually and see if that makes a difference to Ronnie's recall.

I assume they are littermates? one of the issues with having two from the same litter is they can become focused on each other more than bonded with you. In which case Ronnie may have covered it up well by chance but now you are asking more of them it may unravel a bit.

Cathy

[alfie&ronniesmum]

no we have always been careful to try and train them apart it was almost impossible to train the together when they were younger as all they wanted was to play!!
yes they are littermates I know this wasn't the best idea and I knew of the issues that could have arose we castrated them early and have let them sort their differences out between them and touch wood they seem very settled they know their place they seem to respect each other

I have taken Ronnie back to basics and he seems to be responding well I think I just went to far to soon its always the owners fault somewhere or another luckily dogs are quite forgiving !