Roova

Done

Retrieve to a bucket... I've got no idea if there's a better way to teach this but it worked for me :) I sat on ground with my legs crossed, a small bucket at my feet and my dog sitting in front of me, head over bucket. I encouraged her to take a small easy to hold object in her mouth and when she dropped it, it fell in to the bucket. She got a happy yes, treat. Kept this up for a minute or so. Next session we practiced her dropping the object with her head turned in different directions but I made sure the bucket was under her head each time so when she dropped it she heard the thunk as it fell in the bucket. I then put the object on my knee close to the lip of the bucket and when she grabbed it and let go it fell in the bucket. I then started moving it from left to right knee and she started grasping the fact it had to fall in the bucket. If it didn't I put it back on my knee and encouraged her to have another go. I then placed it on the ground and she (hallelujah) picked it up and put it in the bucket. Jackpot big time! I was then able to start throwing it further away and she would retrieve it to the bucket. Every now and then it will miss and she'll either pick it up herself and have another go or I point to it and say try again and she'll pick it up and put it in the bucket. Once she had that working I started throwing random things for her to collect for the bucket so she now gets keys, sticky tape roll, a soft ball, a kids toy etc, whatever is small and fits in the bucket. Its very cute :)

Retrieve and put the item in a container gets oohs and aahes. Ring a bell, catch food or a ball and leave it with a treat on paw or nose is cute too.

My Frenchie gives plenty of warning if she's going to be sick, lots of heaving and noises. I almost fall over myself trying to get to her to hustle her off the carpet onto the tiles and then the poor thing ends up frightened of me looming over her. (She's a sensitive soul). We recently had our carpets cleaned after having a puppy in the house and in the first week I had a poo(?), vomit and a meaty bone bought inside and eaten on the carpet. sigh

How fantastic of you to help a tiny in need baby. That last photo is just so GORGEOUS! That tiny little belly and those tiny little feet

Awww tiny little bubba. What does hand raising entail? It sounds intense!

Same, thank you so much for sharing! Baxter's photo makes me giggle. He looks a bit like he's shocked he's been sprung with the cat lol.

The book also mentions creating 'setups' along the way so you can see how well you're doing. Any failed setups and you need to repeat the beginning steps again. At least then it's easy to tell if you're moving too fast or your dog isn't understanding as well as you think he is. There's no set time frame for the recall to start becoming successful, every dog is different. Persistence pays off though! It might be worth mixing up the treats or finding if a game with a toy works well, always keep him guessing what fun thing you'll have for him. Maybe keep the awesome treats and toy for only recall training so it stays special.

I don't look at training a reliable recall as a reason to let my dog wander off lead but as something which may save her life one day. My first dog in my youth ran across four lanes of traffic to say 'hello' to another dog and I never ever want to go through that again. I have a terrier now and could easily have said why bother, she's only going to be interested in chasing something or where her nose leads her but a minute or two each day practicing and I feel confident she'd recall out of danger. There's no way I wouldn't have tried though. I'll do whatever I have to do to teach her this behaviour. I'm not asking her not to be a terrier just come when I say come.

I can see that happening! My two start with their own bowls then 30 seconds later they do a complete swap. Clearly I only put the good stuff in the other dogs bowl lol.

What in the! How did she do that? Very cute :)

Those poor dogs I sometimes wonder if that's what's happening to the French bulldog now. So many unscrupulous breeders out there and people just keep paying more and more for poorly bred dogs, its crazy.

Hello Gnasher. That's kind of a bit uncanny! He goes really dark when he's wet doesn't he. He looks super unimpressed and like he's thinking 'well are you going to dry me or what??'.

Completed. A lot of those I found hard to answer because yes or no generalises too much and doesn't cover all scenarios. Maybe an 'other' option with a comment box would have been good?

That movie brings back memories! The Really Reliable Recall can also be bought as an ebooklet for $4.95. I can't remember what the conversion rate is but probably not much. http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB813EBK

OMG, of course you did! D'oh! I'm pretty sure it was 410g or close to it.

It was a large biscuit tray. I just plopped the mixture on the baking paper, wet my hands and pressed it down. I was reading you can cook it longer if your dog likes crunchy treats but I think it would be a bit harder to cut into small pieces. I'm thinking I might put some in zip lock bags and see how it freezes because I imagine it would have a pretty limited shelf life and it made quite a bit.

I tried making some Salmon Crack to use as treats tonight. I was reading its meant to be really liked so I thought I'd give it a go. It's basically a tin of salmon, 2 eggs and two cups of flour. I also added some garlic and a tin of sardines. I flattened it on baking paper and cooked it for 25 minutes on 180. When it cooled it was squishy, smelly and really easy to cut in tiny pieces. I was tempted to get it myself lol. There's probably a healthier alternative to flour though?

Poppy is only 8 months old so I guess time will tell but currently she has better teeth than me! I've never though of taking a photo of her teeth before but it will be a good baseline for the future. My four year old Frenchie had good teeth too but it's impossible to get a one handed photo of them. There's so much lip everywhere I don't have enough fingers to hold it all back and click lol. They're both on raw with antlers, hooves, pig ears at times and dried tendons etc to chew.

I used a converted bike pram /trailer which was lots of fun. I only had a little fuzz ball though but I'm sure it would work ok for a hefalump lol.

They're fantastic shots!

Wow. Just wow.

He's like a huge Teddy, just gorgeous! Is his fur soft or wiry to touch at that length?

Thanks for your feedback Showdog. I work on new behaviour in the backyard/house first so I know she understands what she's meant to be doing rather than try and teach her with kids etc running around. I live at the round end of a cul-de-sac so after we leave the yard I can practice on this road. When the neighbours kids come out to play its bedlam and I wouldn't expect Poppy to concentrate on me when they're yelling and running around (yet anyway). I pick my moments out there! I really try and be enthusiastic with my praise and voice when she does well, including while we're practicing. If she's done a really good job she gets a 'go sniff' moment. I've been doing this more over the last few days and I think its helping her concentration when I then ask her to come back to heel. Its a bit hard to avoid the 'over and over' when you're practicing getting something right though. I have to be consistent or she'll get confused won't she From what I've been reading is pretty normal for young dogs to be easily distracted with the world so I guess I'm not alone there! I definitely don't want perfection, just I guess reliability or some type of consistency. Can I ask what works for you getting attention /focus with your guys when they're young and in distracting environments? How much attention do you expect or ask for?

Wow! You have an amazing eye for just the right way to take a photo. Every one more lovely than the last!