Adding A Drop/sit Mid Recall

[4 Paws]

just wondering the best method to go about gettting a dog to add either a drop or sit mid recall.

The instructor at obedience got us to try yesterday at training,no dogs in level 3 achieved it but i was wondering if you give a command you can't enfore what will happen

[Luke W]

just wondering the best method to go about gettting a dog to add either a drop or sit mid recall.

The instructor at obedience got us to try yesterday at training,no dogs in level 3 achieved it but i was wondering if you give a command you can't enfore what will happen

There's a method using a mat detailed here:

I haven't tried teaching it to my pup yet.

[Kavik]

Do you have a good random drop/drop at a distance? I would get that first. I throw in random drops on walks when they are not paying attention to use as emergency command, so they will drop whenever. You have to be careful with drop on recall as it can slow the recall down. I haven't taught it to my guys as I want a super fast recall, no confusion over whether they will be asked something else.

[dogdude]

What was your instructors point? Do they get you to try to do all exercises before they are taught??

You need to teach distance control first. Develop a clear hand signal outside your body's silhouette, and start off from a static stand for the drop or sit.

After they have this down pat, I then add it to the recall.

This exercise is very confusing to the dog once you add it to the recall. It is the first time one command will councel out another. Allow plenty of patience for confusion.

They can drop recall speed until they have full confidence in the clarity of your command.

A good thing to remember about the mechanics of D.O.R is that they will always gravitate towards the enforcer. So..... if working on the stopping speed, have food target behind dog, and when working on recall drive speed...... have food target behind you.

You should be teaching dog to stop with the weight on his back end, and not front end, if you plan to have a speedy stop. You can acheive that by throwing food back over the dogs head as it is driving toward you, and incorporating a hand signal that looks like a throw.

[Leema]

I taught Clover distance behaviours by:

1) Ask for behaviour at a distance.

2) Click that behaviour when performed, regardless of where it is performed.

3) Throw reward back to where the dog was when you asked for the behaviour

Repeat process.

The dog will learn there is no point coming closer to you for the treat as the treat is always delivered behind them, where they were asked to perform it. Stand was the hardest behaviour to learn to do this with, so I recommend teaching sit and drop at a distance first. I did find I had to teach all distance behaviours individually in this way, as Clover did not generalise working at a distance.

[DeltaCharlie]

With Cody I incorporated a drop into the game of Fetch. Unless he dropped exactly where I said the ball wasn't thrown so he managed to work that out pretty quick

After that I would wait until he was doing his own thing, then call him to me, ask for the drop, then produce his tennis ball. I would then throw it for him rather than ask for the rest of the recall.

One thing someone told me is that you should never practice it as you would have to perform it for a trial. The last thing you want is a dog that expects the drop (Ive seen dogs almost crawling in the recall in anticipation of the drop). If you have a dog that will drop as soon as you ask, then you don't need to practice it at training. It needs to be practiced in an informal setting. Does that make sense? Pretty much treat them as 2 different skills that you happen to put together every so often and you should have a dog that will fly in for a recall, drop immediately, then fly in for the rest of the recall.

[4 Paws]

Thankyou for the suggestions everyone.I'm not sure if they have previously done the drop or sit on recall before as we've only been in that level for a couple of months but i'm gathering form the rest of the dogs in the class being unable to do it too that it was just something that the instructor threw in