Recall?

[PoppyDog]

***Posted this in the training section but haven't had any response...so posting here again***

So I've read about people saying that their dog/s have 100% recall. As in they ALWAYS come when called.

Last Summer we took Poppy to the dog beach a few times and we never let her off the leash even though it was an "off leash" area. She was only 4 - 5 months old and we didn't feel comfortable. I was scared she wouldn't come back when called.

Since then we have been working on recall at home and I was thinking today that she now ALWAYS comes when called!

When I go out the front to check the mail, sometimes she comes with me. The front of our house isn't fenced and I always watch her like a hawk and she always stays close. If she strays to close to the road I call her back to me and she ALWAYS comes back. Our road is VERY quiet so please don't think I'm playing with fire...I'm really not!

With the weather warming up again we will probably be taking her back to the beach. I'm just not sure that she would be 100% with her recall in a public place like that, with LOTS of other doggies and people. But then how do I know unless I try!?

Any advice?

[Kirislin]

do you know of an off lead park that is still safely fenced, or some other large area she's not too familiar with, so it's exciting for her, but still safe in case she doesn't come back that you could practice with.

I've trained mine to come to a sports whistle. I'd say they're about 90% reliable. I still have to be careful with when and where I let them off.

[juice]

Go somewhere not so exciting first.

I have my pups offlead immediatley, i figure when they are really small they follow you anyway, i call them ,give them a treat and pat, then sometimes put them onlead just for a few minutes, then let them off again, i don't put them onlead everytime i call them, i figure if you do they won't want to come back.

I find by letting them off early, and it being a good experience to come back, it works.

Otherwise you wait and wait, and they think whoho i'm free at last

[kelpiekaye]

Maybe use a long rope and when you feel a bit more confident let the end go. Make your self more fun than the other dogs, another thing that has worked for me is if my dog dosnt respond to my call I run in the opposite direction and they usually follow. Perhaps try these things in a fenced dog park first. Good luck.

[dandybrush]

i would suggest the long rope and go to the beach purely as a "training" exercise and practise you recalls, if at the end you are feeling confident let her go, do like the others have said and make yourself soo much fun she cant resist you.

if you are still not confident do not let her off and go back another day for more "training" until you feel you can trust her, good luck hope something works for you

[poodlefan]

PD:

When I go out the front to check the mail, sometimes she comes with me. The front of our house isn't fenced and I always watch her like a hawk and she always stays close.

Until the day she sees a dog, a cat or something else on the other side of the road or gets rushed or attached by another dog and then there might be tragedy. I can't recommend too highly that you don't let her offlead out the front of your house. All it takes is seconds and she'll be gone forever.

If you want to practice your recall with a higher level of distraction, you'll need to take her out on a long line and practice. The long line will keep her safe and allow you to reel her in if she doesn't come.

[Staranais]

My answer is in the training forum.

But I would add, there is no way I'd test her recall without having a way to either correct her or at least stop her self rewarding if she decides to not return. Otherwise, you're setting your training up to fail.

[PoppyDog]

Thanks everyone.

We do have a fenced dog park close to us. We have only been there once but we could practice recall there. I'm just not sure how favourably I would be looked upon with other users if I rocker up with her on a long line though. I just don't know if I would feel comfortable.

BUT I would be happy doing this at the dog beach! Friends of our used a horse lead with their border collie pup last time we were at the beach! Might have to invest in one of those.

I didn't realise that I needed to have her on a line to correct her if she didn't come back to ensure that she WAS learning recall and not just come when I feel like it.

Thanks for all the great ideas.

[poodlefan]

PD:

I'm just not sure how favourably I would be looked upon with other users if I rocker up with her on a long line though

I wouldn't use a long line in an offleash area with a lot of other users. A leash only area would be the place to start.

Or a dog training club - ever thought of joining one?

[bedazzledx2]

What she said Try this link http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/Lesson6.html

PD:

I'm just not sure how favourably I would be looked upon with other users if I rocker up with her on a long line though

I wouldn't use a long line in an offleash area with a lot of other users. A leash only area would be the place to start.

Or a dog training club - ever thought of joining one?

[koalathebear]

I'm really glad you posted this question. I don't have any solutions but I've been pondering it myself. We've not let Elbie off-lead in an unenclosed area yet - just don't feel confident enough about it yet. In enclosed off-lead areas, he tends to not wander very far from us at all usually and will always come when called so we can't really 'test' how he is. During obedience classes, he has 100% recall - but that's on the leash.

We bought a 5m long leash and have been using that with him at the local school soccer field. We run around with him, throw a ball and a frisbee and let him do his own thing and then call him. The thing is, he never tends to wander very far from us in the first place so recall isn't something we can test i.e. he never pulled the leash taut.

On a shorter leash, if he sees a car he tugs to the end of it but in an "I am paying attention" fashion and with the longer leash, even when the cars were whizzing past the oval, he didn't show much interest them. I am guessing we can 'trust' him offlead when he can walk on the leash without being distracted by cars/cats/people/other dogs etc

[PoppyDog]

I didn't know you were allowed on School ovals? Do you have to get permission?

I work at a school so might just ask them about it...would have to apply for after hours access if I wanted to go on the weekend though...

Hmmm...it would be a great place to let her run AND practice!

[koalathebear]

I didn't know you were allowed on School ovals? Do you have to get permission?

I work at a school so might just ask them about it...would have to apply for after hours access if I wanted to go on the weekend though...

Hmmm...it would be a great place to let her run AND practice! :D

Oh ... well I'm in Melba so there's an oval right near us which is kind of near the school but I'm not sure it belongs to the school as such - it might just be a public sports field. I see lots of people there throwing frisbees, running their dog or just sitting there reading - whenever there's not a game on. It is a very perfect place for Elbie to run around and he's always on lead so people don't have to feel apprehensive - it just means we can use a longer leash and not get tangled up with anything

Edited August 29, 2010 by koalathebear

[aussielover]

Do you think she would run off?

I know Mindy wouldn't come 100% of the time (i think it is pretty much impossible to expect a dog to recall 100% of the time) but I also know she is not the type to run off and chase somehting (too lazy!).

I just don't call her when i know she won't come (like if she is playing with another dog). She will come if she is running off to greet another dog, but perhaps not if she is engaged in playing (when i have called her in this situation, she has come, but i try not to call her away unnecessarily).

I would start in a low distraction environment like a fenced park when there are few dogs there.

I guess the most important thing is that you trust her. i have personally found that when you call a dog you have to sound and feel like you know they are going to do it.

[Aidan3]

Just a note on "100%" - if any other behaviour has any probability whatsoever, then you don't have a 100% recall. Add all those other possible behaviours up and even a 99% recall starts to look pretty unlikely.

[bedazzledx2]

A simple way to test your recall is to get someone to deliberately try and break it! Let her off leash (or on a long line which would be my preference) and allow her to get a fair distance from you and then get someone to entice her as you call her. If she immediately breaks off and races back to you... great! If she doesn't then you have your answer. You can up the anti with the friend enticing with another dog, food or toys...whatever floats her boat. This is the only way you can proof a recall and don't forget that if she comes back to you reward her with the absolute bestest stuff!!!!!

***Posted this in the training section but haven't had any response...so posting here again***

So I've read about people saying that their dog/s have 100% recall. As in they ALWAYS come when called.

Last Summer we took Poppy to the dog beach a few times and we never let her off the leash even though it was an "off leash" area. She was only 4 - 5 months old and we didn't feel comfortable. I was scared she wouldn't come back when called.

Since then we have been working on recall at home and I was thinking today that she now ALWAYS comes when called!

When I go out the front to check the mail, sometimes she comes with me. The front of our house isn't fenced and I always watch her like a hawk and she always stays close. If she strays to close to the road I call her back to me and she ALWAYS comes back. Our road is VERY quiet so please don't think I'm playing with fire...I'm really not!

With the weather warming up again we will probably be taking her back to the beach. I'm just not sure that she would be 100% with her recall in a public place like that, with LOTS of other doggies and people. But then how do I know unless I try!?

Any advice?

[Staranais]

Depends how you define 99%, doesn't it.

Is a 99% recall coming 99 times out of 100 that you call? If so, my old dog definitely had 99% recall. In the last year I had him, I ran him offleash most evenings, and he never blew a recall. If he had less than 99% recall, he would have blown at least one recall in every hundred.

Or is it coming reliably on command despite 99% of possible distractions? That would be hard to measure, since if the dog doesn't blow the recall, how do you know it was a distraction?

ETA: I really like bedazzled's idea!

Edited August 29, 2010 by Staranais

[malsrock]

A simple way to test your recall is to get someone to deliberately try and break it! Let her off leash (or on a long line which would be my preference) and allow her to get a fair distance from you and then get someone to entice her as you call her. If she immediately breaks off and races back to you... great! If she doesn't then you have your answer. You can up the anti with the friend enticing with another dog, food or toys...whatever floats her boat. This is the only way you can proof a recall and don't forget that if she comes back to you reward her with the absolute bestest stuff!!!!!

***Posted this in the training section but haven't had any response...so posting here again***

So I've read about people saying that their dog/s have 100% recall. As in they ALWAYS come when called.

Last Summer we took Poppy to the dog beach a few times and we never let her off the leash even though it was an "off leash" area. She was only 4 - 5 months old and we didn't feel comfortable. I was scared she wouldn't come back when called.

Since then we have been working on recall at home and I was thinking today that she now ALWAYS comes when called!

When I go out the front to check the mail, sometimes she comes with me. The front of our house isn't fenced and I always watch her like a hawk and she always stays close. If she strays to close to the road I call her back to me and she ALWAYS comes back. Our road is VERY quiet so please don't think I'm playing with fire...I'm really not!

With the weather warming up again we will probably be taking her back to the beach. I'm just not sure that she would be 100% with her recall in a public place like that, with LOTS of other doggies and people. But then how do I know unless I try!?

Any advice?

Yes, my 8 year old GSD I can confidently say has 100% recall trained pretty well as Bedazzled has explained. My 12 month old Malinios is getting there, but is still a bit iffy with some distractions...........other dogs generally. I remember the stage well when my GSD would be totally confused which way he would go between my OH calling him and me and we conditioned him that coming to the leash holder provided the best reward. Using the long line to real them in, change directions in low distractions, proof that, then add distractions, patients, consistency and persistance you will get there in the end

The other thing I forgot to mention I think helps too, is just calling them around the house to come when called. I have just started to get my Mali coming off a side fence bark in the back yard and I just give him rub, "good boy", let him lick my face and have a fool around and then call him to follow me. To come when called I think has relevence where ever it's done even from room to room around the house. The more you practice it the more the dog becomes conditioned to respond to being called to you if that makes sense???

Edited August 29, 2010 by malsrock

[megan_]

PD:

When I go out the front to check the mail, sometimes she comes with me. The front of our house isn't fenced and I always watch her like a hawk and she always stays close.

Until the day she sees a dog, a cat or something else on the other side of the road or gets rushed or attached by another dog and then there might be tragedy. I can't recommend too highly that you don't let her offlead out the front of your house. All it takes is seconds and she'll be gone forever.

If you want to practice your recall with a higher level of distraction, you'll need to take her out on a long line and practice. The long line will keep her safe and allow you to reel her in if she doesn't come.

I don't want ot flame you PD but what PF says above is EXACTLY what my dog did. He ALWAYS stayed so close to me, then one day he was off. He was so fast I couldn't catch him. He ran up the road (a long distance) and then into a busy car park. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. After 20 mins he came back to me.

I used a long line to train him with his recall. I also let him run dragging it along once his recall was good. He now has a fantastic recall even when other dogs are around.

[Aidan]

Is a 99% recall coming 99 times out of 100 that you call? If so, my old dog definitely had 99% recall.

Yes, but I am talking about probability. Repeat the test often enough and you will reveal regression to the mean.

Your dog could come 50 times out of 100 but that doesn't tell us the probability. His probability might be 90% or it might be 10%, we don't really know from this test. All we know is that he scored 50% on that particular test.

If a dog has a 99% recall probability and we do something off-leash with that dog each day, then we're looking at an average of 36.525 failures per decade. Some years we'll have 0 failures, some years we'll have more, with a mean of 3.6525 failures each year.

One of my dogs took 8 years to fail a recall, but it was a doozy when it happened. Thankfully he is still with us today. I still walk him off-leash up in the hills where he was lost, those odds aren't too bad.