Off Leash Rambles

[paddles]

Hi all, I have a gsp, who when let loose, tends to roam too far from me for my comfort. he recalls fairly well, and he will periodically come to me to check which way we are walking. this issue started while I was hospitalised for a bit, and my husbands idea of walking the dogs, was to go down the bush, let them loose, and sit on the river bank fishing for half/hr or so, letting the dogs roam, prior to this, my dogs were pretty much trained to stay within a 50mtr radius of me. I am uncertain how to retrain them to stay closer. I recall them, however of course he just runs off again. I was wondering if keeping him on the flexi lead would work? or it it's too late? suggestions? Keeping him on lead, will be difficult, as he is a nightmare to walk most of the time

thank you

[Kavik]

I find that random recalls as well as paying for checking in tends to get them not to wander too far

[megan_]

I have a "check in" command - not a formal recall with a sit etc, just 'come close to me'. I taught this by having a handful of treats, walking with him next to me and saying "check in" and giving a treat at my side. He caught on pretty quickly then I just kept on reinforcing it so that coming back was ALWAYS worth it.

[paddles]

If I recall him too much on a walk, he starts to ignore them. I ALWAYs give a treat when they come to me, either recalled or not

do you think maybe shorter walks off lead, 10 min? rewarding him staying close? he generaly stays reasonably close for the first ??? minutes

[megan_]

Keep the rate of reinforcement very high (use his entire meal to re-inforce recall if you have to). Give him lots and lots of really nice food for each recall (10+ treats in quick succession). Make it a bit of a stalking game. Given that he has blown off recalls in the past, I'd think of this as retraining him (he has a reward history of not listening to you = I get to run off and do what I want). you need to counter-condition this. Put on a long line and recall away.

Does he like toys? If so you can reward him with a game. Be fun to be around!

If you hold lots of food in your hand he shouldn't want to venture too far.

[Sparassidae]

My dogs had two commands.

"here" for get your arse here and sit down.

"come" for when they were straying too far.

I don't even remember how I taught come, I think I just would say come, they'd turn and look and start walking to me and I'd give a verbal reward and release once they were close enough.

[Pretty Miss Emma]

To get Kenz to stay closer off lead I did a couple of things...

When she's about 10m away from me I say her bridge word and she comes back to me to collect a treat. After a bit of practice at this she doesn't often go further than 10m or so as she's waiting too hear the word and come collect a treat.

I do as you mentioned and practiced recalls when she wasn't too far away.

I heavily reward every time she comes to me when she's off lead regardless of whether she's asked to or not (because she has a history of not coming to me and going too far this seems to encourage her to not go too far from me!).

I turn recalls in to a game. She is asked to "come", when she gets to me she gets a treat, then I'll ask her if she's "ready" and say "go", she races off with me running beside her, then I turn and run in the opposite direction and as soon as she catches up to me she gets a treat. Then I tell her "ok" and she will tottle off and then I start the game again always running in a different direction so that she can't predict exactly where I'm going to go. She loves this game and we play it for about 5-10 minutes each time she is let off lead, but I don't often let her off lead for much longer than this anyway.

Another thing I have done with her is hide behind trees if she doesn't come when called. Then she starts to worry where I've gone and races back to find me. I don't really like doing this because I know it upsets her a little bit, but I have to say it was very effective when I started doing it and I don't do it particularly often (only when she really ignores me).

I sort of think if the dog is ignoring being recalled then it doesn't find it fun (the rest of the world is more fun!), so it's a matter of figuring out what your dog finds more motivating in terms of recall than the rest of the world!

[Wobbly]

My husband and I have a recall game.

We both get a good handful of treats and stand a good distance away from each other (maybe 30 - 40 metres) he calls her and she runs to him for a treat, I call her so she runs to me for a treat, back and forth back and forth. We still do it these days, even though she has fantastic recall now because it's a great way of burning off her excess energy.

She LOVES food, so she runs as fast as she can between us to get her treats. It's great because it tires her out and reinforces the recall. A lot of the time my husband won't come on walks, but she knows the game so well we can do it alone - I call her and she comes to me for treats, then I point to where he normally stands and she runs over there so I can call her back for more treats. And so on. She's very well conditioned to come when she's called by sheer force of repetition with it.

If I'm competing with something really interesting for attention (a cat or another dog or something, though I rarely come across either of these when we're off leash) food isn't as interesting so I have to pull out my secret weapon - the frisbee, which is far more interesting than anything else in the world. But it's still the same game - come when you're called.

We started doing it in the house when we first got her to teach her recall, now it's one of her favourite games (anything that involves food is a favourite game for her XD).

It's funny, when i was a little kid, my dogs would ALWAYS come when they were called - it was just a given natural law - dogs always come when they're called. As an adult I realise why that is - when I was a kid and I called my dogs I was ALWAYS calling them because I wanted to play with them - chasies, tug o war, wrestling etc - kids who love to play with dogs are really fun for dogs, so dog will always come when called to see what excitement is in the offing.

IDk there might be better ways, but making recall a game is what works for me.

EDIT - and rereading your post I have totally not answered the question! :laugh:

I'd say the game aspect is still relevant, you could try keeping him engaged with you when he's off leash - throw balls and frisbees for him the whole time he is off leash? That way his attention will never waver from you.

Edited October 21, 2012 by Wobbly