Obedience training - recall from dog sitting in front

[quangle]

I have been I doing obedience training with my dog and we have just progressed up a class.  I have been given the instructions for what is covered in the next class which includes something called recall.  This involves having your dog sitting in front of you, and then the steps for returning dog to the heel position.   I want to start practising this at home as it will be 2 weeks until I can return to class.  It sounds to me that the dog passes around behind your back and into the heel position on the left.  But I can't find any videos online that depict this.  Is anyone able to clarify this please so I don't practise wrong.  Also because my dog is already accustomed to going behind me to get into heel position, so if I need to untrain this I would like to get started.  Thanks.

 

The instructions say 
Your dog will be sitting at heel. You will LEAVE your dog. Command dog to stay and step off with right foot. You are required to to be just in front of your dog's nose.  (I assume I have turned around to face the dog as this is what we have done so far.)  Gather up the lead in your right hand.  The instructor will ask you to 'finish'.  With the lead between your thumb and the palm of your right hand, command dog to heel.  Take a step with your right foot forward and to the left of the dog, pass the lead around behind your back to your left hand and continue to guide your dog around to your left hand side. Once halfway around, bring your left foot into place next to the right at which time your dog should be in the heel position.  

[Tassie]

The recall exercise in formal obedience ultimately involves leaving the dog in a sit, cueing it to wait, and walking off in a straight line in front of the dog to a set distance, turning to face the dog, stopping when told, and then when told, calling the dog, who should then come to sit directly in front of the handler.   Above the very basic level, the dog will then be cued to return from directly in front of the handler to the heel position .. i.e. the handler's left hand side.  This is called the 'Finish' ..and is used not just in the recall, but later on in formal retrieve exercises and others where the dog has been away from the handler and returned to sit in front.

 

The Finish is the part of the exercise which is described in your class notes .. or at least one version of the Finish.   The ANKC Obedience rules allow the handler to use either the exercise you will be learning .. where the dog moves from a sit directly in front of the handler to the heel position at the handler's left, by going round the back of the handler.   The other option which has been allowed for many years, is what is sometimes called the 'flip' or 'continental' finish, where the dog flips around by moving his butt, from facing the handler to sitting at heel facing the same direction of the handler.  i.e. the dog does not go behind the handler .. is always in front or to the left.    Personally this is the finish I use, but there are some older, maybe more "traditional" instructors who prefer to only use and teach the finish to the right.   Actually to be fair, my dogs learn both .. both because they're required in Rally O, but also to try to stop them anticipating the finish .. by moving to heel before I give them the cue.

 

So yes .. you're correct .. you will have turned to face the dog.  The dog will then be moving to make a tight semi circle behind your back and coming up on your left hand side to sit at heel .. taking the step back with your right leg helps to get the dog moving .. once the dog gets the idea, you won't need to do that.   Your other job is to make sure that you pass the lead from your right hand to your left behind your back, so that it won't be tightening as the dog moves behind you,

 

This video shows an off lead version of the exercise done in an American Kennel Club competition ..their rules are similar to ours, but I don't hink they have the option of the left/flip/continental finish.   Recall with right finish

 

 

Edited July 1, 2019 by Tassie
ETA video link

[quangle]

Thanks Tassie, that is very helpful.  Also explains why it is referred to as a recall, which seemed odd until you know it is the ending of a skill.  

[Two Best Dogs!]

Not sure why they require you to step forward into the dog when asking the dog to heel, bit hard to picture.

 

I like to train the dog without the leads first. Then practice the lead movement without the dog. Then combine the dog and the leads.

(This is so I do not confuse the dogs by waffling about with the lead too much)

 

This video explains the front, the flip finish and the return to hell. The two videos below are this video, just they should play directly at the relevant bit.

 

The heel where the dog goes around your back:

 

 

and same video but the preview should start at the right point, the flippy heel of flip:

 

 

in ANKC rallyo these are called the "finish left" and "finish right". so many different names for the same things, but they are quite possibly my favourite skills.

 

Some judges do not like a flippy pivoting aspect to the finish left

[Dogsfevr]

I taught mine to do both and decided which one was a better fit for the dog .

Are you planning to trial .?

If yes then I would go watch some trials 

[Tassie]

20 hours ago, Two Best Dogs! said:

Not sure why they require you to step forward into the dog when asking the dog to heel, bit hard to picture.

 

I like to train the dog without the leads first. Then practice the lead movement without the dog. Then combine the dog and the leads.

(This is so I do not confuse the dogs by waffling about with the lead too much)

 

This video explains the front, the flip finish and the return to hell. The two videos below are this video, just they should play directly at the relevant bit.

 

The heel where the dog goes around your back:

 

 

and same video but the preview should start at the right point, the flippy heel of flip:

 

 

in ANKC rallyo these are called the "finish left" and "finish right". so many different names for the same things, but they are quite possibly my favourite skills.

 

Some judges do not like a flippy pivoting aspect to the finish left

 

I use exactly the same finishes in both obedience and Rally … my boy competes in UD and is a Rally O Ch .. so we've never had trouble with the tight 'flip'  finishes.   (UD has about 8 finishes.)

 

I use a perch box to teach my dogs to use their back ends to get themselves round .. for both the left and left abouts in obedience and Rally, and particularly for the stationary pivots in Rally.   They are agility dogs as well, so the back end awareness  and skilful turning is vital..