Real Life Recall (2)
You have begun your training by putting a six-foot leash on your dog and when she easily turns from distractions you move outside and graduate to a 15-foot line. Make the distractions more difficult and the line longer, (30-ft) letting it drag on the ground. When she does not respond you tug on the line. You always use your verbal bridge (such as ‘good dog!’) when the dog turns his head. You are rewarding randomly when he gets to you. Food, toys with tugging, chase games, inviting the dog to jump up, are a few of the rewards you could use. Let me make it clear that it makes no sense in your training to put your dog in situations where she does not have to respond. When I went to dog parks (I no longer do, nor do I recommend them. Another topic for another article) I routinely saw people get to the parking lot and spend many minutes catching their dog. They must have repeated the command ‘come’ dozens of times. I always wondered what these people thought they were teaching their dog. It amazed me that the next time they came to the park the scenario was repeated.
O.K., next step. This is the point where I begin to change the correction. The dog knows perfectly well that she is connected to a line. Even though you have been letting the line drag you can’t replace the feeling of being totally off leash, however in this step I want the dog to see nothing in my hands when I correct her. Why? Because I believe a dog responds to a command by the verbal and the visual. Since I’m working toward a recall with no leash that’s the picture I want the dog responding to. So, set up a really good distraction. Call your dog. When she doesn’t turn her head, step on the line, say ‘wrong’ or some word to indicate she is wrong (I say eh! eh!) and go over to your dog. Take your dog by the collar and repeat ‘dog come’! in a happy voice. Then give three little pops on the collar and run with your dog to where you were. Praise when the dog comes with you. It is very important not to be angry at your dog for not coming immediately. You always want your dog to feel safe and happy when he sees you approaching. My dogs are trained now and off the line, but when they make a mistake and I go to get them they always run toward me, not away. I have not given them a reason to fear my recall correction. Remember, when the dog is wrong this is an opportunity to teach. Don’t think of it as an opportunity to punish. After all, you are setting up distractions to proof your dog so you can teach. You should be purposefully making it harder and harder for the dog.
Continue to add more difficult distractions. Don’t forget to use moving distractions, something the dog would like to chase. In the early stages of training difficult distractions don’t wait until the dog is chasing. Watch his body language. When he tenses up and perks up his ears now is the time to call. Give him every opportunity for success. Its easy for me, I live on a farm so I can set up distractions with chickens, or sheep. I had one dog that liked to chase the tractor so we had to cure that. When I lived in the city my U.D. Bichon loved to chase kids on tri-cycles. Get creative. Some dogs love to chase joggers. Always believe you have a right to call your dog off anything. Don’t fall into the trap of believing it can’t be done.
Sometimes dogs get into what I call the ‘deaf zone’. The distraction is so intense that they need something extra to pop them back into the here and now. Dylan’s was wild turkeys. When we came upon them his ears went up and he was off and running. For him, a soft dog, I used a throw chain. It’s a small lightweight training chain made for this purpose, but you could use a set of old keys. I snapped his line back on, went for a walk and hoped to find turkeys. The time that we did I was ready. I stayed close to him when I called, he did not turn to look, so I lobbed the chain at he rear end. Surprise! What was that! He turned to look at me and I praised and rewarded just as if he had made the decision on his own. Dylan is an easy dog and I only had to do this one time, although I took the chain on walks for quite a while after that and when he heard it jingle it got his attention.
When you have proofed your dog and can be the length of the line away and he is responding at least 80% of the time, and accepting your correction by coming toward you when you go to correct him, you can think about removing the line. Some trainers recommend shortening the line slowly. Not a bad idea, but I have not found that necessary. Like I said in the first article I do this for a long time (up to a year) so when the line comes off I am very confident my dog is not going to run away.
O.K. so you’re thinking ‘will this work for all dogs?’ If I work this hard and long can any dog be trained to come when called the first time, or at least be trained not to run off and let me go get him? Most articles would have you believe this is so. Most articles and tapes I have read and watched on recalls stop at about this point. Trainers may vary on different methods, but they usually come to the end of the article and say ‘practice, practice,’ and leave off with you feeling that if your dog won’t come when called you just haven’t done enough home work yet. I was one of those trainers.
That was before my dog Dusty. Dusty was my eighth dog, an Aussie. I had previously put a U.D. and a C.D. on a Bichon and a Flat Coat. We had gotten Dog World Awards. I knew how to train a dog. I went through all of the above, for four years with my Aussie. Dusty had this thing about deer. He was the most obedient dog anyone could own until his crazy, strong, prey drive kicked in and then all bets were off. Could I call him to come? Yes, if he was within 20-25 feet, if not he was never reliable. Living on a farm was a detriment, not a benefit. He either had to be fenced in or on a line forever. He easily would have followed a deer into the road, (and the next county). So I had a decision to make. Either never let him have the freedom I wanted him to have, or take his training one step further. I did the thing not very many obedience dog trainers want to talk about. I purchased and learned how to use a remote trainer, otherwise known as a shock collar. To make a long story short it was one of the best decisions in my life. It cleared up the issue for him. He had so much basic training it only took a few minutes for him to understand that the impulse (shock) was a correction for him not coming. Yes, he yelped, but he would probably have yelped louder if a car had hit him.
I’m not trying to talk anyone into shock collars. They’re expensive, several hundred dollars. Many dogs don’t need them. Although I believe every dog should have a solid recall at a distance, many people don’t have the life style in which they feel their dog needs to be off leash that far away from them. I would never use one on an untrained dog, or a puppy, neither of who would understand the correction. Don’t get a cheap one, they don’t work. If you do get to the point where you think it might be the right tool for you and your dog I would recommend you get help from a skilled trainer. Some field trainers use remote collars successfully and would be good people to ask for help.
Many trainers, especially people who think of themselves as ‘positive’ trainers, would be appalled at the idea of a shock deterring a dog from running away. What appalls me is people who let their dog run loose with no recall skills, putting the dog in situations that he has no hope of coping with and letting him get injured, or worse. There is a very well known nationally known trainer that tells a story in her book of a dog that liked to chase horses. Finally, one day the dog got kicked, and almost killed. She eventually stopped the behavior with a cap gun, although the frightened dog ran back to the house, not to the owners. They were never able to achieve a recall. She berated herself as a trainer because she was never able to find a positive way to turn the dog away from the horses. I believe her mistake was that she was never able to recognize that the stimulation of the horses outweighed any reward she could come up with. She let her aversion to a simple tool ( a shock collar) place a client’s dog in jeopardy. I feel that using skillfully and constructively all the tools we have available to us is positive, because we are helping our dogs to learn and keep them safe. Once Dusty understood that I was able to correct him at a distance and he started responding he didn’t even need his collar on any longer. He was able to run free on our farm for the rest of his life and I had peace of mind.
Dogs can achieve much more than we think they can. Don’t put limits on them because of the breed or temperament. Have fun and practice the recall. Maybe one day when you least expect it and you really need the skill, it will be there.