Whistle training could help improve your dogs recall. It is clear and consistent and gives your dog the clarity that they need.
Often recall cues such as 'come' can get over used, and become a bit like background noise to dogs and can be a bit hit and miss when your dogs come when called
⚡newsflash⚡
Your dog is not coming back because you have called them, they are coming back because they have finished what they are doing and then returning to you. This is not a recall!
There are many reasons why this could be happening:
Sometimes you use come sometimes you use your dogs name, sometimes you reward with a treat, sometimes you don't, sometimes your dogs walk is the only thing they have done all day and you are calling them back just at the time they want to go and do a sniff....
If you have been to my classes or have had any training from me, I talk a lot about motivation.
So I have a question...if the environment is more motivating than your recall cue, what can you do to help improve it?
Is your dog excited and runs over every single each time? If not why not? What can you do to help improve this?
Here are some tips I do with my dogs:
🐾 fun games between me and my dogs at home, on walks, in the garden
🐾 Search games between me and my dogs at home, on walks, in the garden
🐾 Hunting games between me and my dogs at home, on walks, in the garden
🐾 Opportunities for my dogs to chill, sniff, and forage on my walks
🐾 Nutritional Diet
🐾Sleep - they sleep alot
🐾 Understanding when it is time to play and when it isn't - impulse and focus control - settle training
🐾Whistle or clear words which have meaning and a consequence (positive reinforcement)- rewards need to be motivational, play needs to be motivational and engagement with owners need to be motivational. If I recall away from something nice, such as a sniff, a squirrel, another dog etc this needs to be worth my dogs while, they need to be paid and they need to be paid highly - don't
#wales
#dogwalking
#caldicotcastle
Coco my elderly beautiful Coco. 😊
Very Deaf, Very Sore, Very Confused but still Very Happy and on lots of meds, not very mobile but still enjoys a venture out, but is very Slow.
Her nails are starting to get a bit too long, which will also add to discomfort. She used to like having her nails clipped, but she can no longer tolerate this.
All of my dogs get solo time with me where we do special things together, such as a slow walk, or scent work or training. I think it is important to do this when you live in a multi dog household.
Coco loves individual time, learning and enjoys training, and as the saying goes 'you can never teach an old dog new tricks' is an absolute lie, as the video shows.
Introducing her to a scratch board will help keep her nails short, once she has learned what to do, she will be able to scratch the board and this simple trick will keep her nails looking good too.
The platform is only slightly raised for now, I am hoping I will be able to rest this on my legs to create a slightly bigger raise, but I don't want to cause any discomfort and this might be too hard for her, so will see how she gets on.
When I train I like to use choice and shaping, if she moves towards the platform she gets rewarded and bonus if she steps on to it. I'm not using any luring, as I don't want to put any pressure on her to move onto something she may not be sure of, i only want her to move towards the scratch board if she is absolutely happy to do so.
The raised scratch board is also a good physio technique as you can do it with back paws on as well as all four paws on using two different platforms.
Visited Newark Park today with the family.
Hazel was absolutely buzzing with all of the smells, pheasants and absolutely everything today, and at one point I really did think omg, are you ever going to calm down and stop pulling.
What I did was:
🐶 let her walk & sniff and walk at her pace - this helps her process her environment
🐶 Every 5 metres - change direction no cue, no speaking
🐶 Slow down the pace - check ins start to happen - rewards start flowing fast
🐶 Tight lead = change direction and reward for slack lead (don't care if she is in front of me as long as lead isn't tight)
🐶Sit and cue go sniff - working together voila.
It is so important that she has the opportunity to access different environments, I cannot expect Hazel to be able to remember the foundations of walking nicely in ALL new places, so I simply need to go back to basics and go nice and slowly with her.
Hazel really struggles with impulse control and she gets over aroused very quickly so it is my job to help her manage ALL situations.
She absolutely smashed the coffee shop though (I call it a coffee shop, a tent might be a more accurate description) , hazel led down nicely, whilst Dax enjoyed rolling around in the wood bark flooring. 😆😆
Ideally I really would like a bit more space when I'm eating, but as long as she is sitting and not jumping, this is okay with me.
Will I reward her with a treat - no, but she will get praise for this. Ideally I like her in her bed when food is about, but I have just come home and she wants to be near me so this is all I am going to expect from her. I also don't want the bed to be a place she gets sent when she has been chilling in it all morning, I want her bed to be a nice place. Right now just my presence is her reward for staying in a sit and resisting my cheesy potato.
Lowering our expectations with our dogs will help with their learning and will help you with success with training too. 🐕🐶🐶🐕
