[Neal]

Surprise..right?

This wasn't the case for many months but now she wants to stay even after being there a couple of hours. This leads to me walking towards her for a LONG time as she walks away until someone notices my plight and grabs her.

I've had people say that I need to spend time training her to come...blah...blah.

I feel stupid doing this because that really isn't the issue. I need to know what the real issue is. When we're home and it's time to go outside I sit on an ottoman and pick up the leash. She is immediately there and turns around and sits perfectly with her back to me so I can put the leash on. She doesn't have to be asked/commanded/whatever. She does this because she wants to go out obviously. It isn't like she doesn't know what's up at the dog park.....like she is confused as to what I want. She runs because she wants to stay....not because she doesn't know how to come.

Maybe these folks are right but I need to understand it better because I feel stupid trying to teach a dog something they obviously already are very good at when they want to be....when it benefits them.....etc.

So I may need to teach her to come but I need to understand why I need to teach her something she already knows better than I likely could teach it. Can someone explain this to me please?

[harrise]

If distractions were not introduced during the training, then when the time comes to respond despite a distraction (be it dog, cat, park...), your recall will not be as effective. Might just need a refresher on recall. I had to back up and go through recall again with the Husky, stupid me never trained with squirrels and cats in the immediate area. This led to any distraction being much more interesting than my boring old recall. Just a thought...

[Shaina]

Do you call your dog over at the dog park other than when you leave? If not she may learning "come at the dog park = end of fun time". Also, dog don't generalize well, so she may not realize that "come" at the dog park is the same as "come" at home.

When you are at home, actually say "come" or whatever your command is when you are ready to go on your walks, instead of just letting her assume what's going on. That way the command is reinforced and results in something positive: going out. If she already has a solid indoor recall, practice it outdoors on a long lead (so you can reinforce it as needed) with increasing levels of distraction.

If the problem is just that she doesn't want to leave the park, you need to teach her that coming at the dog park doesn't necessarily mean she's leaving. Call her over, and when she comes praise her lavishly (treat if permitted and appropriate) then release her to go play again. Do this several times whenever you are at the park so she learns that coming at the park doesn't necessarily mean that playtime is over.

Both these methods worked for me in practice.

[MegaMuttMom]

I agree with Shaina. I practice the come command with Cherokee all the time. Most of the time I just have him come to me for no reason and I give him a treat. I also play hide and seek so we practice come playing a fun game.

If every time I asked him to come, the result was that he had to stop playing, he would quickly learn that come is a command he would ignore. If treats are allowed at your dog park, give him one EVERY time he comes. I actually ask him to come and then I ask for a sit before I give him the treat so he's more focused and it's easy to get the leash on. I also leash him away from the end of the trail so we always end our off-leash time with a leash walk. He seems to like the leash walk part at the end.

[Neal]

These suggestions make perfect sense. I knew it was me being stupid which is why I wanted clarity Thanks, I'll try these. Anyone else?

[RonE]

Because I found it undignified to be yelling to my dog at the dog park (or anywhere) I whistle-trained him.

(Okay, I discovered when I went to whistle-train him that somebody in his former life had already done that.)

If he happened to wander off, I could blow that whistle (I kept it around my neck 24/7) and he would drop everything and come running.

When he got older, and his eyesight wasn't as good, I would blow the whistle and, when he'd look in my general direction, I'd wave to him so he could spot me. And he'd come running.

I was always amazed that there could be 100 dogs at the park and he was the only one that responded to that rather unremarkable whistle. I was afraid I'd get a dozen dogs running to me, but he was the only one.

[Neal]

You mean like a silent (to humans) whistle?

How do you whistle train?

[RonE]

No, it wasn't a silent whistle. Everybody could hear it, but my lab was the only one that seemed interested. It looked just like this:



Since he already had good voice recall, my plan was to take him out in a big field, let him wander off, then call him to me, blow the whistle and give him a treat when he came. (If he didn't have reliable recall already, I would have used a long training lead so make sure he wouldn't ignore me.)

The reality was, after he wandered off and I blew the whistle, he came charging back with so much enthusiasm that I was afraid he would run me over. Somebody had already whistle trained him.

After that, I would sometimes reward him with a treat when he came to the whistle, but usually I would just tell him (under my breath, if there were other dogs and owners nearby) that he was the best dog that ever lived and I was grateful that he decided to join our family.

Then I'd scratch his back where he couldn't reach. (My training techniques are not terribly sophisticated, which is why you'll rarely hear me offer advice on training.)

My current dogs are not whistle-trained, but we're working on it.