Help please with 12 month old labrador

JenMills · 09-04-2008, 12:28 PM

Hi there

I have the most adorable 12 month old bitch labrador called Phoebe - she is the apple of my eye and is well behaved in almost everyway EXCEPT........when she is off the lead if she sees another dog - even across the other side of the field - she is OFF and all of my calling her to return falls on deaf ears (she is not at all aggressive just wants to play) but this is dangerous as it can be a long way away and I have to catch up with her to retrieve her or she goes off quite happily with the owner of the new "friend" she's found - any ideas at all on how I get her out of this habit as its putting me off letting her off the lead which is a shame as she loves to run and is so friendly but I am worried she's going to run too far and as she won't listen to me to come back it could be very dangerous if it were near a road etc - (she is excellent in the recall at all other times!! HELP PLEASE :-(

Toby4Life · 09-04-2008, 01:26 PM

Is this in an off-leash dog park or just a random park you take her to? If it's the later, you can read plenty of other threads here outlining the danger of letting your dog off lead if he's not reliable. Until you get this resolved I would not let your dog off lead at all. The main risk (aside from the hundreds of others) is that if your dog approaches another dog that isn't so friendly it could get real ugly real quick.

Of course now you're in a Catch 22 because how can you teach your dog to listen to you when other dogs are around if you don't put your dog in that situation to train. Hopefully you have some friends w/ dogs who can help so that you can practice "come" with canine distractions around. Otherwise you may want to look into a obidience class that will help you keep your dog focused w/ other dogs around. Good luck.

blunder · 09-04-2008, 02:10 PM

The three base actions that all training will have for it's foundation are stationary (sit), send (kennel), and recall (come). We would normally teach recall last because it is the hardest for the dog. But then after the dog has developed the proper cognitive skills (5-7 months and commonly referred to as puberty) we "proof" in reverse order doing recall first.
Need to understand that the dog should be somewhere around 90% reliable before proofing a command is attempted, otherwise you are apt to find proofing a giant step backward. Due to competition that allows no exceptions to a solid recall the level of proofing that I require is probably more than the average dog owner needs. So this is somewhat of a 'do as I say and not as I do' kind of explanation.
First you will want to get the dog use to being on a long lead (20-50 foot rope). After the dog is use to being on the rope have a friend stand holding the dog by it's collar and you stand at the other end of the rope. Give your recall command and give the rope a slight tug. You should alternate tugging first and giving the command first with your friend only releasing the dog on the command regardless of it being given first or last. Just repeat until the dog 'gets it'. Be sure to treat and praise when appropriate along the way, and add distractions slowly only as the dog becomes reliable enough.
In the retriever world it is common to use a trill on a whistle (tweet-ta-tweet) for the recall command. This is really nice for when your dog is on the other side of that field so that you don't have to scream your lungs out. If you want to, a single tweet on the whistle is what we use for a remote sit command.
Now understand that with compilation dogs we go a great deal farther than this with the proofing, but this is normally all that will be needed for the average dog.

JenMills · 09-04-2008, 03:49 PM

Hi, I'm in the UK so its usually out in the open fields around where we live - think I'm going to go with the long lead and possibly a trill on a whistle both good ideas, I have seen on the Labrador forum that this is a VERY common occurance with young Labs so at least its encouraging to know I'm not the only one - she's soo good on recall at all other times and is really well behaved - can't have it all I suppose lol!!! - thanks for the reply.

melgrj7 · 09-05-2008, 12:41 AM

When you go to take her to the park put her regular leash on her and a long line. When you get to the park, unclip the leash but keep the lonline on her. Work on recalls a lot. When she is sniffing something, put a peice of food in her nose and lure her around to you, once she is starting to face you say "phoebe come". Do this a lot for a few weeks. Then try it without luring her. She should come. Once you can do this, practice the recall around other dogs, but at a distance. Slowly get closer to the other dogs. Every single time after she comes to you, you must send her back out to do what she was doing. So if she was sniffing something, and you lure her to a come or call her to a come, praise and reward her, and then send her right back to what she was doing. When you are practicing around other dogs, use playing with the other dogs as the reward. Have her on her long line, tell her to come. If she does, let her go play for a few minutes. Then take her away, and practice again (but don't try recalling off the other dogs yet). Do this over and over and over and over. Never let her not come to you when you call her. If you are in a position where you are not 100% sure she will come to you, then don't tell her to come. Every time she doesn't come is a time she is learning that come is an optional command. So when she is running towards another dog, keep quiet and just run after her.

kellytoonces · 09-05-2008, 11:03 AM

we use something called a pager collar for reliable off leash control http://www.youtube.com/user/panzertoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU2T_zzLKCQ this a 17 month Labrador

Doggydigger7 · 09-05-2008, 11:53 AM

Teach her to recall on whistle. Get a referee whistle or something like that.Then with her sitting in front of you blow the whistle and give her a treat.Do that about ten times or until she is expectant of a treat.Then use a longer line to teach recall.When you blow the whistle she should come do this until she masters this and if she has not grasped the thought go back to step 1.When mastered go off lead!

kellytoonces · 09-05-2008, 12:07 PM

the problem with teaching them to respond to a whistle is that anyone can blow a whistle and you probably won;t have it when you need it ,you should always teach the recall when they are looking or moving away not from a stay when they are facing you.they must learn the sub task of turning around in order to be succesful.. teaching one to come when its moving away has the most practical application http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVHke9kVN18

blunder · 09-06-2008, 11:10 AM

Believe it or not that isn't exactly correct. Yes anyone can blow a whistle, but dogs will (with practice) know the difference just like they know a persons voice. We expose them to this constantly in the field trial setting.

next:
Look at it this way, recall is a "handling cast" just like an "over" or a "back", and should be done the same way you do any other cast. You will find that this may be quite different depending on the kind of dog. Herding dog people use a completely different method of casting than sporting dogs. With retrievers, we always cast from the remote sit. So first we would blow a sit whistle, and then we would either give a hand cast or give a come-in whistle (recall) But, whistle commands are always "chained" to a voice command, that is pretty much an automatic thing when training a dog to the whistle.
With beagles casting is done through a process called "bending" which is done on the fly. So recall is also done on the fly, but I still use a whistle because I hate screaming at a pack of howling hounds that are a half mile away.