Questions:

How long does it take you guys to teach consistent recall on leash?

How long does it take you to teach it off leash achieving the 100% mark?

--
Bad Dog Books
http://books.gityasome.com
Gityasome Tshirts
http://www.gityasome.com

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 07:30:24 -0400, Sharon Delarose wrote:

Questions:

How long does it take you guys to teach consistent recall on leash?

How long does it take you to teach it off leash achieving the 100% mark?

I'm teaching it now for 14 weeks, my puppy is 24 weeks old. I started
without leash and inside home and fenced yard. During our walks to
different parks and wilderness areas puppy runs free but is on 50 feet
long light check line. Every trip last minimum 1 hour. I call puppy every
minute or two and whenever I spot coming distraction. Now I can recall
him from pointing/flashing/chasing birds regardless of distance (I can be
100 feet away and birds at his nose).
I can recall him from other dogs but I must do that before he engages
into play with them. On our trips we also meet cats and squirrels. Puppy
chases them like crazy and I am not sure if I have not allowed this
situation for too long ? but I have never attempted to recall him in
situation like that. I will start when puppy become a bit less excitable/
mature. I estimate we did over 3000 recalls so far. Are we 100% ? NO !
Some are too late for up to 5 seconds, about 10 times I had to use check
line for guiding (puppy was too busy sniffing something in grass), coming
is as fast as thunderbolt. We also do recalls in the training hall,
always without leash and no failures, max distance 50'.

Next stage is "Drop on recall", we just starting it now, he does drop but
we do that when he is just one foot away from me.

All comments welcome.
--
thedalpal

In article ,
Sharon Delarose wrote:

Questions:

How long does it take you guys to teach consistent recall on leash?

How long does it take you to teach it off leash achieving the 100% mark?

Wow, only one reply in several days on the topic that is considered to
be the Holy Grail of mandatory dog training! I know that all dogs are
different and so are dog owners in their ability to train but I truly
expected to get a frame of reference especially for the off leash 100%
mark.

As much as this issue has been repeated over and over it would be nice
to hear other's experiences with it. I don't expect anyone to post
failures knowing the fallout but surely a few success stories with time
frames and maybe a brief history of where the dog started from? (Puppy
vs. pre-owned, previous training when adopted, rescue, etc.) Also, what
types of distractions the dog has been trained to ignore (knowing that
not every dog will experience the same types of distractions).

I assume that Dogman's dogs wouldn't be distracted by horses but someone
else's dogs may never meet a horse for example, to even know. Normal
distractions for my dogs in our yard would be: other dogs in the lake,
squirrels and other small animals, snakes, people in boats, noises
beyond the fence, cats in the yard, a flock of geese in the yard, each
other.

If they got loose: other dogs running loose, kids, four wheelers,
skateboarders, cars, people, joggers.

Sierra's distract level so far is limited to Dakota and I'm working with
her to keep her focused on me regardless. Whether she simply hasn't
been here long enough to start being curious or whether my efforts are
paying off, it's too early to tell. So far she's not distracted by
noises beyond the fence, squirrels, people in boats. Only once has she
encountered other dogs in the water and that didn't last long enough to
be tested. She hasn't encountered the other distractions yet.

--
Bad Dog Books
http://books.gityasome.com
Gityasome Tshirts
http://www.gityasome.com

In article ,
sonofdog wrote:

I'm teaching it now for 14 weeks, my puppy is 24 weeks old. I started
without leash and inside home and fenced yard. During our walks to
different parks and wilderness areas puppy runs free but is on 50 feet
long light check line. Every trip last minimum 1 hour. I call puppy every
minute or two and whenever I spot coming distraction. Now I can recall
him from pointing/flashing/chasing birds regardless of distance (I can be
100 feet away and birds at his nose).
I can recall him from other dogs but I must do that before he engages
into play with them. On our trips we also meet cats and squirrels. Puppy
chases them like crazy and I am not sure if I have not allowed this
situation for too long ? but I have never attempted to recall him in
situation like that. I will start when puppy become a bit less excitable/
mature. I estimate we did over 3000 recalls so far. Are we 100% ? NO !
Some are too late for up to 5 seconds, about 10 times I had to use check
line for guiding (puppy was too busy sniffing something in grass), coming
is as fast as thunderbolt. We also do recalls in the training hall,
always without leash and no failures, max distance 50'.

Next stage is "Drop on recall", we just starting it now, he does drop but
we do that when he is just one foot away from me.

All comments welcome.
--
thedalpal

Thank you for sharing this, dalpal. What do you do about trees or other
obstacles when using the 50 foot line? Does he ever twine around them
and prevent you from being able to guide him back?

--
Bad Dog Books
http://books.gityasome.com
Gityasome Tshirts
http://www.gityasome.com

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:07:17 -0400, Sharon Delarose
wrote:

In article ,
Sharon Delarose wrote:

Questions:

How long does it take you guys to teach consistent recall on leash?

How long does it take you to teach it off leash achieving the 100% mark?

Wow, only one reply in several days on the topic that is considered to
be the Holy Grail of mandatory dog training! I know that all dogs are
different and so are dog owners in their ability to train but I truly
expected to get a frame of reference especially for the off leash 100%
mark.

I didn't answer because for me, 100% off-leash reliability is not the
Holy Grail of mandatory dog training. I have ex-racing greyhounds,
and regardless of how many people tell me that they should be able to
achieve 100% off-leash reliability, it remains my position that I know
my dogs better than anyone else. and it is not worth risking my dogs'
lives to be able to let them off leash. I also have Whippets and
Borzoi. My Whippets were trained as pups by their breeder and they
are reliable off leash. My rescue Borzoi is spooky and I would not
risk letting her off leash in an unfenced area. My Borzoi yearling
might be reliable off leash some day.

In article ,
sighthounds & siberians wrote:

I didn't answer because for me, 100% off-leash reliability is not the
Holy Grail of mandatory dog training. I have ex-racing greyhounds,
and regardless of how many people tell me that they should be able to
achieve 100% off-leash reliability, it remains my position that I know
my dogs better than anyone else. and it is not worth risking my dogs'
lives to be able to let them off leash. I also have Whippets and
Borzoi. My Whippets were trained as pups by their breeder and they
are reliable off leash. My rescue Borzoi is spooky and I would not
risk letting her off leash in an unfenced area. My Borzoi yearling
might be reliable off leash some day.

I don't intend to ever let mine off leash outside of our yard, but I do
hope to ensure that if they ever got loose unexpectedly I'd be able to
recall them regardless of distractions. Both of mine have strong prey
drives which could get them hit by cars if they were focused on chasing
something. That would shatter me.

Also, neighbors have told me that there are copperheads and water
moccasins all around us. I have not seen any in the years we've been
here, I've only seen non-poisonous snakes. It's unknown whether they
simply misidentify the snakes they see and make assumptions, or whether
the poisonous snakes really do exist here. I've yet to hear about a pet
being bitten by a snake let alone killed in our neighborhood and I'm
sure news would travel quickly, but safe is better than sorry.

I'm hoping that if I can achieve the Holy Grail of recall, I could
prevent a snake bite if I saw it coming like when Dakota faced off with
a Kingsnake. It was coiled and pointed her her and she wasn't backing
down. That of course wouldn't help if she were simply exploring and I
wasn't right with her in which case the snake aversion training would be
the only help for it.

I'd like to be able to stop them in mid-chase as well. Dakota loves to
chase squirrels and I am a non-entity then. I'd like to remedy that for
Dakota and prevent it with Sierra.

--
Bad Dog Books
http://books.gityasome.com
Gityasome Tshirts
http://www.gityasome.com

sighthounds & siberians said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

I didn't answer because for me, 100% off-leash reliability
is not the Holy Grail of mandatory dog training.

And I didn't answer because I don't know what I do to get such a
good recall, or at least, a dog which checks in on me.

Sure I teach a recall from day 1, and lay down boundaries, and
my dogs look to me for direction, and I do lots of fun stuff
with them. Somewhere in there is my secret for reliability off
leash, but it's difficult to quantify.

Four dogs in a row, though, reliable off leash. I gotta be
doing something right.

--
--Matt.

In article ,
Matt wrote:

And I didn't answer because I don't know what I do to get such a
good recall, or at least, a dog which checks in on me.

Sure I teach a recall from day 1, and lay down boundaries, and
my dogs look to me for direction, and I do lots of fun stuff
with them. Somewhere in there is my secret for reliability off
leash, but it's difficult to quantify.

Four dogs in a row, though, reliable off leash. I gotta be
doing something right.

--
--Matt.

Definitely sounds like you've got a winning formula and happy dogs to
boot! There's no bigger joy than to see a happy dog. It can melt the
stress right off of a bad day.

That's one thing I think you and Dogman have in common, that you work
with your dogs more than most, even though the work itself may be very
different.

I focus on positive reinforcement and interruption, working with Sierra
every day in the belief that sheer persistence will get us there, not
giving her a chance to establish bad habits in the first place. I guess
I never thought about it in this way but I am the center of Sierra's
universe right now. She doesn't get left to her own devices in the
house or the yard. I am always there and always watchful.

--
Bad Dog Books
http://books.gityasome.com
Gityasome Tshirts
http://www.gityasome.com

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:12:10 -0400, Sharon Delarose wrote:

In article ,
sonofdog wrote:

I'm teaching it now for 14 weeks, my puppy is 24 weeks old. I started
without leash and inside home and fenced yard. During our walks to
different parks and wilderness areas puppy runs free but is on 50 feet
long light check line. Every trip last minimum 1 hour. I call puppy
every minute or two and whenever I spot coming distraction. Now I can
recall him from pointing/flashing/chasing birds regardless of distance
(I can be 100 feet away and birds at his nose). I can recall him from
other dogs but I must do that before he engages into play with them. On
our trips we also meet cats and squirrels. Puppy chases them like crazy
and I am not sure if I have not allowed this situation for too long ?
but I have never attempted to recall him in situation like that. I will
start when puppy become a bit less excitable/ mature. I estimate we did
over 3000 recalls so far. Are we 100% ? NO ! Some are too late for up
to 5 seconds, about 10 times I had to use check line for guiding (puppy
was too busy sniffing something in grass), coming is as fast as
thunderbolt. We also do recalls in the training hall, always without
leash and no failures, max distance 50'.

Next stage is "Drop on recall", we just starting it now, he does drop
but we do that when he is just one foot away from me.

All comments welcome.
--
thedalpal

Thank you for sharing this, dalpal.

my pleasure

What do you do about trees or other
obstacles when using the 50 foot line? Does he ever twine around them
and prevent you from being able to guide him back?

when line is twined he is NOT called but helped, he is not an escape
artist but my best friend. I always try to do my best to set my friend
for success not to fail. Fair ?

On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:01:30 -0400, Sharon Delarose wrote:


I'd like to be able to stop them in mid-chase as well.

use long check line, have it all the time in your hand (in gloves) with a
little tension, make sure you do not jerk your dog but just stop from
chasing, praise and treat to a play-party when dog returns

Dakota loves to
chase squirrels and I am a non-entity then.

If it is SAFE let her chase (just ignore it, do not praise for
it),shortly she will figure out it is futile but she still will be
tempted, start training at this point, be patient, good luck

I'd like to remedy that for
Dakota and prevent it with Sierra.