FRIENDLY ADVICE BEFORE YOU START RECALL TRAINING...
If your dog pulls on the lead when walking and pays you very little attention (especially when there are distractions) - don't expect your dog to listen to you when there isn't a 4ft lead attaching you! Get your dog's listening and training skills up to scratch on lead first, otherwise once that lead comes off - its very likely your dog will take off! Getting the perfect recall does not happen overnight - be prepared for putting in allot of training time, especially if your dog has already got into bad habits. Practise in as many situations as possible - at home you may have the perfect recall skills but in the park you might get upstaged by a leaf in the wind... As a general rule - start off with the basics of recall training and ONLY progress onto harder situations when you have mastered the basics (don't run before you can walk). Try to always set yourself up to 'win' - for example if your dog cannot look away from that dog playing ball in the distance - don't let him off lead 'because last time he didn't run off' - if he's not listening before he goes off lead you're setting yourselves up for a recall 'FAIL'. For help teaching your dog the perfect recall contact head trainer Sarah Harman. |