How to untrain the recall

A great recall is something that just makes me smile - when your dogs drops everything and races to be beside you with a great big happy grin.
Unfortunately it is way too easy to untrain that recall - just about every day I see people untraining their recal.
4 favourite ways to untrain a dogs recall
1. Call them back to you when they are in a situation you haven't fully trained for so you know full well they will not come back
2. Call them then then chase after them to try and catch them
3. Punish them when you finally catch up with them
4. Only call them back when you want to stick them on the lead and go home

So what could we do different in each situation?
1. If you know they wont come back don't call them, accept they are running off at that point and then work on training their recall more. Remember dogs learn to associate words with what they are doing at the time - if they are running away then they may even learn that 'Bracken CO-OME' means run away as fast as possible

2. Dogs LOVE LOVE LOVE chase games - what great fun they can start a chase game by running away when you are calling. Running away is a better option (if its safe) and you can train a really solid chase recall (I will go over it in a later post) or if you feel you need to go after them better to walk slowly and walk round them rather than directly at them

3. So common because people thing the dogs were running away to be bad. This is simply not the case, if a dog doesn't do something it is because you haven't trained it properly. You want your dog to REALLY want to be around you, if you punish them when you reach them what you are actually doing is making your dog LESS likely to want to be around you - better to make a fuss of them when you catch up with them - make yourself fun to be around

4. Taking away a dogs freedom is actually punishing, if a walk consists of you letting them off the lead and pretty much ignoring them till its time to get them on the lead again then your recall isn't going to be all that interesting. Much better that on a walk you call them back several times, sometimes to give them a nice treat, to play a game, to show them something interesting you have found. You can even call them too you, clip the lead on, give them a few treats then unclip them again.

Every which way?? Agility training

Training today I thought I would share a little tip. I hope the images show up OK.
Often when people set up a course to train on they think about the way they would like to run it, train it that way then do something else.

I bet Im not the only one who at shows has this issue

You walk the course, you imagine where you want to be, you imagine where your dog will be. You work out all your turns perfectly in your head.
You get in the ring and your brain is putty and your excited dog is suddenly super-charged. All the plans go out the window - you are never in the places you thought you would be and you are racing to catch up.
That is why when I am training something I try and do it from as many directions and positions as I possibly can.
For example todays course was the one above. Bet you have looked at it and figured out where you should be, where your dog should be - right??
Here are three possibilities I worked on with this today






































Here is the first way I ran this.
I recall the dog from the weaves. Keep him on my right hand side.
I send him over jump 3, with no other direction from me the natural thing for the dog to do here is to curve to the left. Then a simple front cross here picks the dog up on the left hand to send him to jump 4
Then another simple front cross picks the dog up on your right hand side to send to the weave and then the final jump

This method may not be the shortest route for the dog but it has a few advantages.
With a fast long striding dog if the distance from 3 to 4 is tight this may be quicker than slowing him down to turn the other way
Also this way there it is always clear to the dog where you want him to go, this is the simplest way to handle because you are always curving your dog with you in the center point of the curve
This is natural for the dog





































The second run is very similar.
I start off exactly the same for jump 1 and the weave
But for jump 3 I flick the dog out to the right
This means I send him out to the jump but at the same time crossing behind the dog (rear cross) to direct him to turn.
I dont train left and right commands when Im running my dogs (cos I am rubbish at remembering my left and right) so with this one I cue the turn by bringing my left arm up as I am sending the dog on and stepping behind before he commits to the jump - this means he is already turning the right way before he lands.
It is important that the dog knows where he is going before he takes off else he may turn the wrong way, land heavily on his shoulder trying to change direction as he lands or even slip.






































This is the third run
This time I start on the other side of the weave. I keep the dog on my left had side tru the weave, push him out to jump 3 then its a simple post turn to jump 4 keeping the dog on the left hand side.
With this method is best if you can get in front of the dog slightly at the end of the weave, hanging back or a late signal and the dog may curve towards jump 4
To push the dog to jump 3 it can also be useful to indicate with your right arm as that turns your shoulder to face the jump even more than with your left arm.

So as you can see, three ways to do the same run - and there are loads more
You could even do the weaves with the dog on the left, front cross after the weaves and turn the dog left at jump 3 - or flick him right
Or a blind cross after the weave
Or or or
See lot of ways to do just one simple setup

and then of course you should do the mirror image

I know the writing on the images dosent show up - but it is more than covered in the descriptions here

Teaser take 2 :)

This was our photoshoot to thank Glasgow Airport for their grant for our dog agility club

Phoenix Flyers update

A little teaser :)


Come back tomorow to see whats going on with Phoenix Flyers dog agility club

Ben agility, Prestwick

Our first agility show in almost a year

Our first show in grade 5

Errm and our last show in grade 5!! Ben only went and won out!

2 first places, a 2nd and a 3rd!!

Not the best handling by me but great running by my little boy.

Our speeds are getting much better as well - In jumping grade 1-4 combined we were the fastest of all the dogs by over 5s.

But we are a good way off the times of the grade 5 and 6 dogs - something to work on

So pleased by my little boy - and loving the more difficult courses