Lindisfarne - Spencer’s special holiday.

Boogie

Boogie

Moderator
Location
Manchester UK
They are ‘whistle fed’ from the day they are weaned. Whistle = food from 4 weeks old. Once they come to us at 7 weeks old we work on recall from day 1. Using sometimes voice and sometimes whistle from room to room, outdoors to indoors, indoors to outdoors. We also do lots of recall practice with two lines of dogs either side at puppy class - slowly making it harder.

And - crucially, I think, they are not allowed free runs until 17 weeks old, when their recall is already rock solid. This is a by product of their late last vaccination, but it really works imo.

Treats are never human food. Just kibble or fish treats. But a ‘jackpot’ for good recall is a stream of food. Bruce was the only un-food motivated pup I’ve had, but a good game and lots of praise worked as a reward for him :)

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Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
Boogie said:
Spencer had a great time on the beach near Bamburgh. At one point he went haring off after a couple of people but he came back really well on a whistle recall.
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(1) That's a beach to die for

and

(2) What an AMAZING recall! I've still never been able to get Carbon back if he's really distracted by something (i.e. food, people or another dog).
 
MellowYellow

MellowYellow

Boogie said:
They are ‘whistle fed’ from the day they are weaned. Whistle = food from 4 weeks old. Once they come to us at 7 weeks old we work on recall from day 1. Using sometimes voice and sometimes whistle from room to room, outdoors to indoors, indoors to outdoors.

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I did this with Merlin from day 1 too - every time he was fed, I used the recall whistle, even if he was standing right next to me!! OH thought I was mad, but as a result Merly has always had an excellent recall. I did let him off the leash from the very beginning though - but I do think it helps if you have an older dog with solid recall, because the puppy naturally tends to follow the older dog. The opposite is true as well of course - if you have an older dog with rubbish recall, then your puppy is likely to follow suit...

Oops, sorry Spencer for hijacking your thread!!!
 
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