Like most of you (I’m pretty sure) I love the weekend.Ā Although mine do tend to fill up quickly, what with house cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping etc.
In the midst of all the chaos that comes with my weekend, I try really hard to get the dogs out for a couple of nice long walks.Ā Most of the time I try to get them out for at least an hour each day.
I am really looking forward to the longer days when I can come home and grab them after work and take some long walks, while Hubby stays home and cooks on the grill. š
I can’t always connect with my walking pal during the week (at least not right now) but on the weekends whenever possible, we try to get the dogs all out together.
While she only has Brady, she very frequently has her friend’s dog, Kodak.Ā All the dogs get along pretty well with the exception sometimes of Sampson whose been getting a little bit snarkier the older he gets. š
Saturday we had all the dogs out and walked them around the woods for an hour and twenty minutes, it was awesome.Ā It’s nice to have someone to chat with while walking and I hate to say it because I’m afraid I’ll jinx myself, but I really feel Delilah does much better with a larger pack of dogs.
When all the dogs take off through the woods chasing a herd of deer, nine out of ten times Delilah is the first one back after being called.Ā She’s been doing so good I’m actually considering cutting her leash down to fifteen feet.
When we aren’t walking with the other dogs, I hold her leash in certain areas and in other areas I let it drop, for the most part she is always in my sight and if they get too far ahead of me, I call them back.
She’s been pretty good about returning and I am very generous with the treats.Ā Ā I’m a firm believer in treating and I don’t care if I have to carry treats with me all the time as long as my dogs return when I call them.Ā Ā Judge me if you want, I’m tough. š
So here’s my question, I’ve never trained a dog using the long leash before.Ā Have you?Ā How long did you keep them on the long leash?Ā Did you slowly cut the leash back or did you just stop all together.
Inquiring minds want to know. š
Book update:Ā My book has 11,023 words.
Right there with you about the treats, although as they get better at what ever it is I’m training I do wean back, but that depends! Puppies especially get lots of treats š
I think the long leash is probably individual to each dog, I could see that maybe some dogs would never come off of it, I think I mean Riva š
I’m glad Delilah is doing so well and I think the key is setting her up for success which sounds like what you have been doing by rewarding her for always returning. Keep it up Delilah and pretty soon you will be running free with Sampson and your other friends š
Sometimes when she is checking back in without being called, I won’t give her a treat. I’ll give her a rub on the head and tell her good girl, but when she comes back to me when I call her, it’s always treats!
So Riva is not good on her recall either?
No she is not, my fault really for not cracking down, but her sister Cheyenne is awesome on recall. We were camping at a friends house last summer and they have a lot of acerage and woods and Cheyenne spotted some deer along the edge of the woods and took off after them, I yelled “CHEYENNE HERE” and she turned on a dime and headed right back to me. She is like Sampson, I can let her be free but Riva has to have a long line on always.
Treating constantly is always a good thing! I’d like to do some long leash training to get Indiana’s recall a little better in case of an emergency but I don’t think I will ever let him off leash except in fenced off areas. Treats usually don’t compare to the allure of a squirrel if Indiana really wants the latter.
I hear that. We don’t have a lot of squirrels where we walk (probably because of the coyotes and fishers) but when they see a deer, they take off running and nothing I have in my bag will bring them back. š
It sounds like Delilah is doing really well and you are lucky that both dogs respond. Deer and squirrels can be a tempting and sometimes overwhelming distraction. There are so many stray dogs here, sometimes in packs, and they are often aggressive so we have to be extremely careful when we are out. Tall person always keeps me close and I have learned not to react. He generally does not use treats and prefers to talk softly to reassure me if we encounter aggressive dogs.
You’re tall person is very wise. I don’t use treats (usually) if we are encountering other dogs, I usually try and keep her quiet beside me and talk softly to her as well.
We don’t encounter a lot of aggressive dogs in our off leash area, so I consider us very lucky. Delilah normally only gets testy when she is on leash. š
I love working with a long line… my lil Luna grew up with it on for the better part of her first 8 months. I had a variety of lengths, it all depended on where I was. Shorter and thicker sometimes works better in denser cover, they even have tangle proof ones if you look on some hunting dog websites, they call them “check cords” I would say mix it up? So she never really knows which one is on her as you transition her off. I always tell people, if your dog regresses don’t ever be afraid to go back to a tool that worked, I would think this applies to the long line as well. It may be that you let her have some total off leash time for a while, and then put the long line back on. Keep the total off sessions short and positive for all, and consider it progress when all goes as planned.
Judge me if you want (I am tuff… lol I loved that so I am using it here) but after Luna learned what the rope on meant… and I took it off at a Hunt Test (you can’t run/test dogs with anything besides a regular flat collar) and then she blew me off out the wazoo… I graduated her to e-collar conditioning and have never looked back. To this day she loves her collar as it means she is gonna get to go somewhere fun and run, IMO they can be a great tool and while her recall is wonderful, she is a hunting dog and I want to be able to protect her if one day she does decide to tune me out or is in hunt mode and does not hear me and there is a danger ahead. So the ecollar has become my safety net, usually I don’t have to use it much. And with our lab I reeeally don’t have to use it much, but when I do it is a simple communication level for each, not a correction as that was how they are trained. And I don’t want the collar to become a crutch.
Anyway I shall shuddup, good luck and keep us posted!
Anna
http://www.akginspiration.com
Thank you for the advice, I think I may purchase a 15 foot check cord to change it up. I do worry when she is running through the woods with that long leash that she will get hung up and hurt herself which is why I really want her recall to be spot on.
I have also thought about an e-collar but I want one that only vibrates and it has to be waterproof. Not knowing her background and having seen how she reacts when something frightens her, I am hesitant to put her on pulse. If you know of any collars that I described, please post a link. š
Thank you for the lovely comment.
Wow Jodi – it sounds like she is doing awesome. I don’t have many safe places to allow them to run off leash, so I never really worked on it with any of them to give you any advice.
Congrats on crossing 11K with your book – I’m rooting for you!!
I am pretty pleased with how she is doing, but as you know things can change from one day to the next.
I’m excited about the book and believe it or not I just re-wrote a portion of it. I hope to have time to work on that this weekend. š
Thanks for the support Donna!
Yes we always train with a check cord to start. We eventually cut it loose when the dog comes back every time. If they start to slip, back on the long lead (or ecollar refresher).
So happy to hear Delilah is doing so well.
I’m thinking that’s the way to go. š It’s really hard perfecting a recall with this dog.
Congratulations on all your success with Delilah. I gave you an award on my blog today for this very thing. š
Recall has been the hardest thing for me to train. I hate how long it’s taken us and it drives me up the wall when she will blow me off after months of perfection. We never trained with a long line, though I’ve been told by many people that I should start using one. I am convinced she knows when she is leashed and when she isn’t, this may or may not be true. š
The only advice I have for you is to move very slowly in weaning her off. Set her up for success and only let her off the line in areas with very low-level distractions and keep the rate of reinforcement super-high. Gradually move to areas with higher levels of distraction and see how she does. If she blows you off, you’ll know she can’t handle it yet and put her back on the line and start again with lower levels. Does that make sense?
Thanks for the advice Kristine, quite honestly I think she like having the leash on her, time will tell as we work on removing it, or shortening it.
It is very frustrating, yes she always comes back but sometimes it is on her terms and not mine. That needs to change. š
Thank you very much for the Shivie, I am truly honored to receive it!
Jodi it is a very interesting observation that you made with Delilah being better at recall when in a pack. I find that whenever I took in a stray or abandoned dog, they never needed to be on the leash. I found myself letting them off the leash after one or two walks with my dogs. Many of these dogs were supposed to be escape artisists or never respond to recall but were very obedient when they joined me and my boys on walks. It is phenomenal how the pack mentality works in dogs. Keep those yummy treats handy, they are a brilliant training tool. Goodluck with phasing out the lead with Delilah. š
Here’s the kicker Dr. Rayya, when it is just her and Sampson she doesn’t respond the same. It is when there is more than two of them that it works.
I think it is because she thinks she is the pack leader and wants the others to follow her (which they do) with Sampson she could care less.
That must be why I dreamed about getting another dog last night. š
It really is phenomenal how the pack mentality works. I love how you work to re-home dogs. š