Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

A Really Good Recall

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As you know, I’ve really been struggling with Delilah and her recall.

I think for the most part it is my fault, I think I have sullied the word.

For whatever reason Sampson’s recall is come, Delilah’s is here, but they respond to many things.  Number one being their names which I think is good,  but a lot of times when we are walking I say this way or et eh.

I’ve had some success with getting her to return with the front command, which I think is perfectly acceptable for a recall.

I’ve really been working her lately with the here command.  Of course she is still on the 15 foot lead so she doesn’t have much opportunity to get too far away.  I try to call her back to me at least once every five minutes or so.  I also say it very loud with a slight hint of panic in my voice.  I figure if she ever gets too far away, my recall will be consistent. 😉

I’m really good at the 15 foot on leash recall.

Last night I found a sure-fire recall.

We were in the back part of the woods on one of the steeper trails.  For some reason the spiders back here love to create little tight ropes between trees.  Maybe they like to have parties at night, I’m not really too sure.

I am sure that I would like them to make their little tight ropes a wee bit higher.

I’m sick of catching them across my face.

Every once in a while one of those little suckers gets really industrious and builds a web across the trail.

I don’t mind that so much as long as they aren’t occupying it when I cross it. 🙁

Yeah, I don’t like spiders.

At. All.

Last night there was a web, right across my path.

And it was occupied.

The spider was pretty small, but that doesn’t really matter to me.

I still don’t want it crawling on me.

Did I mention I don’t like spiders?

In my shock, I dropped the leash and prepared myself to do battle.  Oh and I also screamed a little Ahhhh Ahhhh.

Wouldn’t you know it, Delilah came running right back to me?

Then I used the end of her leash to smack that tight rope out of my way, while the spider grabbed his prey and ran.

You don’t have to run little spider, I don’t want your nasty old bug.

The things I endure, all for the sake of my dogs.

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Comments

  1. Yuck. I agree about the spiders. I won’t kill em, but I don’t want em crawling on me either! How nice that Delilah was so concerned about you that she came running back to check on you. Very cool. 🙂

  2. Hey you bring up a great point which I have noticed too. I use all sorts of recall type commands with Luna (here, this way, stay here, wait, come, out of there, let’s go), and “here” is most frequent but also has turned into one of my looser recalls. Luna used to have a fantastic strict “come” where she came straight to my feet and sat and waited till I released her. I have been trying to re-teach this, but thinking I will need to refresh her in an on leash fashion to get her position right. I always tell clients they can teach many other words but to make sure anytime they use “come” that they can reinforce it and are consistent about doing so EVERY time they use it… that way they never lose it.

    On a side not with you, I HATE spider webs… it is one of the huge downsides to nicer weather woods walking. Can’t wait till they go dormant again.

    Keep up the good work
    Anna
    http://www.akginspiration.com

  3. See how much she loves you!!

    I think if it works for you that is great 🙂

    I use more of an authoritative voice when I am telling the dogs to do something, it is a command not a request and then I think it teaches them to respect me as the alpha. Just the way I prefer to do it, doesn’t mean it always goes down that way though 😉

    I think I could handle the spiders over a snake that appears from nowhere and slithers in front of me, lol

  5. The spider is our friend. They eat harmful insects that can destroy our food supply.

    Yeah, i don’t like them crawling on me either.

  7. I encounter a lot of poeple and things with Mazzie that I would prefer to do without, but thankfully I don’t run into spiders. I’m with you. I can’t stand spiders or any other creepy, crawly bug (think centipedes and water bugs). You’re so brave!

    Recall is so tough and I appluad your tenacity. I can’t speak for you and Delilah, but I fear that with me and Mazzie, there are some things with which I will never be able to complete in terms of getting her attention. While she has made a lot of progress with recall, she is so willful, driven, independent minded and prey sharp that I feel I may never be able to completely trust her recall skills. But of course I’ll still torture myself and spend time and good money working on it with her.

  8. Ah poor little spider. All it wanted was to relax on its little web and enjoy its little bug dinner. Then the leash/wrecking ball came along. lol I am not fond of spiders either.

    Of course Delilah would come to your rescue. 🙂 I find it interesting that you say you use a bit of panic in your voice for recall. One thing we have noticed during hunt tests is when someone is running their dog and the dog is not cooperating, they tend to get a little panic and tense in their voices and it seems to make the dog freeze or act kind of wiggy. In fact our trainer always reminds the handlers to stay calm and we remind one another. The dogs seem to obey better with a calm yet authoritative voice. But whatever works! 🙂