On our walk this morning I was formulating a lovely post about recalls and what Delilah and I have learned and applied in the last eight weeks.
The Key Lies in Repetition
It is naive to think your dog will come back to you from an enticing situation if you only recall occasionally. I have been working Delilah constantly. In the course of a 30 minute walk I probably recall her at least 30 times.
I reward her each time she returns to me with a piece of liverwurst. I even reward her when she comes to me without being called. Sometimes it is with a piece of liverwurst, sometimes with a lesser food reward and sometimes I give her a rub on the head and tell her what a good girl she is.
Our recall word is HERE. I say it loudly and clearly. When she turns toward me I say, YES in an excited voice, sometimes I encourage her, come on, you’re such a good girl.
On the rare occasion she doesn’t respond immediately, I’ve found if I say YES and continue to chatter while rewarding Sampson, curiosity will compel her to come and see what Sampson is getting.
Know Your Dog And His/Her Limitations
With Delilah, I know there are areas where the lure of what else is out there, is greater than the lure of what is in my treat bag. When I am approaching these areas, I will call her to me and either leash her, or I will hold a treat in my hand down by my side and keep her in a heel position.
Once we have passed that danger zone, I will release her again.
Sometimes Even With All We’ve Learned, We Fail Our Dogs
In the last week I have been giving her a lot more freedom, in fact about 98% of her walks have been off-leash. She’s done spectacularly…..until today.
Let me be clear, it is I who failed, not Delilah.
I gave her too much freedom in an area that is far too tempting for her. Today as we approached a danger zone I recalled her, but I failed to secure her on leash or use a heel treat. She ran out into a neighborhood and investigated Tia’s yard.
I tried to recall her, but the lure of the yard was far more interesting than what I had in my pouch. Sampson and I had to go out and get her.
Yes, she spent the rest of the walk (about 40 minutes) on leash.
2 Plus 2 Do Not Equal Four To Delilah
At first I was angry with Delilah, she did not respond to my call and I’m ashamed to say when I finally got her back I called her a dumb dog.
I stewed about it for a while on the walk, but then I realized that Delilah does not know how to add, she does not understand, I ran off so I got put back on leash.
Back To Square One
I know she’s capable of learning. Whenever she is on leash and we approach a steep downhill area, I say easy Delilah, easy. She’s gotten to the point that even when she is off leash, she walks slowly down these hills.
If I continue to request a heel from her in the danger zones, before long she will automatically heel and stay close even if she is off leash.
Right?
It was lovely while it lasted.
Don’t think of it as a failure. Think of it as a reminder that dogs have limitations and we’ll never know how to recognize those limits if we don’t test them from time to time, right? She’ll get there! I mean, she’s come so far already, right?
She really has come a long way, I just get so angry with myself when I mess up. You know that type A personality. 🙂
I’m always amazed at the progress you make with her from one walk to the next. Does this mean we won’t get funny (to us, not to you) stories of runaway Delilah again?
Oh they’re funny to me too, usually well after the fact though! 🙂
Somehow I think Delilah will always be a wealth of funny stories…
You both have done so well I wouldn’t let one set back get you down, and really it is only a minor one, just think when you went to get her she could have just kept going and ignored you. I think you are doing a spectacular job with Delilah and I was very impressed in how you described your Here command and your Heel command with the treat at your side. Way to go Jodi and Delilah!!
She actually did ignore me until we were standing practically in front of her. 🙁 Thanks Misty, I try really hard with her, I really want her to have the opportunity to run and have fun, I just need her to be safe. 🙂
But she didn’t turn and head for the hills 🙂
I so love your honesty!!!! As someone who has devoted (and continues to devote) a ton of my time to obedience, I can so empathize with your frustration. While there are those rate times where Mazzie just chooses not to listen, in most cases where she fails, it’s due to my error. If only we could both be perfect, all of the time!!!!
Tanya, I have to be honest, if I’m not, how will I ever get her where I want her? It is very frustrating, no? You work and work at it and then for some reason it feels like you backslide. 🙁 I think I need to try and focus on the positive and not dwell on the negative.
I’m learning now that Doggy finds extremely tempting smaller white dogs, he takes off and chase them, he treats them like sheep. It’s embarrassing when the owner tries to get the scared puppy and Doggy keeps circling him, he’s not that good of a puppy at times.
They have their weak points.
LOL Leo, is he herding them or just chasing them? You can work with him on that. 🙂
Hi Jodi,
Don’t be too hard on yourself – you’re doing an amazing job!! Mum doesn’t let me off the lead unless it’s enclosed, she thinks my Herding instincts are too much and I can’t be trusted not to chase something that catches my eye! Doh!!
You said Dogs can’t add – however, I can do some Maths, cos I realized that Delilah is getting some kind of reward every minute by my calculations, I so wish my Mum did that with me, I think I need to train her to teach like you do!! Tee Hee
Have fun,
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
You’re pretty smart Snoopy, if you can count. Mom may yet see the benefit to teaching like I do. 🙂 I’m interested as to how she trained you. I’ve always dreamed of Sampson being a therapy dog, but I’m not sure how to train him for it. 🙂
I wouldn’t count on it. There will probably always be times when there are danger zones, but they may grow smaller and smaller. You have done such a good job with them. 🙂
Thank you, I feel like I’ve worked her hard but maybe I’m missing something in her training. I think you are right about the danger zones, I just need to keep my wits about me and pay attention to where we are. 🙂
I’m sorry Jodi. How disappointing, and understandable that at first you got angry. You are human after all. 🙂 You are doing great work with her and it sounds like she has improved drastically. Maybe go back to on-leash work in the “danger” zones for a while, just to be safe….?
Oh yes for sure Donna, she will probably never be off-leash in areas I know she’s prone to run. A while back I wrote a post saying if she had to be on leash for the rest of her life I was okay with it, I can live with her being on leash for a portion of our walks. 🙂
You’re very kind.
We all have those learning moments where we figure out what is too much to expect from our dogs at any given moment. Honey has a rock solid stay on the porch when strangers and their dogs walk by. I’ve been able to recall her from chasing a squirrel.
But my biggest fail was when I didn’t have her on leash when our trainer came and she ran out into the street to greet him. And recall? Forget it?
Luckily it was only embarrassing and not life-threatening. But it was all my dumb fault. I guess I needed to go back on leash too. 🙂
I’m amazed at how far Delilah has come in such a short time. You two are doing great!
That must have been very scary for you Pamela. Sampson is pretty good at STOP, or NO. I once stopped him from running into a busy street by shouting Sampson STOP. I don’t think I could stop Delilah though. 🙁
I’m glad it worked out okay and she wasn’t hurt.
Thank you for the support!