As often happens someone leaves a comment that really gets me thinking. On Thursday’s post when I made a complaint about Delilah’s recall, Carol said, “Why not use “READY” as your emergency recall?”
And 2 Brown Dawgs said, “I have discovered a new recall with Storm. I have been saying “cookie time” when it is time for her gigantic cookies. Even if she is distracted in the yard she comes a running. That did not take long….lol….2 days I think.”
Both of these comments have been rolling around in my head for the last couple of days.
Maybe I’ve missed the whole point of recalls. As I learned it, a recall was for my dog to stop whatever they were doing and come sit in front of me.
Here’s a show stopper, I stopped asking them to sit in front of me a long time ago. I figured what’s the fun on a walk if you have to stop whatever you were doing to go sit in front of someone.
BORING.
Besides I hate asking my dogs to sit in dirt or puddles if that’s what happens to be in front of me. I mean they are sitting on their tuchas and well, it’s a delicate spot after all.
No, when I want my dogs to come sit in front of me I say, “FRONT.”
As you know I have a lovely area for walking the dogs off-leash. I also have Delilah who has run off on me a few times.
I’ve said this before, I think I sometimes confuse myself and in turn the dogs, with my commands. Sampson’s recall is “Come,” so when I first started working with Delilah I chose “Here” thinking there might be times when I only wanted one dog, but as it turns out they both respond to both commands.
Reinforcement is the best way to train so I recall my dogs frequently when we walk, by saying “Here” or “Come,” but if I pay attention to what I’m doing I notice I also talk to them.
A LOT.
I talk to them like they are people and capable of understanding what I’m saying. I do this because I know that most of the time they DO know what I’m saying.
I’d like to go this way. Wait up, big guy. Stop. Come on pretty girl. Hey…hey…hey. Wait a minute, I have to pick up this poop.
And when I see that I’m losing Delilah, they all come out. Every. Single. One.
Well not the wait a minute I have to pick up this poop, (although with Delilah that might actually work) but you get the point, I panic. Blind panic.
Surprised? I didn’t think so.
So it’s more about training me than them, isn’t it? I mean they already know what all those words mean. I know this because they RESPOND to them.
So what’s been rolling around in my head?
The words EMERGENCY RECALL.
Does this mean you have more than one recall?
Like your regular every day “hey come on over here” recall and then your “holy shit I need you here five minutes ago” recall?
I’m rolling around the idea of “Cookie Time” in my head. Like randomly out in the yard or in the house singing out “Cookie Time” and then giving them something really yummy, that they don’t get on their walks. Like dehydrated turkey hearts.
Then testing it on a walk.
What do you think? Do you have more than one recall or do you strictly adhere to one? What rewards do you give your dogs when they return to you? I ask this because my dogs don’t care much for tugging, or toys which is why I use food.
I’ve divided my commands into formal and informal…”Wait” means stop wherever you are right now and wait; “Here” is a casual ‘come over here to me’ and “Gizmo come” means come to me right now and sit in front of me…I only use his name in the formal command to help differentiate it and my tone of voice is different for the commands too
I love “cookie time”. Even though Cupcake is never off her leash, inside and outside, the word “TREAT” gets her attention every time.
Not sure on the recall issue but you made my mom feel better because she is always talking to us too when we are out walking and she kind of thought maybe she was the only one doing that but now she knows at least one other person is like her!
I love the ‘cookie time’ idea!
I talk to my Golden Girls all the time; and they ignore me about half the time cuz they know I’m just yapping. I really need some more human contact during the day! 🙂
Callie & Shadow are usually fairly good about coming to me in the yard, considering their age and arthritis. Ducky is always on leash outside, so she doesn’t have much choice. When Shadow decides something else is more interesting than Callie & me, recall becomes “Shadow,come here NOW.” If that doesn’t work, I put Callie on the porch and go get Shadow. She only gets 2 chances to come on her own before I go get her.
Ha ha, this made me giggle – I’m the same way! I obviously need more human contact . .I’m constantly talking to my animals and Cali only comes when we use our “serious” voice!!
I have an emergency recall for coyote sitings. I shout “hey!” in my deepest, most serious tone of voice, clap my hands 3 times rapidly, then say each of their names in that same tone of voice. That’s all it takes and they run to me as fast as they can. Somehow that all equals: DANGER! ALERT! (probably something like: run for your lives! lol) I should add that the second time I did this, they all responded immediately. 🙂
I’ve never had to use an emergency recall since my dogs are pretty much bred for being companions and not going far afield like hunting dogs, but any of the five words they associate with noms bring them running to me. Cookie works well.
I do use “cookie” to recall my dogs when they are really distracted (like barking at the neighbors dogs). It tends to cut through all the noise in their brain. Food is my reinforcer of choice. They all like it (in any form) and are always hungry.
Cookie time gets our vote. What a good idea. Have a super Saturday.
Best wishes Molly
I use emergency recalls for just that…emergency. You need to find out the thing that they are most obsessed with…there has to be something…Jodi…I would think cookie time is used all the time in the house..that’s why I thought the word READY because you said she was great with that. I don’t know about anyone else’s dog…but when my dogs are at full throttle, they will not care about food…think of your training days, my dogs could care less if steak was shoved in their mouth, if another dog was across the street. So it needs to be something they don’t get or hear all the time. And as I said, you can’t just say ready if you don’t have something hidden or will start the process of hiding things for her. And even if they are companions as jan said…you never know in an instant when an emergency will be…in or out of the house. It’s a great response…mine are obsessed with the laser lite and that’s what I use…works everytime, no matter what in a split second…I don’t go off leash withou it on me. It’s a fun thing to try. :-). And one day you will say…w o w ….it worked, thank god
Cookie time sounds perfect for dogs who respond to food. Doggy doesn’t care about treats, he likes belly scratch and ear pulling.
When I want Doggy next to me I say “here”, when he wanders and gets crazy I whistle and “you, Doggy!” (sounds more like Yo, Doggy) and he comes right away (most of times).
But you are dealing with 2 dogs with different personalities, that’s gotta be hard work.
Jen over at Never Say Never Greyhounds did a great post a while back about teaching recalls, and she does have an emergency, can never be ignored recall. She teaches it with grilled steak, if I remember right, and by golly, I’d recall for her every time, too! I think it’s definitely worth your time and effort to teach it and work on it.
We have two separate commands – COME which means come here and is used every day and another for drop what you’re doing IMMEDIATELY and get back to me (I want to shower you with treats). No matter how angry or frustrated I am, ICI (which is “come” in french, is always a jackpot. It’s always got to be worth it to respond to it. It’s never a command where I’m going to ease off the reward, because the whole point is that it always needs to be more rewarding to come back to me than do whatever thing he’s doing (usually chasing a damned rabbit).
LOL, both dogs know that anytime they get a command in French, I mean BUSINESS. The Daddy knows it too. When I start cursing in French, that’s IT.
I love all of the comments. I talk to Cali all the time, and somewhere along the line I realized that I say, “let’s go”, “c’mon”, “Hey, get over here” and a slew of other commands – but when I’m serious, I say in my most stern voice “Cali, come NOW” and she will usually come running over like “oh, I guess you are serious!”.
We were better when she was young, but we got lazy as she got older (bad humans!!). I know Cali would come if we said “cookie” . .she is ALL about the food. 🙂
When I am working with Cheyenne out in the field it is “here” however with that being said she is the only one of the girls I can trust off leash and she will return no matter what if I say “here” Now for the others I use the cookie thing but I have never tried it in an unconfined area, just in the back yard which is fenced in, sometimes I just have to act like I am going to leave them and then they haul butt to me 😉
I am in good company about talking to the dogs, my friend says she can hear me talking to them just like they are people when we are camping 🙂
Hmmm…that is an interesting thought. I guess emergency recall words don’t HAVE to include the dog’s name or “come”. In our house, the alternate would be treaties. They sometimes poke along sometimes when I say “come” but they pretty much always come when I call them in for a treat.
Unfortunately for Storm “cookie time” is only temporary. No more cookie time after pups are born. 🙂
I have been having a bit of trouble with Storm’s recall in our yard because a new neighbor moved in with a dog which is very interesting to her, (but she did not break the invisible fence to visit, she just stands there barking at it). Also, she is always foraging for food in the yard these days and has selective hearing. I figured I could either slap an e-collar on her and reinforce “here” or give her a break and use her love of the temporary gigantic cookies to my advantage. I don’t want to put the pressure of an e-collar on her right now, so I chose the cookies. However, once she has whelped I intend to insist on her obeying the “here” command. We generally keep our recalls very simple.
We tend to just use the dog’s name and “here”. Interesting to read this post today though, I have been thinking about recall the past couple of days as it relates to Brook who is blind and partly deaf. The past week or so I have noticed that she seems to be having more trouble hearing. Not in an ignoring way, just not hearing. Two very loud hand claps and a whistle just aren’t always getting her attention.
Do you dehydrate the turkey hearts yourself?