Heart Like a Dog

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

Emergency Recalls…WHAT?

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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.

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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.

 

Zoned Out

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Delilah has been doing super on our walks.

I keep her on leash in certain areas and in other areas she’s allowed to be off.  The majority of the time she returns immediately upon being called.  On those rare occasions when she doesn’t respond, if I run in the opposite direction or loudly reward Sampson she zips right over.

Until Saturday.

We’d been walking for about 45 minutes and were heading out of the field.   At this stage, she’s responded to every call.

Then she entered the woods at the edge of the field.

And she kept going.

Sampson  wasn’t too far away and I called him over, raising my voice and showering him with treats.

Sometimes when Delilah appears to be blowing off a recall, she’s actually running a great big circle and will come at me from the front.

Not this time.

I continued calling her as we made our way out of the park.

Fine, she can go to the pound, I said to Sampson.

But I couldn’t do that.  I couldn’t just leave her out there, and take a chance that she’d get hit by a car or come in contact with some unscrupulous character.

As Sampson and I walked back to the car I looked over and could see her grazing in someone’s yard.

Damn it!

At this point, I wasn’t really sure how this was going to go. By the time I could get to her, would she have moved on?  Would she run when she saw me coming?  I couldn’t chase her through the neighborhood with Sampson in tow, so I took him to the car.  I cracked one window about 2 inches and locked the door.  I figured if it took longer than 10 minutes I would call Hubby and ask him to come and get Sampson.

I can’t tell you accurately what the distance was.  Let’s just say it’s not the gingerbread house and there’s no trail of crumbs leading to it.  I had to forge my own trail and honestly I did not count my footsteps as I stomped through the woods, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s at least 100 yards.

Path See the patch of white through the trees?

Lightening Yup, she was grazing in the yard.

The whole time I was Sasquatching it through the woods, I was calling, clapping and whistling, yet Delilah never  raised her head from her grazing.

Not once.

In fact, it wasn’t until I was about ten feet away from her that she actually looked up.  To me it seemed like it took her a few seconds before she realized it was me.

Who is she kidding Oh hey mom, were you looking for me?

Does that make sense?

I’m not a dog trainer, expert or behaviorist yet I’ve heard stories of dogs in survival mode that don’t recognize their owners immediately.

I can’t see how she’d be in survival mode, but it was like she was in a zone somewhere.

As I thought about it after and discussed it with Hubby, it seemed to me she wasn’t just blowing off her recall.  There was something more to it.

Then I recalled how in one post I’d written about something destructive that Delilah had done and 2 Brown Dawgs had said, didn’t she do that at the same time last year?  And when I looked back at the posts, she was right!

I went back through my posts to Defeated and Lost Parts One and Two and OMD, it was March of last year, although to be fair, it was the beginning of March.

So here are the thoughts racing through my gray matter:

Is there something in the air (birds that leave droppings) or ground with a strong scent that is prevalent this time of year that makes her lose her mind?

She came to us in May of 2007, at that time she was in a high kill shelter but we don’t know why.  Had she been picked up as a stray, scavenging for her food for a couple of months and this time of year is like an acid flashback?

Is there just something in the spring that makes this bitch feel her wild oats?

Will she EVER be reliable off-leash or will I have to trip over this dog the rest of my life?

Am I too neurotic to own pets?

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