Crazy

JessDM86

Member
Me I feel crazy. ok you guys have so much great advice I am really glad that I found this site. OK along with the biting (which I am trying to correct with toys and not tapping) I live in the country and people have told me its better to train him off the leash I TRY. I am not getting anywhere. I have to keep him on the leash EVERY time I take him out at first it was ok he would stay. Now He takes off. Apprently he is quite comfy around us and his home at the moment. He has almost got hit by a car and I got so angry with him I didnt hit him or anything but he would not come when I said cause I though he was catching so I let him off. It scared me more than anything because I didn't want him hurt. what should I do on that one. I live in the country but by a road that people dont care to run 100 mph down it (sarcastically) if he does not learn now to "come" he may really get hurt one of these days And GOD FORBID that happen. HELP!
 

rouen

Experienced Member
Most puppies go through a "I can't hear you stage." Get use to it because it'll be around for a good while. If you really want him to have freedom I'd get a long line so you can ensure he stays out of the road. Have you done any recall training with him?
 

JessDM86

Member
Most puppies go through a "I can't hear you stage." Get use to it because it'll be around for a good while. If you really want him to have freedom I'd get a long line so you can ensure he stays out of the road. Have you done any recall training with him?
I am trying to get him to listen to "come" but that is in working progress as well. I have not yet got a sucessful come while he is outside yet. In the home he will come he knows I have treats, but on the outside is a differnet story. He does not listen and WILL NOT come every once in awhile he will. At night he is scared so he goes out off the leash and right in the morning sometimes he will come and he wont be on the leash in the day we have started keeping him on the leash unless it is out at night. Like i mentioned I am NEW NEW to puppy owning and dont want to mess it up. I also want my family safe so I am trying the best I can or the best I know how.
 

southerngirl

Honored Member
Well if he doesn't know recall except when inside he should Always be keep on leash for his safety. I know it can be a bit annoying to have to put him on leash to be outside, but it's to keep him from getting hurt. Puppies want to explore everything, such as a leaf that flies by there like "Oh my gosh what is that I have to go see it sniff sniff" and so on
(you could say they are a lot like babies. Would you let trust a baby to come to you when you say their name while they are toddling away? I know my nephews didn't care how many times I said their name they just kept toddling away. Does that help with why he should be on leash?
suggest you get a long lead so you can safely teach him recall. If you run in to any problems while trying to teach us just let us know and will be glad to help.
 

MaryK

Honored Member
I still do not trust my adolescent boy and he does know recall/come very well. But as Southerngirl said, he's still a youngster and everything is exciting, so he's off. I live in the city, so he has to by law, be on his lead outside his own home but even at the beach, where they can run free, I still at this point do not totally trust him.

Get a very long lead, a clicker and a massive amount of treat, call him, when he does come click/treat and praise like crazy. Rinse and repeat and then do it some more. Keep training short and make sure you have a release word - mine is "playtime' but anything will do, just so he knows he can now go play - safely! And be consistent, use the same word each time you release him from training, that way he learns when he can play and when you want to train him.

There are some excellent videos and tutorials in the puppy section on this forum, you should find something there to help.

But don't keep him leashed all the time, otherwise he will go crazy when released.:)

Above all enjoy your puppy, they're the greatest fun:D
 

648117

Honored Member
Do you take treats outside with you?
You should take treats outside with you for training and make the treats even tastier than the ones you use inside if you can (eg cheese cut up small).

With my puppy I constantly had dog treats in my pockets so that I could randomly do a recall and give a treat when she came without her knowing if I actually had treats or not (even when I went out without the puppy I still usually had treats in my pockets). Just randomly throughout the day do a recall for no reason, do this inside and in your backyard (if it is safe for the puppy to be off lead in the backyard). Just give the treat and let the puppy run off and play again or play with the puppy yourself. Don't only call the puppy when you need to, do it just for fun too.

Another thing to practice recall is get another person with treats to call the puppy and give it the treat, then you call it and treat it, then the other person calls and treats.... back and forth, to practice recall and then do it with the other person in another room or with three people or outside. Make it a game so the puppy is running from person to person as it is called.

Then when you take the puppy for walks you should be teaching it loose leash walking using lots of tasty treats so the puppy wants to be near you when out of the house.
Then when you let the puppy off it might not even want to walk away very far, I had this "problem" with Holly the first time I tried to practice recall at the park after getting a reliable recall at home: I couldn't recall her because she wouldn't walk away from me and if I walked away from her she would just walk next to me where she does for loose leash walking looking up at me wondering where her treats were :cautious: . I think maybe I made this happen by waiting a while (maybe too long) before trying her off leash at the park (I was scared to try it for ages) and practising loose leash at home without a leash initially. Although I was a bit stumped on how to practice recall with her for a while, but now I think it was actually really good.

I had to throw treats away from me for her to get, when she got the treat I would call her back to me and give her another treat. She thought it was a game! but it definitly made her want to come to me. It took her a while to realise that she could run around without me throwing a treat for her first (I threw some "phantom" treats so she would stay away from me a bit looking for them) :rolleyes:
You could do this with your puppy even if you don't have the problem I did. Throw a (low-value) treat and once the dog has eaten it, call him and run away so he chases you and gets more treats (or a toy if he's toy motivated) for catching up.
I also gave Holly a treat for coming to me even if I didn't call her (I don't do this anymore but I felt that as a puppy the more she wanted to come back to me without being told to the easier and more natural her recall would be).

Now that Holly is 11 months old she has very good recall and gets to be off leash everyday at parks and on walking tracks, I trust her now. She also looks back at me a lot to "check in" and I never have a problem getting her back on leash (I think this is partly because on most walks I let her off leash at more than one park with some leash walking in between so being leashed does not mean it's home time). As soon as I call her she does a sharp turn and sprints straight at me (it always makes me smile and other people have commented on it too). I still take treats on walks too.

But in saying that, I have had a couple of times that her recall became less than reliable for a week or two. It's happened twice, I think it's an age thing. All puppies go through stages of not listening. Holly is currently near the end of one of these bad recall stages and all I do to fix it is practice recall more often!

I think the main things to do is make recall fun and make your dog want to come when he's called.

Sorry about the length of this post, but I hope it helps :D
 

MaryK

Honored Member
Do you take treats outside with you?
You should take treats outside with you for training and make the treats even tastier than the ones you use inside if you can (eg cheese cut up small).

With my puppy I constantly had dog treats in my pockets so that I could randomly do a recall and give a treat when she came without her knowing if I actually had treats or not (even when I went out without the puppy I still usually had treats in my pockets). Just randomly throughout the day do a recall for no reason, do this inside and in your backyard (if it is safe for the puppy to be off lead in the backyard). Just give the treat and let the puppy run off and play again or play with the puppy yourself. Don't only call the puppy when you need to, do it just for fun too.

Another thing to practice recall is get another person with treats to call the puppy and give it the treat, then you call it and treat it, then the other person calls and treats.... back and forth, to practice recall and then do it with the other person in another room or with three people or outside. Make it a game so the puppy is running from person to person as it is called.

Then when you take the puppy for walks you should be teaching it loose leash walking using lots of tasty treats so the puppy wants to be near you when out of the house.
Then when you let the puppy off it might not even want to walk away very far, I had this "problem" with Holly the first time I tried to practice recall at the park after getting a reliable recall at home: I couldn't recall her because she wouldn't walk away from me and if I walked away from her she would just walk next to me where she does for loose leash walking looking up at me wondering where her treats were :cautious: . I think maybe I made this happen by waiting a while (maybe too long) before trying her off leash at the park (I was scared to try it for ages) and practising loose leash at home without a leash initially. Although I was a bit stumped on how to practice recall with her for a while, but now I think it was actually really good.

I had to throw treats away from me for her to get, when she got the treat I would call her back to me and give her another treat. She thought it was a game! but it definitly made her want to come to me. It took her a while to realise that she could run around without me throwing a treat for her first (I threw some "phantom" treats so she would stay away from me a bit looking for them) :rolleyes:
You could do this with your puppy even if you don't have the problem I did. Throw a (low-value) treat and once the dog has eaten it, call him and run away so he chases you and gets more treats (or a toy if he's toy motivated) for catching up.
I also gave Holly a treat for coming to me even if I didn't call her (I don't do this anymore but I felt that as a puppy the more she wanted to come back to me without being told to the easier and more natural her recall would be).

Now that Holly is 11 months old she has very good recall and gets to be off leash everyday at parks and on walking tracks, I trust her now. She also looks back at me a lot to "check in" and I never have a problem getting her back on leash (I think this is partly because on most walks I let her off leash at more than one park with some leash walking in between so being leashed does not mean it's home time). As soon as I call her she does a sharp turn and sprints straight at me (it always makes me smile and other people have commented on it too). I still take treats on walks too.

But in saying that, I have had a couple of times that her recall became less than reliable for a week or two. It's happened twice, I think it's an age thing. All puppies go through stages of not listening. Holly is currently near the end of one of these bad recall stages and all I do to fix it is practice recall more often!

I think the main things to do is make recall fun and make your dog want to come when he's called.

Sorry about the length of this post, but I hope it helps :D
Excellent post. Got some ideas myself for when I next train a puppy, like getting more than one person to call the puppy and treat(y)

Also, the fact you can allow Holly to walk off leash in between on the leash is great, wish I could have done that too!

I always have treats, especially with a puppy. Even now with my boys I still carry treats:) LOL they're not spoiled of course:rolleyes:
 
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