My lab won't come when I call her!
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My lab won't come when I call her!
| Wed, 02-08-2012 - 11:36am |
I haven't visited this particular board before, I don't think.
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Hi Julie and Welcome to the Popular Dog Breeds board!
Hi Julie,
100% recall is so difficult. I have to say though that the training also needs to be done at home. practice with her indoors too at every opportunity. Don't let her exit the house before you. Say stay, open the door a bit, say stay, open it , then you step out , say stay, walk away. Make her wait, then call her out. Of course she'll bound out. Then call her back. Practice "come" at home too. (less distraction). Again, command "stay or sit" , let her sit, you walk over to the other side of the room, then "come". When she does, pat her head and say Fine! (a tiny treat will be good too. ) I feel you must practice short distances before you'll be able to recall her from a distance ,, out in the field their mind is gone to sniffing and manure. LOL As for the ball, play a bit then break off the play while she is still retrieving, she should not be the one to break off play time. I see your worries living on a highway, 100% recall is important.
I'm Suzan, welcome to here! I have a very VERY stubborn , hard headed, spoiled little English cocker spaniel... also a sniffer/bird dog.
It's been 3 yrs, and I haven' t reached 100% recall yet. We are at about 65% which is good but not good enough as dogs run free here in Germany and they approach her, so I need to have her attention and have her close to me all the time. I always let her know that I have a dog biscuit in my pocket. When she needs to come , I can usually get more attention from her if I put my hand in my pocket,, and that gets her to come faster.
I have a 5.5 yo lab, recall is still an occasional issue now, we live in an appartment that doesn't have a park where we can let her off leash at the moment so it is less of an issue, but in the past it was a big problem, because she would go down the stairs from our rooftop appartment with terrace and in the street causing havoc, we ended up putting a gate in front of the stairs because it was dangerous. She really started listening to us when she was 2.5-3 years old, before that she was a crazy teenager. Labs tend to stay kiddish much longer than other breed from what I heard. At age 5 she is now finally acting like a lady and stopped pulling onthe leash a year ago, DH could walk her off leash with no problem, with me it's not an option, but I got reall firm having walk by my side and she knows it now.
What worked for us training her were treats, our girl is pretty much thinking with her stomach at all time, she would do anything for certain treats :)
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Start with the treats again - do it in the house or backyard or frontyard
Use hand signals - I just take my index finger - I say "look" and then I point it down with the word "come".
Do it every single day - over and over.
Mines not that good either - sit, stay, down, off, leave it - are good - butcome is always a problem - especially when theyare sidetracked