How do you teach recall to an older dog?

I am watching this thread...I am curious.
How do you deal with a dog that looks to see if there is a treat present,
then sometines makes the decision to "come" based on that. My recall is
about 90%, but I live on a busy road and I really would like to develop 100%
recall. I am completely fenced and secure, but twice in two years, company
has left the door open. (I know, that's a whole training issue there, too.
We do really well with the door thing, but we have a lot of company all the
time, and these two instances, the door was left invitingly open tooooo
long.)

Perry
"Ronna" <dogstar716.TakeThisOut@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1123868321.692957.4660@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
> Janet Puistonen wrote:
>> I'm about to launch into this in earnest with my rescue dog, who is about
>> 16
>> months old and has no idea of it at all. In fact, usually the reverse.
>> (Her
>> previous owners taught her to beg on her hind legs and shake hands, but
>> not
>> to sit, down, stay, heel, or come. Grrrrrr...) I've read about various
>> methods over the years, but always had the benefit of puppyhood when
>> teaching it.
>>
>> What does everyone else do with an older dog, especially a spooky,
>> wilfull,
>> not-too-bright one who regards most things with suspicion <G>? At the
>> moment
>> she'll come when she knows there's a treat to be had, but only
>> occasionally
>> otherwise. (The "occasionally otherwise" actually represents a
>> significant
>> amount of progress, believe it or not.)
>
> One way is to teach her to come to a whistle. Blow the whistle then
> drop a piece of hot dog (or whatever treat she loves). Do this
> repeatedly until she gets the idea that whistle means treat. Then
> practice in the back yard when she is loose. You have to be consistent
> and reward everytime she comes to you. You can also use your voice the
> same way, tell her to COME, then drop the hot dog for her :)
>
 >> Stay informed about: How do you teach recall to an older dog? 

Perry Templeton wrote:
> I am watching this thread...I am curious.
> How do you deal with a dog that looks to see if there is a treat present,
> then sometines makes the decision to "come" based on that. My recall is
> about 90%, but I live on a busy road and I really would like to develop 100%
> recall. I am completely fenced and secure, but twice in two years, company
> has left the door open. (I know, that's a whole training issue there, too.
> We do really well with the door thing, but we have a lot of company all the
> time, and these two instances, the door was left invitingly open tooooo
> long.)
>
> Perry
>

It takes time. You don't want to take the dog out somewhere offleash
right from the get go, you need to practice until the dog is reliable.

Another thing you can do is have two people stand on opposite sides of
the yard and call the dog back and forth. Or, have one person hold the
dog, you take off running, go a ways away, then call the dog and reward
when he gets there.
 >> Stay informed about: How do you teach recall to an older dog? 

Perry Templeton wrote:
> I am watching this thread...I am curious.
> How do you deal with a dog that looks to see if there is a treat
> present, then sometines makes the decision to "come" based on that. My
> recall is about 90%, but I live on a busy road and I really would
> like to develop 100% recall. I am completely fenced and secure, but
> twice in two years, company has left the door open. (I know, that's
> a whole training issue there, too. We do really well with the door
> thing, but we have a lot of company all the time, and these two
> instances, the door was left invitingly open tooooo long.)
>
> Perry

I live on a road with a fair amount of traffic also, Perry, and I trained my
dog to never go through the door unless given permission. (We're working on
this with the new one.) What I do is this: every time I go to the door with
the dogs, I have them sit. I then step through the door, make eye contact
with the dog, wait a moment, then tell them to come along. Actually, with
the older one I wouldn't go through this routine any more--since he's fully
trained on this,I'd just give him permission to go out--but I'm doing it to
train the younger one.
 >> Stay informed about: How do you teach recall to an older dog? 

Ronna wrote:
> Janet Puistonen wrote:
>> I'm about to launch into this in earnest with my rescue dog, who is
>> about 16 months old and has no idea of it at all. In fact, usually
>> the reverse. (Her previous owners taught her to beg on her hind legs
>> and shake hands, but not to sit, down, stay, heel, or come.
>> Grrrrrr...) I've read about various methods over the years, but
>> always had the benefit of puppyhood when teaching it.
>>
>> What does everyone else do with an older dog, especially a spooky,
>> wilfull, not-too-bright one who regards most things with suspicion
>> <G>? At the moment she'll come when she knows there's a treat to be
>> had, but only occasionally otherwise. (The "occasionally otherwise"
>> actually represents a significant amount of progress, believe it or
>> not.)
>
> One way is to teach her to come to a whistle. Blow the whistle then
> drop a piece of hot dog (or whatever treat she loves). Do this
> repeatedly until she gets the idea that whistle means treat. Then
> practice in the back yard when she is loose. You have to be
> consistent and reward everytime she comes to you. You can also use
> your voice the same way, tell her to COME, then drop the hot dog for
> her :)

Ooh, I like this one. She is definitely food oriented, so it should work
well. (When we first got her, I used a lot of treating to get her to walk on
a leash, pay attention to me, and so on. She was so keyed up that it was
the only thing that could even semi-capture her attention. If something like
a motorcycle passed us, she lost even the ability to pay attention to
treats. The other day, one passed us and she didn't even give it a glance. I
have to remind myself periodically that she has made progress...)
 >> Stay informed about: How do you teach recall to an older dog? 

Before training the dog i would suggest that you bond very well with
the dog before starting any training with it. After you too are well
bonded then you can do some basic training. Recall is a bit advanced
for a beginner. Do not do it unless if the dog knows how to sit, down (
DO NOT use stay! when using the command down... it means to stay! do
not use to commands as it will confuses the dog!), heel or to come (
which you will be using when the dog is well ready to the recall
command).
 >> Stay informed about: How do you teach recall to an older dog? 

In article <1124022377.455524.158560 RemoveThis @g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
Brittany <SpiritWolfz RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>Before training the dog i would suggest that you bond very well with
>the dog before starting any training with it.

To be honest, I have no idea what you mean by "bond with the
dog", and it's been my experience that training is an
excellent way to build a very strong bond - the dog learns
to look to you for guidance and to trust you.

Also, recall is one of the first things I start working on
when I bring a new dog into the house. Getting back to the
bonding thing, the dog needs to know right off the bat that
only good things happen when he comes to you.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - shore RemoveThis @panix.com

An increase in government debt is the present value
of future tax increases.
 >> Stay informed about: How do you teach recall to an older dog? 

Brittany wrote:
> Before training the dog i would suggest that you bond very well with
> the dog before starting any training with it. After you too are well
> bonded then you can do some basic training. Recall is a bit advanced
> for a beginner. Do not do it unless if the dog knows how to sit, down
> ( DO NOT use stay! when using the command down... it means to stay! do
> not use to commands as it will confuses the dog!), heel or to come (
> which you will be using when the dog is well ready to the recall
> command).

Thanks, but I do know how to teach a dog to sit, down, and stay. The dog in
question knows sit and down, although her compliance could be better. She's
started learning stay. I really disagree that one should wait until all of
those things are fully in place before teaching the dog to come. Teaching a
dog to come is absolutely essential for safety, if nothing else--as someone
once said, everything else is really a trick.
 >> Stay informed about: How do you teach recall to an older dog?