“I’ve got a 12 week old Rottweiler puppy. He bites a ton and I don’t believe in hitting him. I’m trying to use positive reinforcement and redirection, but my family believes that he needs to be hit on the nose when he bites. What do I do?”
“For real! I can tell that my biggest hurdle with my pup is going to be the supervised separation. I’ve been making good progress on all the other bits of the test, but it’s hard to do supervised separation when you live on your own”
“I didn’t know this! Great information. Out of curiosity, do you have your dog wait for a command to eat his food after you put it in the bowl? I have been working on having mine sit, then saying ” leave it” then “yours” rather than having him charge the bowl but after reading your comment it seems like my instructions are misguided. Any alternatives I should be using?”
“My dog’s command for putting his two front paws up on anything is ‘table’ because I was training a specific cute little trick using that word when he was a tiny puppy and he decided to generalise it to everything haha”
“So cute. My puppy thinks leave it means back away from the treat and so hops back a few places in a hurry everytime! No idea why she thinks that. When doing a stay she looks away to her left when I back away! They pick up the oddest things.”
“Do you set an alarm to get up and let him out for a wee, or do you wait until you hear him moving around and then get up?”
“I’ve been trying to teach heel. My pup will do it fine if I am against the wall. But once I am away from the wall, he doesn’t know what I am asking. Any tips?”
“not OP but i struggle with the same thing. my dog will come probably 99% of the time inside the house if he KNOWS i have treats. if he doesn’t know, then it’s a coin flip. the reason i havent moved to training outside consistently is because i’ve read you dont want to introduce new environments or distractions until they listen 100% of the time. do you have any tips to get to 100% regardless of him knowing if i have treats on me, or is it just repetition?”
“Damn. My pup is 4 mo old and can do a bunch of tricks but the attention span doesn’t hold long. Very impressive”
“Any advice for dogs that are TOO food and toy motivated? Like, once he knows I have treats it’s all over. There is NO focus. Same kind of with a ball, but his attention to that is hit or miss.”
“This is all wonderful advice!!!! When your dog does something to ask for food, do you give it to them even if you didn’t ask them to do that behaviour? For example I’m working on recall with my dog. The other day, when we were at the beach (and she was playing with another dog), she left the dog and came running over to me and sat as a way of asking for food. I gave her a treat, but I don’t know if that’s the right thing or the wrong thing to do in that situation?”
“Wow that’s impressive, I have a black lab that’s almost 2 and we are trying to train her but she gets distracted by other things (like other dogs, people, sounds) SO easily any tips?”
“Any tips for a stubborn deaf dog? … like sign “no” and he closes his eye to not see it, sign “come” and he looks away to ignore.”
“My GSD(about 6 months old) loves walks and all but she’s so socially open that it’s hard to take her on walks because of strangers, we walk past someone and she tugs on the leash to try to play with them I’ve tried the stand and don’t move for a long time and she doesn’t seem to understand, she’s very great with commands but it’s like when she’s excited she goes deaf”
“Well, mine (not husky, but a mix of some sort of husky and German Shephard just pull the lead, I stop, so she comes excited to my side and wags her tail. At first this was followed by a treat whenever she sat next to me and relaxed. Now it is a game for her. She will pull, I will stop, she will come next to me jumpignly happy and look at me in the eyes, until I say go again.”
“Would you suggest puppy training classes? When is it the right age to start training her? Thinking of starting her straight away?”
“Recognising those signs. Picking up on their body language, because Harry (toddler) doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
“I was Googling every day and all the ideas I was coming up with were things I already knew and had already tried”
“I know there are techniques out there to solve any problem but a big one (applies to all markets) is that like most owners I can’t sit there all day repeating the same thing over and over. I get lazy and just kind of let her get away with it…”
“I have a 2 1/2 year old papillon rescue named Jack. He is a good dog, but insists on grabbing something to bring in from the fenced in back yard. It is often a twig or piece of mulch or a stone. Getting it away from him before he swallows it is a challenge. I have not found a treat that he likes enough to eat it right away as a reward. He stashes his treats in couch corners and in his dog bed for later if needed. He does not come in when called, has a mind of his own. Suggestions appreciated.” - https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2019/04/train-my-dog-to-come-when-called/?_ga=2.99447710.1416084485.1621424727-856476775.1619031407
“I understand the concept but I am simply not prepared to not walk my dog off lead until she has perfect recall. It would make both our lives intolerable. Yes mine two as hiking through bush/ beach is my main joy in life. Zulli come sometimes instantly some times in a minute or so and occasionally in her own time. I have two recalls. COME I only use either in formal obedience and sometime when she is already close and I am sure she will come. We are really at 100% there. The second is a sort of YODEL ( as I can’t whistle) which means “ I’m over here, please check in with me” I might add THIS WAY, if she’s ahead and I’ve turned back or changes tract. What I want to train is an “ Emergency Recall” and am thinking of a whistle I carry, plus a different verbal and I would use Susan’s method to train that word/sound, so I would use it in increasing distance / distractions as outlined, but not on our hikes until we had reached a level of training as outlined. In the meantime I would still use my yodel, when I wanted her to check in. Does that make sense? I am a Recallers Alumni plus H360 and Agility Nation.” https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2019/04/train-my-dog-to-come-when-called/?_ga=2.99447710.1416084485.1621424727-856476775.1619031407
“My older dogs goes crazy barking and runs through the house like a maniac . Then he is so excited the person can’t get in the door. He is teaching my puppy to repeat his bad behavior”
“My BC is 9months old, he will come when called unless there are children around, then he will follow them and wont come whatever i do or say, i have to go put him on a leash. Ive tryed all sort of things to find something more interesting than children,but i guess there isnt any (or i still havent found it). Any advices?”
“One comment I haven’t noticed others make; while working on the recall, how do you exercise your dog? I just finished reading (devouring) Shaping Success, Ruff Love, every inch of Susan’s web site and I’m making my way thru old blogs. I understand that my 11 month old Border Collie needs to be on short or long leash/line at all times while we are strengthening our recall, but how do I really let this puppy run? It has been so easy for me to let him out in our huge secure yard to run some energy off. But, he only returns to me 80% of the time if there is a distraction on the other side of the fence. Do I not even call him back to me if there is a level 2-10 distraction? Should I no longer let him loose in our fenced yard?”
“Thank you! Thank you for writing this blog. I am one of those people who have two dogs w/o a recall. I have tried to get recalls on them but failed miserably. I now have a puppy that is 11 months old. I have been working hard on his recall. It is not where I want it. But it is improving rapidly. I will not show in agility until I get a recall that I am satisfied with and I have high expectations. I am just learning how to teach the recall. What I failed with my older two dogs is that I never grew the recall beyond my house or backyard. Ah, what a concept you have to grow behaviors. How did I miss that? Your books and your seminar in Washington have opened my eyes to dog training. I cannot thank you enough for the insights you have shared. So, I’ve written a list of low distractions all the way to high distractions and am working through them for at least 5 minutes a day. I try to do at least 2 sessions. But when the dog doesn’t come you have to go get them if they aren’t on a leash and this becomes a problem. So, far I mostly use the leash. When do you not use a leash? What do you do if your dog doesn’t come on the first time? If you did a recall workshop I would be there in a heartbeat. I’m sure you would show me how much I don’t know but that would only be a learning experience and one that would be invaluable.”
“Other dogs. That’s my Standard Poodle’s weakness. It always has been, and it’s the main reason she won’t come to me. Most of the time, she will come even around other dogs, but if she’s too distracted or in the middle of a play session she won’t. We do our best…”
“Time investment. We have worked with a trainer and she is better, but we aren’t really consistent with teaching her/click training.”
“Susan, I really appreciate you doing this, and I can’t wait to see the result. One thing that has been a challenge for me is pack dynamics. I have 3 dogs, and I walk them off-leash every day. They’re generally pretty good, but if one of them has a sudden impulse to do something unauthorized (chase a bunny, run up to a strange dog, eat horse poop, etc.), the other 2 tend to follow suit. In fact, my oldest dog spends most of the walk on leash now, because she has such a tendency to get the other 2 in trouble. They’re much better behaved one-on-one than they are as a group.”
“Susan – maybe you can touch on a little bit on this … I know a 6 year old dog that has brilliant recalls. The owner can pull him off of anything…BUT a month ago while in the ocean swimming he spotted a dolphin at that point nothing existed but that dolphin. The dolphin was friendly and after a dolphin sniff the dog came back. Thank God it wasn’t a shark! How are you so sure of a dog’s brilliant recalls even with a distraction you’ve never proofed ??”
“I took the survey and I can kind of see what you are getting at with the questions that were asked and how one could respond. One thing I did note was you asked about the dog you wanted a brilliant recall on, but it seemed to assume it was the one with the worst recall. That may not necessarily be the case. That is my situation- my older dog with the terrible recall made me try harder and better with my second dog. My first dog is old and deaf at this point. She is managed with a good recall signal (if she’s looking at you), other trained behaviors, leashing, and double door systems. My second dog is 1000 times better than my first in the recall department (and many other behaviors). He’s not “brilliant” by your definition, but he’s really good. About the only weakness we have is with rabbit/squirrel chasing and quite honestly I do not know how to proof against such a strong instinct- so I don’t. I manage it with leashing. With my breed, I don’t know if I would ever trust any amount of training I did to withstand such a distraction. It’s just not safe. As solid of a relationship I have with my 2nd dog, I’m fighting 100s of years of him being bred to NOT listen to humans when on chase of a prey animal. I continually work on our recalls and try for that ellusive idea of one day allowing him to romp through the woods off leash. Yet, I doubt there will be a day I ever take that step. The risk is just too high if I’ve missed something. A question though- does your criteria for a brilliant recall translate to other people calling your dogs? I know my recalls errode a bit when other people are calling them. I’ve tried to work on this in case they get away from someone else and I’m not around (a more likely scenario in my world). Yet, I have less luck here.”
“I filled out your survey. I have a malamute x gsd who only recalls well in low distraction areas; when something interesting catches her eye, she FIRST goes to do what she thinks she needs to do (tell another dog off usually) and then comes. 🙁 Leaves me in the awkward ‘do I reward this because you did come but only when you finally felt like it’ situation. Obviously, I try very hard to limit her chances to practice this bhvr. My english setter I adopted from rescue as a 6 yo. He’d been previously trained on an e-collar (which I don’t use). He is very birdy & would chase birds across the continent from what I can see so he’s not been offleash in an unfenced area in the year I’ve had him. I don’t walk them on flexi’s but I use long lines a lot with both of them. I’ve just started working Pam Dennison’s whistle recall training with both of them. I look forward to incorporating your tips too!”
“I have heard so much about your Recallers class through my online friends and through a couple of my dog training club friends. How can I sign up for this online class? I really need to learn to train this life-saving exercise to my very exuberant cocker spaniel. When he does get off leash, which is extremely rare, he sometimes comes towards me only to swish by really fast! He does come when I have cookies though. Except when there are L-I-Z-A-R-D-S! I am beginning to stop using the “Come!” command because he is associating it to mean, “Let’s play chase. I run and you try to catch me!” We are working on the Ruff Luv program and other products.”
- [#mann2019easypeasypuppysqueezy]: Steve Mann (2019): Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy: The UK’s No.1 Dog Training Book, Blink Publishing.
[#sethiZTL]: Ramit Sethi: Zero To Launch.