West Highland TerriersA Little of This and That for the Westie Dog Lover

How To teach a reliable recall?

I have a 20 month old Retraspoodle. He has completedup to Advanced in Obedience and heels perfectly on and off lead at Obedience, he knows hand signals for turn left, right ect and knows advanced commands such as stop. When you ask to wait and then call then tell them to drop while they are runnning! He mastered that in about 5 minutes. However there is a small problem when we are not at obedience and that is recall. He completely ignores me when we are at places such as the dog park or at the public gardens by my house. I have tried everything i know of such as food or toys as a reward but he is still interested in smells rather than what i have even if it is chicken! Its not a problem to call him away from other dogs, he will follow us but his recall is not reliable and i am not comfortable taking him out when i know he might not return promptly! Any advice would be great! Thanks

Congrats for taking the time and training your dog so well in OB…
Here is the reality that most people cannot grasp and refuse to accept even when it is staring at them in the face. You cannot, reliably, teach anything to a dog unless at some point compulsion is introduced as an inducement. The dog MUST learn that he indeed does not have a choice when the recall command is given.
Depending on the dog, his temperament and his training, I will use a prong collar and a long line to start out and start correcting as soon as the dog ignores my command.
Koehlerdogtraining.com will give you a better explanation of the entire procedure, please look at it and apply it to your dog.
Hope I helped.

Dog Obedience: Hand Signals

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