Recall Question

fridays mystic · Old Hand

Recall Question

tootsmazza · Enlightened One

Selective deafness appears to be in the makeup of some greyhounds. Mason doesn't get off the lead unless I am 100% sure the area is enclosed or in the middle of nowhere and prepared to spend half an hour getting him back biggrin

He responds to the come command all the time in the house or in a garden but give him a bit of space and I might as well be invisible and mute evileye

He is also not very food orientated and goes off things very quickly - his latest is to turn his nose up at hotdogs!!
I've found varying the treats used to bribe him regularly works well. One day chicken another cheese, livercake etc. He's also extremely fond of the cheap Pets2Go meaty treats which you get in the Co-op yet will not touch anything which tastes of bacon weirdface

Changing the treat really does seem to be essential though, he'll even ignore chicken if you use it three day in a row!
Marie

Isla · Enlightened One

Tigger is very much the same. I have a field that I try and use periodically but am always nervous that she jumps out. What worries me is that a lot of the fields around here include barb wire in their makeup and I am terrified she gets hurt. hmm

I try to work on her recall in the house and garden too however can very often struggle to get her to come back to me from the garden (or elsewhere in the house) if she's not in the mood to co-operate! furious

We did the field the other day and I was really impressed - after ignoring my shouts, whistle and stone shaker bottle (not to mention the flappy ham), she was reasonably obedient. I'm just going to keep plugging away.

Indiana · Guru

Tigerlily sounds almost the same! Like that, sooky in the house but very much her own dog when outside. She's also not interested in the treats. She's interested only in everything else. I'm fortunate that when we're walking she always keeps us in sight and I can call on her to catch up. She'll catch up but keeps enough distance to avoid capture! If I stand perfectly still she'll eventually come up. However, if she takes after a small animal I can forget it. I have done a lot of work on recall, and have come to the conclusion that I just need to be careful where I take her out if she's to get off-lead - way out in the countryside or enclosed areas, no local parks for her! I think some dogs have too high a prey drive to override instinct. Viv Silverstein, the excellent dog trainer, thinks no greyhound should be allowed off-lead ever for that very reason. I take the chance because they enjoy running.

fridays mystic · Old Hand

Indiana wrote:

Tigerlily sounds almost the same! Like that, sooky in the house but very much her own dog when outside.

Thanks for the replies folks. I spoke to the breeder today. She has 17 years experience with greyhounds so knows a thing or two about how they think.

The advice she gave was...... Dont keep calling her or calling her for nothing. Once she's off, even if she's sniffing and looking over the fence, dont fret and just let her be. She WILL come back

-- Edited by fridays mystic at 23:42, 2008-01-22

Jacqui · Fostering Co-ordinator * Follow-up Co-ordinator

fridays mystic wrote:
Off topic.....

She was telling me about her life in Ireland for the 1st year or so of her life. Apparently the guy (if you can call him that) keeps all the dogs in a field. When it's feeding time he just throws a big bucket of food over and the dogs have to fight it out . If they go hungry she'd have to catch rabbits to eat. Totally heart breaking. I cant beleive how calm she in and how well she's settled considering what she's been through.

This makes me sick to the stomach when I read things like this, I actually can't describe what I would do to these people as it would be edited!!!!

Re the muzzle and the toys - I had the same issue, I wanted to be careful with Annie and always put her muzzle on when she was off lead, even though to be honest she isnt that keen, (but hey she's a greyhound, you never know!)

But I make sure that if she is unmuzzled (cos it is kinda boring

when she doesnt have her ball etc to play with) that its somewhere I can see really far into the distance - like a deserted beach or flat field. But that was after I had been letting her off for a while and her recall was really good (well as good as it can be!!)

fridays mystic · Old Hand

Decided to start with a clean sheet.

Let her off, but instead of me being in the middle of the field then worrying when she went to the fence, i walked round the fence line with her and chilled out. She would run up the long grass having a sniff about. After about 10mins or so i'd walked a good bit head of her. Blew the NEW whistle and instantly she came bolting back

-- Edited by fridays mystic at 23:43, 2008-01-22

tandemsandy · Master

That is so good well done I am so pleased for both of you. Not done any work on Red's recall yet if fact he doesn't seem to react to his name at all at the moment but it is all so new for him so will start working with that first. Reading all the books again just to see what else I need to learn...

Isla · Enlightened One

Carrying on from this topic - I've been working on Tigger's recall over the last week. So far, I've been letting her off every other day for five minutes in a field. Things have gone extremely well so far (to the point of suspicion). She has raced about like a dafty but come when called. Mostly she continues to race about for a couple of minutes and then belts over to where I am with my bag of goodies however one of the days she came straight away! biggrin

I praise her, give her something tasty and then let her have another wee run before calling her back so that she doesn't associate coming back to going straight on the lead and having her fun curtailed. We even managed a short (not very effective) ball game today. I threw the ball and she ran about throwing it for herself instead of bringing it back! hmm

She did come for a treat though and then (with Tig on lead) we went looking for the ball.

I don't want to tempt fate but I'm hoping that this is going to continue and that we can work up to longer periods off the lead in our wee field. aww

tootsmazza · Enlightened One

It sounds like you are making great progress. On the muzzle, Mason never gets off without it on because of his high prey drive and also because I find he comes back more when he's wearing it, or goes to someone else, since its the only way he gets it taken off again!
Marie

Isla · Enlightened One

Might try that - it'll be cheaper than tennis balls and ham! biggrin

Thistle · Old Hand

Hi, really appreciating the posts on this subject, as I want to progress Dexter to being off of the lead, he is okay in the field behind our house but last time I let him off away from the field he spooked me by running off and not coming back. Thanks for posting your experiences it really helps to get a bank of ideas under my belt. If it helps I spoke to the lady we rescued Dexter from and she said that so long as he doesn't have a high prey drive then to let him off and to accept that because he is a greyhound he is going to want to run, and not to panic if I see him as a speck in the distance that he would come back (unlike Lurchers she said). She explained that they will run and all the shouting I do will just be a waste of my breath but just wait for him to have released his energy and he will come back. I havent had the courage to try this yet, I am a big coward and the thought of him as a speck in the distance still terrifies me LOL!

fridays mystic · Old Hand

Let a greyhound off and it's just that they are so fast 30second of running will almost see them in the next town!! That is why i was panicking at first, coz she seemed to be going so far away.

-- Edited by fridays mystic at 23:44, 2008-01-22

tandemsandy · Master

Its great toto herar the at all the dogs are doing so well so far. I agree it is good when the posts cover this sort of subject coz we can all learn from all our experiences.

Valerie · Guru

Thistle wrote:

(unlike Lurchers she said). She explained that they will run and all the shouting I do will just be a waste of my breath but just wait for him to have released his energy and he will come back.

Lurchers do come back - thank goodness wink

Not easy, but for what it's worth - my tips:-

carry chicken;
use "jackpotting"
try to train them to a whistle (dog returns - chicken in gob!);
use his name as little as possible, so your voice really means something when you do shout his name;

if you catch their eye, crouch as if you are digging (Biscuit always has to check it out!)
try never to "chase" - that's a good game to Biscuit, and he keeps running away from you.
don't always leash when they return, so they know they get freedom too.

Doesn't always work, but mostly does. biggrin

Thistle · Old Hand

Hi Valerie, your post made me laugh in particular the chase part. What is jackspotting?

Valerie · Guru

Hi Thistle
"jackpotting" is part of the reward system which you just throw in at random. So if your dog does a really good recall -give him twice the reward, so you are not always giving the same amount of reward. This technique keeps them guessing, and not always coming back to the same amount - which they might get used to. Now and again, I'll make a proper big fuss when he does a good recall as well, getting down and giving him a good rub and telling him how good he is wink

fridays mystic · Old Hand

Misti's not been off the lead in a field for a few weeks now as the farmers put cattle in the one we were using. I've been taking her to the breeders gallops and she's been coming to the whistle instantly.

-- Edited by fridays mystic at 23:44, 2008-01-22

Isla · Enlightened One

I can sympathise completely. hmm

We've been working on Tigger's recall (which has been appalling) for a couple of months now. We'd been using the one field and she was being really good in there however someone stuck two horses in it - not ideal. We found another that was even better and Tigger loved it - short grass so she could get up lots of speed! smile

We used it the one night and she was (surprisingly) very good. Next night we returned to the field only to find someone unloading a herd of sheep into it! furious

We managed to find another one - even bigger and with short grass and, to date, she's been brilliant. We've had a couple of moments where she's eyed up a fence or headed straight across the field. I plan to try her for short spells during walks (preferably after a trip to the field to take the sting out) but still don't trust her totally. As you say, we can only try and keep trying. wink

tandemsandy · Master

Hi Karen impressed you found a 3rd field. I know the other two as I had been eyeing them up too. We went intot the one along the just before the land fill turning. Longish rough grass. Hmmmm Red twisted his front leg in the first 5 mins so we had to abandon it for the day. Hoping to try tomorrow when Rob and I head down the Kintyre peninsular hoping for long empty beaches.... packing picnic including cheese and ****tail sausages for the REDSTER.... here's hoping

tootsmazza · Enlightened One

fridays mystic wrote:

After about 5mins she was getting a bit far away so i blew the whistle. She stopped, looked back, i was walking away from her and calling her name, and she just turned and bounded away again totally ignoring me. She ran away out of sight into the next field. So every 2-3mins i blew the whistle and called her. After about 10mins she came back. I was raging. Put her on a short lead and straight back to the car.

That sounds so like Mason. A quick look and then its like 'I know where you are what's the problem'.
Some people suggest trying not to use the name too much just walking away but its nerve-wracking. Mason seems to have had a breakthrough with me at the beach but its taken a year and I would still not let him off anywhere with distractions like houses, gardens, roads etc.
Stick with it smile

Isla · Enlightened One

I've thought about that field too but have never got round to trying it. It would certainly be a bit closer - not that I've far to go anyway. I liked the second one best - not sure why but I was devastated when they offloaded the sheep there and I'd only got to use it the once.

This last one we had a bit of a nightmare - Tigger tried to sprint through some mud cunningly disguised as reeds and did a complete somersault. She pitchpoled and went nose over tail and landed on her back. My heart was in my mouth - terrified she'd hurt herself. Thankfully she was fine but was plastered in mud. Initial reaction to the shower was not favourable however after she realised the water was warm, she took to it quite well.

tandemsandy · Master

Oh bless. Not tried the shower with Red frightened of all those legs etc. and he is way to heavy for me to pick up. our shower is over the bath.

tootsmazza · Enlightened One

tandemsandy wrote:

Oh bless. Not tried the shower with Red frightened of all those legs etc. and he is way to heavy for me to pick up. our shower is over the bath.

I sympathise, my bathroom is very narrow and I haven't even contemplated trying to get my big boy in the bath. We've opted for buckets of water in the front garden over the summer. It feels like washing a car and has provided no end of entertainment for passers by biggrin
Thankfully Mason is very good and stands absolutely still - as long as you don't get his head wet, then he will shake sending me for cover.
So we do that last!
Marie

tandemsandy · Master

lol oh I can picture it now. We did the same with Red when we first got him but not since. He stood like a lamb and even waited the required time for the conditioning to work. Bless how ever he had an unintended bath yesterday I will post the pics and the tale later. Comical

kirvine · Old Hand

ive been thinking alot this week about starting recall training with gus, but after reading the postings here i think i better start with the very basics and all at home. i have a small back garden but i would love to be able to let him off down the beach. i think it would be best to ensure that our bond is stronger before i try anything major with him but pleased i've found the forum so i can get loads of advice.

Valerie · Guru

Hi Kirvine
it's really good you are saying that, cos it means that the forum is helping you. Many new owners run out and let the dog off the lead based on their behaviour in the house. You will find with a sighthound, behaviour and response in the house and outside are two different things entirely. By starting in the garden, no matter how small the space, you can observe response and body language. Body language is the first language, and knowing your dog's responses can help in so many potentially dangerous situations e.g. when they see something, scent something, fright etc. By consistent study

of Biscuit, I feel I can read his body language and take appropriate action where necessary. I'm not sure if Gus is Grey/lurcher, but when they "sight" and run after that prey, some say they are akin to being clinically deaf!!
Lots of luck, and yes the forum will be a great source of advice from lots of willing folk

fridays mystic · Old Hand

The big field we were using before is now empty again, so went back up this morning early on to see if all the recall work has worked

-- Edited by fridays mystic at 23:45, 2008-01-22