a teaching recall as solo handler question

[Beckysmom]

Okay, I am still having trouble finding moments when my dog is not either attached to me like a barnacle, or so involved with something interesting that I don't want to call him for fear he will not respond. Especially when we are outdoors. He will recall beautifully in the house, but what I really need is a solid recall offleash out of doors. I am looking for more ideas if any, and I had an idea myself, but thought I should run it by people and hear whether it is idiotic (probably it is--I have a gut feeling it may be idiotic) before I actually try it on him.

We made great progress on recall when I had a friend to help, but that is too rare. (I am single and live way out in the country, so as a practical matter I conduct my social life when in town, and relatively rarely do friends come out here.) And unfortunately I cannot borrow the neighbor kids to help as I could with my last puppy, because this guy is too big and strong.

So I am wondering if there a way to mimic the two person situation with only one person and here is what I thought of:

suppose I take a 50 foot long line attached to him at one end and with a way to attach it to a stationery object at the other end, say a stake in the ground and a bolt snap to hook the long line to the stake. Now, suppose I walk with the dog and go around a tree and then keep going so that the tree with the long line around it acts like another person applying restraint so he can't keep following. I head back to the place where the other end is attached and undo it. (presumably he is not smart enough to have already gone back around the tree the other way and gotten back to me). Then I give myself a little slack and start to run away from him while calling him to come, and then drop the line so that he can do so

Would it work? Or would the line get stuck and mess him up and give him an inadvertent leash correction right at the worst moment? Has anyone tried such a thing?

I don't suppose there are any other devices that would do this same thing? Something that I could release at a distance but that would not leave a trailing line to possibly be stepped on or to get caught on the tree or in the grass?

How about if I left the long line attached at my end and used those little plastic doodads that came with the Springer bike attachment and are meant to break with enuf force right up at a harness? That way the rope would not drag behind. Course, I would only get two shots at my recall and then would be out of little plastic doodads.

Oh hey, are there breakaway collars or harnesses for dogs where the part meant to breakaway can be reattached to use again and again? (and would have to be in very big size) A harness would be better than collar for this, because he is supposed to pull when on harness, not when on collar.

If there are not, I think some of us should get together and design such a thing!

[Judi W]

Forget it please. You do not want your dog to learn to pull against a teather and then break loose from it. Not a good thing to teach.

The substitute is the hide and seek game. You wait until the dog is preoccupied, hide and call dog to find you. You will need to give clues along the way till he learns to use his nose ...... always have a good treat and lots of praise.

[MARYDVM]

Field trainers make use of a very light, round, braided nylon check cord (long line) that's about 40 or 50 ft. long.(Available in J+B catalog, I think) It is very light, and slips through most types of cover without hanging up. The dog drags it all the time outside. Rather than setting up situations where he is artificially kept far enough away to call, utilize the moments when he is so intent on something that you are afraid he might not come. That's the time you want a solid recall, anyway. Pick up the cord, call, and if you don't get an instant response, pop the lead and run backward if needed to get him in motion towards you. Then lots of praise, or reward for leaving what he was so interested in to come to you. If you might have to pull hard on the cord, or if he might jerk the lead, you may want to have leather gloves on - those nylon cords can burn if jerked through your grip.

[Beckysmom]

Okay thanks! I will try both your ideas. Probably each will work at certain times and in certain situations. I knew mine was probably stupid. Thank you for saving me from myself and more important saving Mr. Bodhi. I will use gloves. I already got a rope burn from him once using our long line, and once was enough. It is the type you suggest, but the terrain here is quite rugged and even it can get caught up. Less likely though if I have one end held aloft and am following him with it.

I got our checkcord from Cherrybrook catalog. That is what I was thinking of using in the more cockamamie way I had thought of. your idea is far more straightforward. Is J+B a whole name or an abbreviation? I haven't heard of them. I always like knowing of more useful sources.

It is Mr. Bodhi's arbitrary first birthday!

Now that with your help, Judi, I figured out I was dealing with normal teen stuff last week, he is shaping up nicely. In most other ways he is far more difficult than Bekka was, but in this regard he seems to be easier. As soon as it became clear that I wasn't taking guff from him, he got this "oops, busted" look and changed his attitude, and has not yet tested me again. I am sure he will try again fairly soon (and I am ready for you Mr. B! :D :D ). She was more into testing as a teen. Not sure if that is boy girl difference, or just their individual quirks.

I also found out the GSD owner wasn't worried about my guy eating his guy. Apparently Ken the trainer puts dogs who are likely to bite people or other dogs in muzzles (and mine isn't, so that is understood to indicate that he is supposed to be at least reasonably okay). The guy was afraid because he had lost control of his dog (also a teen) and couldn't get it to recall, and had made it worse by starting to chase the dog, and had just gotten a correction from Ken to stop him from chasing and tell him to call enticingly (to which the dog did respond).

It seems like handlers too need proofing. One tries to call ones dog in the best most enticing way in training times, and then when the dog is really in trouble, in a real world situation, heading toward traffic etc. it takes a lot of presence of mind to recall the right way, not chase the dog or sound angry.

And everyone got a reminder warning about not doing things like taking a cell phone call in the parking lot and forgetting to watch one's dog. How it only takes an instant of inattention for a tragedy to occur. Just thought I'd stick that in here as a reminder also for all reading this.

Kate

[Judi W]

Sounds like you will be fine. Like I said, "managing" the dog really is dependent upon attitude and it sounds like you have gotten one. Good job. I am always much more concerned about that than I am about straight sits and so forth. Once you can manage your dog, then you can start to train and become partners. Until that time you are just fighting with the dog - and usually losing, both the fight and the relationship. Dogs love their leaders.

[Beckysmom]

Thanks for the encouragement, Judi.

It will no doubt be a humbling experience to see how difficult it will be to make myself, running and hiding with toys and treats etc., more interesting and appealing and motivitating to him than the pleasures of putting his nose down a gopher hole.

I think I will do the run and hide and make myself interesting so that recall is, I hope, an exciting thing for him to do, while I also hang onto the check cord, so that I can enforce the recall signal once given even if I am having trouble competing with the gophers. Can't take a chance on this teen getting the idea that a recall is optional.

kate