Quote:
Originally Posted by Deb
Yes we are. My daughter is not as keen to let her off the lead because of past problems so will often use the training lead as reassurrance. Trust me - she did not come close enough to find out if i was angry today  and i kept my voice light and was dancing around like an idiot waving my arms to try to make it fun for her to come back (as I have been advised on this forum). My father in-law praised her when she came back to him so she did not get told off but i must admit inside i felt like it was reward for her bad behaviour |
i know it seems like rewarding them when they FINALLY come back is rewarding the bad behaviour but you are in fact rewarding her coming back to you and trying to encourage THAT behaviour. some people shout and get angry with the dog when it finally comes back which actually confuses the dog as it thinks it is being punished for coming back to the owner which can then make the whole recall worse as it will do everything to avoid punishment. so although it feels like you are rewarding wrong behaviour your are actually rewarding the dog for the desired behaviour if that makes any sense lol
also if you have a very long training line the dog can still get a run but you are always in control but beware of dogs on long lines running round you in circles as you could end up very tangled lol
wendy