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Re: Help Required - Awful 1 y/o lab
Some very good advice on here, I'll just add a couple of thoughts as I was scrolling through.
You shouldn't repeat commands, if the dog understands what is expected of it, then it should react to the first command. Repeating commands only teaches a dog how long it can ignore you for. The one caveat with this, is that the dog does actually have to know what the command means. The majority of people with a recall don't actually have a dog that responds to 'come', 'here' or whatever, they have a dog that responds to the word and some physical indication from you - beckoning, holding arms out etc. A useful way to find out if a dog knows a command is to stand with your back to it, arms by sides, and give the verbal/whistle command.
Shouting at a big boisterous Labrador won't make one iota of a difference, particularly if you do it constantly, the dog just becomes used to that level of noise. You could be shouting 'pink fluffy bunnies' for all the dog knows, it won't understand. I do use a growly voice with mine as a reminder when I know they are sticking the proverbial finger up at me, and it works, because the rest of the time I have a calm and quiet voice with them. If mine weren't sure of a command, then raising the volume won't help them to understand it, repeating the training will, and they do like to get it right.
One final bit of advice is that if your dog won't work for anything but food, you've possibly not been shown how to use play reward correctly. As I've said above, dogs love getting it right, my two (Labrador bitches) rarely get a food reward for anything training related, it's the actual 'doing' they enjoy.
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