Well at times, especially at silly 'o' clock in the morning, it seems as if that may be come a reality.

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Handle every stressful situation like a dog; If you cannot eat it or play with it, simply pee on it and walk away !

Brilliant post.

You have to remember - if your dog does not recall outside but is reliable in the house, it does NOT mean he is necessarily choosing to ignore you. Until you proof the behaviour in all sorts of different situations/settings, you can't really consider the behaviour "trained". You have to gradually work up to recalling in the face of distractions etc.

Has anyone mentioned whistle training on here yet? I've been using a whistle for my girl and although her recall was pretty good anyway, the whistle seems to work ten times better. I think A) Because the high-pitch is easier for her to hear, especially when she's distracted and B) She knows that when she hears the whistle, I am about to LEG IT in the other direction, and that when she catches me she ALWAYS gets the absolute best treats - chicken, garlic sausage, a game of tug....

What dog do you have? I know it doesnt matter all that much but... I did try a whistle, and it started to work really well, i think mainly cos i used 'come' to often and reinforced it by putting her on a lead and telling her off for eating poo or small dogs . The whistle i made sure was associated with only good things.

Now what i need to ask you. Did u put any effort into getting her interested in you running away ? Its just that if Daisy is interested in something, and i blow a whistle, she'll stop and look at me, see im running away and its almost like she thinks "Oh good, he's distracted by something in the opposite direction, ill carry on with what i was doing" and pays no attention. More often than not i find myself totally puffed out, miles away from my dog looking totally irresponsible as at the time my dog needed attention, i was running away lol.

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Handle every stressful situation like a dog; If you cannot eat it or play with it, simply pee on it and walk away !

Ah, but when I run away, I am running away with the BEST food on me!!

Start in the house and garden, blow whistle when you're calling her for her dinner. Progress to calling for treats but they've got to be the BEST treats - I spend more on flipping Tesco's Chunky Chicken and cocktail sausages than I do on normal food lol! Teach her, slowly and methodically, that the whistle means WONDERFUL food (I am assuming your dog is food orientated - if she prefers toys, then use those as rewards). When you progress to using it on walks, if your dog is a little hungry, so much the better (obviously I'm not recommending starving it). The important thing is, work in the house, then the garden, absolutely CEMENTING in your dog's mind that when she hears that whistle, NOTHING is nicer! So you can blow the whistle and run away from her in the garden - when she catches you (make sure she gradually has to make more and more effort but keep it FUN) she gets the treat. Treats are always even better when you've had to make a bit of effort to get them!!

Only when she is responding really keenly in the house and garden, all the time, is it worth trying on walks and even then, for the first few times, do it when she isn't distracted - then gradually build up etc. Make it easy for her to do it right

Oh I've got a Collie/Poodle crossbreed.

What about if your dog habitually vomits any food given to her that isnt damn James Wellbeloved or atleast, hypoallergenic ? I mean, shes a lab so shes gonna love it whatever but would u say its the variety of food that excites the dogs mind or just the prospect of food?

Also, one other thing i need to iron out before. When she does decide to chase you as you are running away, she'll put a quick end to it by biting the nearest limb and dragging you to the ground, if you resist then she will simply bite harder and begin to shake from side to side untill flesh or clothing begin to tear.

We have never allowed her to jump and always give a "No" and ignore her when she does it, but jumping seems to be reward enough for her. I dont want to be running away from her, she jumping and biting me and then me turning and giving masses of wonderful treats for it, that surely will tell her that jumping up and dragging owner to ground = nicer food than usual.

Any ideas ?

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Handle every stressful situation like a dog; If you cannot eat it or play with it, simply pee on it and walk away !

It depends on the dog. Some dogs just love food - any food. A very food orientated, greedy dog will work for plain ol' kibble, in which case you are lucky and can just use portions of his usual food ration for training. My dog however isn't THAT fussed about grub - which is why I have to make sure that whatever reward I use is VERY high-value. The important thing is to choose whatever your dog prefers - sometimes it's toys, sometimes it's food. Sometimes it's the opportunity to sniff stuff. EG if you've got a dog who loves food - use his normal food for low-distraction situations but you'd probably want to switch to what HE considers more "high value" treats in a situation where there were more distractions. If your dog loves to play tug more than anything else in the world - use a game of tug as your reward.

If your dog LOVES sniffing in the grass above all else, then sprinkle some food in the long grass when he comes back to you, and help him look for it In the case of a lady I know on another forum, who works her dogs in working trials and Schutzhund (SP), her GSD loves to bite (controlled, police-dog type biting obviously) - so that is his reward for doing what she asks. Know your dog, and what HE considers the best thing in the world, and you are halfway there

As to variety - as far as I'm aware, there are two schools of thought on this. One theory is to sometimes use high value rewards, sometimes not so high value. This works on the theory that you then become like a human slot-machine - the dog works harder knowing that he will get a reward, but hey - sometimes it's a GREAT reward!!

Other people think that if you mix n' match like that, the dog will view the not-so-high-value rewards as a bit of a disappointment, and not try so hard. Trial and error, really.

Are there any treats or special food he CAN manage?


Does she like playing tug with toys? If she's playing tug with your person, presumably she does LOL! If so, teach her to play tug with you. There is no reason not to play tug with your dog as long as YOU control the game, and the dog will release on command. Practise at home - encourage and praise for grabbing the toy - if she grabs anything inappropriate, screech "OUCH!!", stop playing IMMEDIATELY and leave the room for a few minutes. Teach her that:

Playing with toy is fun.
Grabbing anything other than the toy leads to the game stopping, and a few minutes boredom.

AH ha ! Good point. My dog does love sniffing the grass. Infact my main issue is getting her to exercise. She wont chase balls or any kind of toy, she'd much rather stay put and bury her face in a pile of grass. Poor girl, she was most upset when the council came along and cut the field. However, i still find it hard to understand why she likes this. I mean, she's never found any treats on the field, whenever she does find something to eat (poop) she gets told off....so i dont get whats so rewarding. Anyway, good idea in sprinkling treats in the grass. Maybe after a while she will view the whistle not as a recall command but as me alerting her that i have found a patch of grass that needs some attention.

[quote] Are there any treats or special food he CAN manage? [quote]

Yea, well James Wellbeloved treats lol. Im gutted to be honest that she has turned out to be allergic to beef or wheat. It means all raw feeding has stopped and as i am not the legal owner of Daisy, i dont really get a say in what she eats, just a suggestion. Owner says that if she eats these biscuits and doesnt vomit, then she should stay on these biscuits

Thing is, these treats are not that different to the kibble and she seems to have super-human reasoning skills does our Daisy. Ill train her inside, in the garden or in a school basketball court and she'll backflip for a single kibble biscuit. But take her to a field and its like she is thinking "Well, i could give up this patch of grass to go do what owner wants and recieve kibble / treat OR i could ignore them totally, do what i want, and get fed when i get home and get treats when im trained at home.

Im thinking good things will come of this "help her find treats in the grass thing though". Never thought of that and Daisy will literally give up ANYTHING for a chance to be left alone with a patch of grass.......strange.

Well i dont know. Its hard to tell, mainly i feel cos i am a dog noob. I dont know if she tugs cos she enjoys it or tugs cos shes annoyed you took the toy away. She wont waltz up to you with her rope and wait for you to start pulling. Its just if shes happily un-knotting it on the floor and you try and come along an pikey it for a spot of fetch, THEN the tug begins. Or if you throw it in some hard to reach place that involved moving objects then climbing on them to reach it, she'll get the rope, begin to come to you, then stop and do a little victory dance (which is the single most cutest thing i have EVER seen btw) and then come lay next to you. But try and take it off her to throw again and shes like "No, no way am i going through that again just to get this back, you are NOT having it."


Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated !

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Handle every stressful situation like a dog; If you cannot eat it or play with it, simply pee on it and walk away !

Exactly! Just the same as if you used food as a recall reward - it doesn't matter a jot whether the dog views a sound (remember, that's all words/whistles are to dogs: different sounds which come to mean different things) as a "command" or an alert that something GREAT is on offer - as long as you get the result, it's all good



Often happens. It is good, though, that it is clear what she loves doing. What you want her to think now though is "If I recall, I not only get to carry on sniffing, but I am sniffing out and eating treats!!"

Not really strange - sniffing is one of those things which dogs find internally rewarding - ie it makes them feel good. Just like chasing - they get hooked on the endorphins.

Think of a Border Collie herding sheep - the sheepdog trainer doesn't spend his time endlessly rushing over to give the dog treats - the dog finds the herding SO rewarding that he obeys the "lie down" (or whatever) command because he knows that the reward is to carry on herding



I'd defo recommend you try to get her hooked on tug - but sometimes they do have to learn to enjoy it. Next time you try to get it off her, ENCOURAGE her to tug - act excited yourself and say "GEDDIT!!" - when you want her to stop, STOP MOVING THE TOY so that it becomes "dead" - most dogs will lose interest then. As she releases it, say "drop" or "give" (I use "S'enough") and give a treat. If she doesn't release straight away, show her the treat as you give her the "release" cue. Practise and practise. Don't allow her to grab the toy until you've given the cue "GEDDIT!". In time, you won't need a treat - the opportunity to grab it again becomes the reward for letting go when you ask, you see?

To get my dog wound up and ready to play, I shut her in the dog room behind the baby gate and play with the toy myself (only when I'm alone in the house lol), making lots of happy happy noises and only when she's beside herself with excitement do I let her out to join in. You can TEACH dogs to want to play with you

If she takes it off and doesn't interact with you, then quietly go up to her, take the toy and pocket it. She only gets to play with it when YOU are joining in. She'll cotton on

The advantage of getting her more focussed on you is that you can then prevent her from going off and sniffing for hours on her own. For instance, it is pointless trying to teach a dog to stop chasing rabbits if, every time you go out, you allow the dog to practise the behaviour. You have to stop them doing it on their own so that when YOU give the opportunity, it is even more rewarding

Oh and don't worry about being a "dog noob" - I'm no expert by any means but I find the whole subject fascinating and I read a lot and practise with my own dogs

Dog training, I have found, is simple. Not easy - but simple.

To a dog, it is even simpler:

Dog does X. Consequence is Y.

Good or bad, dogs learn "I do this - that happens"

The main thing is consistency, and making it easy for the dog to get it right. If you are not at least 99% sure that a command will be obeyed, then don't give it. Go back a step. If a dog isn't 100% reliable in the garden, he will be even less reliable in more distracting situations.

Did you see that episode of "The Office" where Tim conditioned Keith (or was it Gareth) to hold his hand out for a Polo whenever the computer pinged?? LOL - classic conditioning! That's what you're after with a dog - he does a certain thing when he hears a certain sound without thinking about it