Thanks again lol I've lost track of how many times you've helped!!

Yep I remember pavlov's bell so can see how it will work... in time!! So I will try and keep my patience hat on x

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You're welcome - don't forget we've been there and done that, so know exactly how you feel. I'm not too good at explaining things, there are others on here who describe it better, but people tend to underestimate how much effort (over a period of time) teaching a recall is. It's easy to teach a sit, down etc, and people mistakely think that recall will be the same, but it is not.

I often hear people say, my dog has a great recall except .........when there are other dogs.... they are playing .... etc etc. Well, I don't mean to be upset anyone, but unless they have recall in any situation then they don't have a good recall - even if their dog will come straight away some of the time. A good recall means coming EVERY time, regardless of distractions. Again, most think they've trained when they've got their dog recalling with no or low distractions, but actually they've only half trained it.

Another point when using reward based training is that you need to control the rewards, and I don't just mean the treats/games. Running off and playing with other dogs is probably the ultimate reward, particularly if the dog doesn't live with other dogs, so pieces of liver cake of chicken will have far less value. It doesn't mean you stop them playing with others - in fact, it is important to socialise them anyway, and the more used they are to other dogs, the less of a novelty they are. BUT, it does mean that you need to be vigilant and preempt the situation... see the other dog first.... recall him/her to you...perhaps pop him on the lead getting him to concentrate on you.... then YOU release him and let him go and play... even give it a command. Compare that with going for a walk seeing other dogs and them just running up to play... in the latter situation you are completely irrelevant as far as your dog goes.

I hope that makes sense.

PS. When I said whistle... I meant a whistle - I use an Acme 210.5 and have one in the car, one in my jacket pocket, and two with the leads.... Even so, there are still times I manage to go out without it, so just as well they are trained with voice too

Thanks again for the input the other problem I have with recall is people as when I whistle/ call they seem to have to fuss him now I know he is a friendly good looking dog. But when I'm trying hard to recall him they are rewarding him for not coming back. So what do you recommend??? short of shouting at the people to leave my dog alone.

Oh don't talk to me about bloody people who can clearly see you recalling your dog, but call them over for a fuss anyway!!!

The only thing you can do really is either -

pre-empt the situation by turning and going the other way when you see someone approach so your dog never gets the chance to practise lolloping over to other people


or

if your dog is already going over, DON'T DON'T DON'T use your recall command if you doubt that he is going to obey. Just go over, collect him without a word and maybe put him onlead for a few minutes.

Working on being more fun than ANY other person helps.

I must admit though I did end up calling "Please ignore her!!" when my girl used to approach people. You can get some funny looks but frankly, stuff them. It's your dog.

How old is your dog?? I found that things improved a LOT when mine stopped looking like a cute, fluffy puppy. People stopped making such a fuss and it became much easier to be more fun than them

Actually, it's just occurred to me that if I had my time again, I'd probably think about muzzling my girl.... not because she's in any way dangerous, but people tend to gush less over a dog wearing a muzzle LOL!

My dog went though a stage of pinching/chewing all the grooming equipment when I took her to my mate's yard, so I got her a Baskerville Muzzle, acclimatised her to it with the help of a clicker, and used it when we went to the yard so that I didn't have to follow her everywhere all the time.... it worked a treat, she didn't mind it and she soon grew out of the kleptomania, but it was amazing how differently some people treated her when she was muzzled; even people who knew she was perfectly friendy!

Yep, if I ever get another dog, I shall muzzle it, give it a name like "Tyson" or "Arnie" or "Ripper" and when it approaches people I don't want it to, I shall yell "GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR, COVER YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS AND DON'T MOVE!!!!!!!"

That should stop them encouraging strange dogs

He is 18months old and he is a rough collie ( Lassie ) so as you can imagine all the oos and ahhs. The people in the village are o.k but I find the tourist ( I shall call them ) are the worst I have shouted to them to stop fussing him as I'm in the process of training him. Glad I'm not the only one with this prob.

I was on the verge of making my dog some jackets - you know, like the trainee Guide Dogs/Hearing Dogs wear. It would be bright yellow and have "PLEASE IGNORE ME - I AM RECALL TRAINING" printed on it.