Stopping dogs from piddling off

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MiCsarah

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Im really nervous about starting to walk my 2 young spaniels together. One is just over a year and the other is 11 weeks and is just about to start going for walks. My older one who is called Alfred and is rather into running. He is fine on his own and with my bitch but if hes with another confident dog who loves to run they will just keep going and no amount of trying to recall him seems to help unless the other dog turns aswell. He is awful when walking with my friends spaniel who is renowed or just piddling off a couple of fields away! I'm now terrified that him and my also very confident puppy are going to start running off. Alfred is not fussed by food so treating him for recall is hard. Puppy im hoping will be interested in food abit more so will be easier to praise when training.
So please any tips
 
Train separately, use a long line, use a whistle, hand feeding (feeding all or part of the dog's daily allowance of food from your pocket so that the dog knows that food comes from you, not a bowl, are all things you can try :)
 
One of mine (on stairs in sig pic) is currently being long lined with retrieval work thrown in. If he and his brother are together, they will sometimes run off. We try to walk them separately therefore. The brother goes out of sight but with persistent calling of his name, he comes back.

The OH read that repeating the word come is not very effective :confused: so we just use his name to orientate him.
 
That's why a whistle is good, my pup doesn't care much for his name, HERE can be hit and miss depending on the situation :p especially if he thinks it means the end of fun/a ticking iff, but a whistle really gets his attention, doesn't wear out any word in particular and he identifies it with getting fed.
 
I wanted to train ours to the whistle, but the OH thinks he'd forget the whistle and doesn't want props. :rolleyes: I he's mad, it would save our voices and they would definitely hear it.
 
Principles are all very well, 'you don't need to use food/toys/props' is all very well - I know people who compete to very high levels with hugely challenging dogs and they use all of those things, I would rather listen to them - if one thing (the voice) is not working, and no offence, it isn't, then try something else, do what suits your dogs, not what suits your 'ideals', I threw out my set-in-stone ideas a long time ago :p :D

(Not aimed at you, aimed at your hubby :p)
 
I use me big gob, an shout a little something like an indian:D and generally (my bad) I never use treats, on the odd occasion when I have a high prey drive dog (cue the boy lurcher I have in) then primula cheese.
OH will literally call them in the house continually "bobby" squirt of primula "bobby" squirt of primula "bobby" squirt of primula (mainly) as lest not forget, I have to deal with teaching recall on a dog I only named a week before:eek: so my job is doubly hard........*touch wood* I have yet to experience a "recall issue" it's the one thing I can get pretty quick, but no doubt my dogs help with this too (but again I had to train all of them and I put in extra to make sure they listen to me;) and NOT follow each other!, as with 10 it's vital! even with distraction. I was out in the field the other day with a young lab and some horses came out of nowhere, he did a "fenton/benton":D I used my gob, he turned tail and came back:eek: I was amazed, not that I should have been I worked with him enough:p:p
I had been making a huge deal with his name (he is super friendly and loves attention and silliness):D so him coming to me means he can be stoopid and I play with him, I use the same silly name now all the time (the way I say it more so).

More importantly if I have a dog that is taking longer, they do not get off the lead!! they get longer walks to make up the exercise and extra longline time (this I believe is where others go wrong) they find it impossible to keep a og on a longline whilst perfecting recall;)
I think for now you should work with the elder on the longline with your voice or training aids and never let them off lead together until you have the puppies recall spot on.
My wire haired pointer was by far the worst dog I worked with, he was not treat orientated or toy, I would only allow him to take 10 steps before calling him back, with him the further you allowed him to go the more selectively deaf he became:rolleyes: until he was "gone" we did the longline and 10 steps for 6 months, he is now near enough 100%, the wind is his friend, it brings on the selective deafness:p
 
If your hubby won't carry a whistle (not heavy :)) can he not whistle with his fingers? That is how i do it, always have done, I can whistle reeaaallly loud and shrill if i need to and defy any dog to ignore it, none have by the way, (even my horse comes to the whistle). not terribly refined i know but it works. mine turns on a sixpence.
I agree about getting the older dogs recall sorted first or you will end up with the puppy copying him and then there is double the problem.
I bet if you use the primula advice and long line etc on the pup, he will be fab.
 
CaveCanem said:
if one thing (the voice) is not working, and no offence, it isn't, then try something else, do what suits your dogs, not what suits your 'ideals', I threw out my set-in-stone ideas a long time ago :p :D

(Not aimed at you, aimed at your hubby :p)
Click to expand...

You should have seen his face when I suggested taking chunks of raw chicken as rewards! :eek::D Trouble is, Zak is a difficult dog. Adorable and gorgeous at home, traumatic when out.

OH is open to new stuff, he's been reading lots recently as despite having this breed for years, each dog is different and Zak is absolutely determined to do what he wants to do. He's working on focus, attention to us, being calm when there are distractions. It's succeeding, thank God!
 
I have spent the afternoon whistle training in the house. As soon as the boys go off somewhere in the house I have been blowing the whistle and they both picked it up really quickly and come running to find me for their treat. I'm impressed. Will just see if it works outside. Will start my training with alf tomorrow morning, I'm determind to crack this! Thanks for all your tips. Wish me luck :)
 
One of my 2 has selective hearing and disappeared a few weeks ago and it tooks us 2hours to find the little (won't repeat what I was calling him that day!!!). Long lined him for a few days and recall has really improved, I haven't trained to a whistle, but he does respond to it very well (my friend that I walk with can whistle!!!), or roaring his name followed by STOP seems to be very good if he's become a bit focused on something.
When I walk with my friend we normally walk 4 or 5 dogs, it's always the boys that disappear, the girls are always the first too come back!!!
 
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