Great advice on basic training, and on not focussing on what
not to do until you have a good armory of things to ask him to do instead
On recall, my golden, absolutely 100% unbreakable rule is,
A dog that comes is a good dog
Always a good dog if it comes. Whether you asked it to or not. Whether or not it was chasing - or worse - a chicken or even a sheep the instant before it came. If it comes to you, it's
always a good dog. (And yes, even if it's on the Long Stay in a competition.
)
What you want is that, if in doubt, ever, the best choice is to come to you. That it never even thinks if you call it, it just turns and runs to you. If you
ever tell it off when it comes to you, then coming to you isn't always a safe option. As soon as you break that confidence that by your side / in front of you is always a safe and pleasant place to be, then you destroy the automatic response of coming to you when you call, or when it's worried about anything.
Your choice, but all my dogs (since the very first one, who taught me a
lot ) have had a 100%, rock solid recall. Just saying