My father trains gundogs. As puppies they are taught recall by word association ...... come command given as they are naturally running towards you and big fuss made of them, same at feed time as the run to feed bowl, etc. Always lots of fuss for coming back and as others have said, never a reprimand once they return (however long it took
). He would be careful never to give a come command if he thought it likely that the dog was in a situation in which he would ignore the command. As the dog reached 7 months of age, the recall and other basic training would begin eg. sit, stay Until this age the dog would be allowed to be a baby and would have had no obedience lessons as such. Once the dog knew the come command he would be expected never to dis-obey. If he did my father would run to the dog (needs to be done carefully so dog almost doesn't see you coming ie. choose your spot) grab hold of him by the scruff and pull him towards you giving the come command. Let go, walk back a couple of steps and in a happy voice say come, come and reward.
I asked my collie training neighbour, how he achieved a good recall. He described the same approach. I said that it was just the same then as getting a retriever to recall and he laughed and said that a gundog trainer had in fact taught him that technique. He had in the past never gone after the dog if it ignored a recall believing the dog would see it as a game but that he had tried it and found it to be very effective and had not failed him and so he had adopted it.
You are not in a way punishing for the ignored recall but letting the dog know that he cannot just do his own thing because he feels that there is some distance between him and you.
I know ..... you should never physically punish a dog, some will say. Yes, some will say that you can get a good recall by just using treats or whatever. Well, my Flattie wouldn't care if you were waving a prime steak at him ..... he is not bothered about food or toys ..... in some situations. I have done the above and if done correctly have found that it works and works quickly. Not sure how effective it would be on older dogs as they are set more in their ways and have learned to "get away with it". It is a technique used by SOME gundog trainers and you need to observe your dog carefully as to how they react to it. Just thought that it may help someone ..... a dog without a decent recall can get itself into trouble.
OhLaLa - my Flattie uses visitors as an excuse to be very silly and do as he pleases. Not so much now he is older. I had to explain to visitors that I would have to give my attention to him for a while and he then realizes that yep, one of my eyes is on him even though I am chatting and he still has to be a good lad. Quite clever of them really.
