Clean Run - April 2017 - 24

Recall Training
One of my biggest problems with pups
is having a dog around me that doesn't
respond instantly. Logically I know
they're puppies, unfortunately, the result is still irritation. If I say your name, I
don't much care that you're investigating the rats in the hedge, look at me!
So I made a decision to separate Shade
from Darcey and Dexi out on walks until his response became automatic. We
are not discussing competing motivation here, but rather a trained response.
Many people think in terms of "I need
better rewards," or in other words, is
steak stronger than the urge to go and
investigate the field next door, put the
pheasants up, etc.? How many times
have you heard the advice that you
"need to be more interesting" than
what's out there? What actually needs
to happen is that the response to recall
is ingrained deeply enough that it becomes an automatic response. Chianna
didn't stop chasing a squirrel because
she found food more interesting than
the chase, she stopped because it had
become an ingrained habit for her to

do so, something she didn't consciously think about. That's where I want
Shade's response to his name to be
and it won't get there all the time the
two other youngsters are with us, as he
finds them far more interesting.
Halfway through the month, Shade
was out and about with me; I was feeding horses and checking their water.
I looked for him, saw him in the field
and called him. He gave me that look
and turned and walked away, stopping
every so often to see my reaction. This
pup is very, very bright. Whilst I would
never set out to train with anything
other than reward, in life there are
consequences. So I walked him down.
Calmly, trying not to laugh, I simply followed him wherever he went, whilst
cursing that we were in such a large
field! Shady was thrilled! He wiggled
and ran away; he ran circles around me
and generally had a wonderful time
whilst keeping a close eye on me. After
30 minutes, it wasn't quite so funny. After 45 minutes he stopped. I stopped.
He looked and then came and touched
my hand. I rewarded him and turned

and walked smartly away. When I was
perhaps 15 feet away, I called and he
came immediately. On the walk back
home, he successfully performed 12
more recalls.
The object of the exercise is to remove
the reward in running away, to make
running away a boring occupation. I
was not cross and my body language
wasn't angry. You must make sure
there's nothing to worry the pup if you
do decide to try this. Had Shade been
a sight hound after game, my presence
would have been irrelevant and the exercise pointless. However, Shady had
made a clear decision and was watching me closely. If the person isn't chasing you, if they're slow and boring, but
at the same time they keep coming,
running away isn't such a fun game and
eventually even Shade gave up.
A note here, Shade had been rewarded
literally thousands of times for a recall
at this stage. In this case, the behavior
was obvious and in my experience if you
have a dog that thinks for himself, sooner or later they're going to say no. It's
how you deal with that no that's impor-

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