Jewlieee
Posted : 11/16/2010 1:21:40 PM
First, you should always have bells on your dogs if they are off leash - no matter what time of year it is. This helps to scare off the critters before the dogs even see them which cuts down on a lot of the chase situations. Sometimes though critters are dumb or too young to know better and the dogs will flush something out.
My dogs are off leash more than they are on, so I work on this a lot. You have to gradually work up to what you want by starting with the basics: passive attention, leave its and recalls.
Passive attention: I started this by giving them treats whenever they would even look at me while off leash. So, if they are up ahead sniffing something then turn their head toward me, I mark it with a "YES! good dog!". They know the marker word yes means that a treat is coming so they will instantly come running when they hear me say it. This reinforces them to always note where I'm at whenever we are out and about.
Eventually, the return to me for the treat gets burned in to their brains and every few minutes they will make a sweep by me on their own. When they do this, I mark it with a yes and give a treat.Then they go back to their sniffing and so forth.
In low distraction situations, I will start to interject a "here" which is my relaxed version of come. Come means get your but to my feet now. Here means just come to my general vicinity, check in with me, etc. It's basically just labeling their coming to grab a treat and go. Eventually this turns in to a relaxed recall so that they will come to me, walk near me (within 10 ft or so) for a few minutes or until I say ok.
Next I work on adding leave it and "here's" or "comes" together. Of course, we work on the leave it in every possible situation imaginable - at home, with meals, toys, each other, etc. I add leave its to things they want to sniff that aren't that highly interesting and gradually build up. Again, I mark the leave its with a yes followed by a treat (or a release command to go ahead).
Jackpots are needed for whenever they leave a small critter like a squirrel or a bird.
Neiko has been trained this way big time and he will never go where he can't see me (this is causing us problems with SAR but that is another topic). So, if he flushes up a deer or other critter, he will initially take notice and maybe give chase for about 100 ft then stop. His leave its and recalls are always reliable and i never worry about him chasing anything for a distance.
Abbie and Lily have higher prey drives though so I have to stay on top of them and train train train. Abbie is much more reliable than Lily but that is because I have put more work in to Abbie due to sar stuff. I've gotten lazy with Lily.