Dog Community

Recall, do you think this would work?

Posted : 9/6/2010 9:54:47 PM

I'm open to suggestions if you don't.

I was thinking about all the work we've done with a long line with Crusher. He's a husky and they aren't known for having a great recall. But he's really good with a long line and nearly 100% reliable if he's dragging a 50 foot line. However, a 50' line isn't exactly practical in the bush. Do you think that if I were to gradually shorten it by say a foot a week(or maybe longer since we don't get off leash time everyday) would it be enough to trick him into thinking he needed to come back once I got down to 10 or 12 feet? Or even shorter if we're being optimistic?

He is trained on a remote collar to come back, and for a long time I never even had to buzz him, but the last few months that I was using it, he started to test it. Its now lost some of its distance too, so if he's more than about 25 feet from me it doesn't seem to work anymore. And I'd rather not buy a new one if I can help it. So we switched to a long line, but I know from experience that when we switch to a shorter line, he'll bolt out of reach and laugh at my attempts to recall him.

He has an emergency recall whistle, which earns him a pack of soft food, either cat food or dog food, whichever I find on sale, but I don't want to overuse it. If I have to, I'll stick to open places, but it would be nice to hike the slashes and stuff around here and not worry about tangles. FTR, Onyx is 100Xs better than him, plus she'll come back if he does, so I don't worry about her as much. Still it would be nice to have a reliable recall for her too obviously.

Liesje

Posted : 9/6/2010 10:22:09 PM

I kind of go with my gut as far as recalls. If it's something that has taken a lot of training and proofing to get to a certain point, it's likely that I will never really trust the dog. Coke, for example! My GSDs have always been off lead, even Nikon as a puppy going out to potty. It's just not in their nature to run away and isn't something that to be trained, just rewarded/reinforced as it happened naturally. Coke on the other hand is on a tie-out inside a fenced yard, lol. When we work at it, he gets better and more reliable, but it's like we are always having to proof it for him to stay where he's at or improve. DH and I decided it's just not worth it since we'll never trust him anyway, so he's always on a long line or we seek out large fenced in areas so he can be "free" too.

If you like having the line, I'd suggest some lighter weight ASAT, It doesn't snag in the brush. I use it mainly for tracking, dock diving, and training a dog to run blinds in protection. In all these scenarios, any other material would snag on the brush, the planks on the dock, or the blinds. I also unstitch the handles so they can't snag.

huskymom

Posted : 9/6/2010 10:38:33 PM

Um...what is ASAT? I googled it, but I'm not finding anything that resembles rope of any kind.

Lots of Camo stuff, lots of guitars, something about Assured Space Access Technologies...nope, no rope.

Liesje

Posted : 9/7/2010 8:21:25 AM

http://www.elitek9.com/ASAT/products/42/1/0

kpwlee

Posted : 9/7/2010 9:12:04 AM

huskymom
Do you think that if I were to gradually shorten it by say a foot a week(or maybe longer since we don't get off leash time everyday) would it be enough to trick him into thinking he needed to come back once I got down to 10 or 12 feet? Or even shorter if we're being optimistic?

I think you might be able to get that to work - you know beastie will never be 100% reliable but I have been able to use only a 10ft line in some circumstances. When we went to the beach in May he was on a 10ft and we have gone from a 30ft line to a 10ft line at the lake.

I cannot imagine using much less than 30ft on a trail or in woods though - his eyes glass over and nothing but scents exist in his world

huskymom

Posted : 9/7/2010 6:07:01 PM

Karen, I think that B and Crusher might be very similar dogs, though the scent is not what Crusher is after. He sees open space as just too much to deny. But he keeps me on my toes at every turn. Not unlike Bugsy I think. Crusher has however settled down quite a bit in the last couple years, maturing I guess, at least when we are at home. But out on the trail, I have to stay 2 steps ahead of him mentally, or I'll be left in his dust in an instant.

I was reading a link from another thread about clicker training a recall, and I think I might try that in tandem with shortening the long line, simply because going months before we even try the long line seems like torture.