jennie_c_d
Posted : 4/17/2006 10:09:35 PM
well, you never know if it's 99.9% or 100% until that one failure...
True, true. Emma also has an emergency down. I yell the word STOP and she drops to the ground, without even thinking. Then, I have her complete and total attention.
Gosh, that's a little of a scary thought.....
She's so good though. I do keep things controlled, of course. I wouldn't have her off leash like that with a bunch of loose dogs around, or in a crowd, or anything like that. You can tell that I was really working on holding her attention while we walked. She'll stay with me, but lose her focus, occasionally, LOL. We're working on a little better attention.
Waxen, I've been through a few different kinds of training with Emma. I've always done the same thing for recall. The word I use has never been used when I couldn't enforce it. If your dog has run away once when you said COME, it's no longer a word for recall, b/c the dog knows it's an option. I use "here" but only b/c I'm weird (I also say "wait" instead of "stay"). When Emma was a little puppy, I'd have her on a leash, and have some treats, and say, "Emma, HERE!". If she didn't move toward me, I'd bend down and give the leash a slight tug. When she got to me, she was the bestest, prettiest, smartest dog in the whole wide world, and I fed her 10 treats or so. Heavy rewards for recall, and never using the word when it won't work, has been the way I've gone, and it's worked.