Do you have 100% reliable recall?

All of my dogs will come no matter what the situation, 100% of the time!

Jennie
 
Any hints and/or ideas as to how to build the recall with your dog?  What type of training technics did you use?

With Dingo, my heeler x, its 110%. Usually he never goes where he can't see us. I  think its breed related.[]

Millie does, even though it's never been worked on. She's broken off her leash going after something, and as soon as she realizes she isn't on a leash, she comes right back.

With Max, I trust that he won't go anywhere. He won't go too far from me without checking back with me. He gets so far ahead of me, and then he'll stop and check in with me, and he won't go ahead anymore without permission. That I have tested, he will come back, except when running with another dog.

well, you never know if it's 99.9% or 100% until that one failure... But yeah, I think a good recall is the most important thing you can teach your dog.

So far, my dogs have come 100% of the time, too, but dogs are not automatons, so there is always the possibility that, like humans, they will make an occasional error.  So, in places where that could be problematic, they are leashed.
The methods I use are very similar to Leslie Nelson's "Really Reliable Recall", and I have found that, as long as you understand what motivates your dog and use it as a reward, you will be successful.
Dogs don't generalize very well, so you need to practice recalls, right from the get go, in different locations, and with ever increasing levels of distraction.  For example, of my six month old puppy is very good at recalls in the training center, at home, & at the beach with only a few dogs, she also needs to be good at the beach with a few more dogs, a kite or two, and six screaming kids - so we build up to that.

I would have to say Dasher's recall is not 100%, but pretty close.  I consider it a work in progress.  I have called him off birds and playing with dogs, but not sure about how he would be with a rabbit.  Also the one time he did not come when called was when he was playing with a friend's Lab and the lab took off to play with some near by kids.  He followed the Lab.  I "think" he would have come back had he been by himself but when the Lab took off he followed.  In fact he did pause and look at me when the lab took off and I called, but then I made the mistake of walking towards him and then he continued after the lab.  Like I said recalls are something I will always work on, so I'm pleased with his progress so far, for a 1.5 year old JRT I'm not complaining too much!![]

I know Blue doesn't have a 100% recall he has a few times kept going until I said his first and middle name then he came back. I will always keep a drag line on him until the day I get a good fence or until he is really good with recall.
 

I'd bet the farm that Max does NOT have 100% reliable recall.  Although one day (when he was in school) we were working with the long line, and he took off after a dog he saw on the bike path across the park.  I yelled MAX really loud and he stopped and looked at me, then trotted back.  We definitely need to work on this one because I really think that if he spotted a cat or a squirrel, he'd be in the next county before I caught him.  Funny though, if the front door is open for any reason he'll sit right in the doorway so he can see what's going on, but if I tell him to stay he won't run out in front - he'll just sit there and watch.

ORIGINAL: bluelighting

I know Blue doesn't have a 100% recall he has a few times kept going until I said his first and middle name then he came back.

 
First and middle names called together always indicates trouble...at least in my childhood experiences.[sm=biggrin.gif]
 
Brown has a good recall, but Grey...no way. I'm not saying he'd haul tail and never return if he wasn't on a leash, but I personally don't feel comfortable with him not being next to me without a reliable recall. I'm very much looking forward to moving next month...tons of land and a fenced area. I feel like I can finally be in a safe-enough area to work on this and actually accomplish something.

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

well, you never know if it's 99.9% or 100% until that one failure...

Good point.  So far, we're at 100% but I try not to tempt fate ...[8|]

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

well, you never know if it's 99.9% or 100% until that one failure... But yeah, I think a good recall is the most important thing you can teach your dog.

You're right, and I totally agree. You'll never know if it doesn't work until it doesn't work. If it doesn't work all the time, you know you can't trust your dog. If it usually works, but you just haven't encountered that one thing that will trip your dog up, you won't know until you do. I trust Max, but I don't want to lose him, so I don't unhook the leash. I do let him run, but I let him run with a 20ft line attached, so if he doesn't come back, i've got 20ft of insurance that I can catch him with. Millie is never let purposely off leash because she is so reactive. If Max were to get off leash, it wouldn't be because I let him, but I would employ the emergency recall name. I didn't specifically train it, but it seems to work well. We were calling him Maxington, then Maxingtinny, and then Tinny, just as a silly nickname. In the process of doing it, he actually started responding to the name Tinny, so we have to remember not to use it now unless we really want him to come. It seems to work, and he came back yesterday at the park, but that wasn't an emergency, and it also wasn't the park with a lot of distractions.  I hope I never have to really use it, and I  hope  if I do it  works.

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.

Bailey is about 70% at the moment, but then, weve only had her for a month... and she is only 4 months old.  So I expect as we work on it she'll get much better[]