Sunday
Recall workshop.
This was a great class and I think the one we have come away from feeling very impressed in Bella and if I'm honest, ourselves too.
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| How can you ignore this face :O) |
Our first task was to let Bella off on a loose lead (long line) and wait for her to loose interest in us and start sniffing about. We then had to call her and if she didn't come straight away, we had to "reel" her in and praise her for coming back so that us = treats. Now I say all this as if it happened the way its meant to but Bella being Bella decided she knew something was up and wouldn't leave my side!! In the end I had to get Keith to recall her to him so I could then recall her back to me to do the task lol!!
Our next task was recall from a distance. I went and stood about 20 foot away from Bella, and called her. She came running, ears flapping and got her reward. The other trainer who was with our regular trainer pointed out something quite important on the recall. As I called her, "Bella hereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" as soon as she started to get near me I started saying good girl. This indicates to her that she has completed the command already as shes been given the good girl signal and so to her coming back means come half way and that's job done. So we make sure we now only say Hereeeeeeeeee and as soon as she starts coming towards us really hype up the excitement and basically make ourselves THE most exciting thing on the planet that she really has to return to so we start saying yeahhaaaaaaaaa woooooooo and clap and bingo every time she comes and once she is at our feet the good girl is given and its like she has got the jack pot treat wise.
To make her more inclined to return to us we call her and run in the opposite direction making sure we keep an eye on her to see the moment she starts towards us which is when we drop and go OTT on the calling. Yes we did feel like ***s lol!! We also got Bella to recall from having a sniff about in the bushes and again this worked very well. I am going to do some separate posts after this one with videos which have been uploaded by our trainer and include footage from classes over recent weeks. I really recommend having a looksie.
We then went on a walk, similar to the social walks we have on the Saturday but this time all dogs remained on the long lines and we practiced recalling a lot. Recalling from playing with another dog, recall from sniffing about, rewarding when the dog returned without calling-just checking in, and we also did some tasks out in the fields so to speak.
We all lined up facing one another about 5ft apart and dogs facing inwards. We then handed our dog over one by one to Jenny and walked to the other end of the "tunnel" and would call for the dog to come through the distractions of the dogs and owners. Bella being Bella decided to do it her way!!. She ran AROUND the tunnel of owners and dogs and came to us LOL!!!! She did however do it properly too and with ease too :)
To make it harder, the owners then dotted themselves around the tunnel with some dogs blocking the view of the owner to recall, the dogs then had to act excited as a distraction to the recalling dog but each and every dog ran through the distractions to their owners. Very well done by all.
OOOOO and before I forget Bella saw a horse walking through the common but didn't howl this time!!!! HUGE improvement on her previous horse spotting's.
We then walked the last part of the walk towards the car park letting the dogs play and continuing the recalling. If we called our dog but ended up with an extra nose and tail at our feet we praised them for returning to command even if it wasn't them we called lol and it soon became a free for all on who could get to the owners first for the best treats!! Bella was really really good and we felt we had much more control with her. She still tried to be lady like (as pic below shows) when it came to the puddles unlike Barry the choc lab who just literally dives face first in and starts snorkeling!
Another thing we have noticed is bell is much more interested in toys now suddenly. We have managed to have games of fetch both indoors and out in the field!!
Buggle has been chewing on a rawhide chew for the last 90 Min's beside me and she hasn't really got anywhere with it LOL!! I am beginning to get a headache so will leave this here for today. I haven't even begun to talk about today's training session or meeting my friends new little puppy but I shall leave that for next time. xx
Hi Sarah, I am so impressed with Bella and thank you for sharing the recall training you have attended. I have a beagle too. She is 11 months now. However my recalling is still not reliable. Hehe... I'll be looking forward to seeing more of your posts. Cheers.
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