Dog Recall Homeschool

I just realized that for non dog folks, that blog title would not scan properly. You might be tempted to say I have a subject/verb agreement problem (Dog Recalls Homeschool; or Dogs Recall Homeschool) but there would still be the problem of what could that possibly mean?

Well, actually there is no grammar problem here; "recall" is the dog coming to the handler on cue, and this is about teaching a dog to recall, myself, at home. :-)

The last few weeks my inbox has been buzzing with info about an online recall training course. & I don't mean 'buzz' in that social networking way. I keep seeing it all over because genuine real people on numerous training lists have been mentioning it, debating signing up or announcing that they faced down the sticker shock and *did* sign up.

I considered it, watched a bunch of the sales pitch videos but I didn't sign up. Mostly because the sticker shock, but also because the more I read about the trainer, the more I think our philosophies are not quite sympatico.

And the sticker shock. OMFSM.

BUT, I do really need to work on recall & so I thought, I homeschool my kids, I can homeschool my dogs & I don't need a correspondence course!

I have a shelf full of books and resources, including Pamela Dennison's Training the Whistle Recall. I have also viewed Leslie Nelson's Really Reliable Recall (public library has it! Yay!). I also have Susan Smith's Emergency Recall protocol.

Can you tell recall has been important to me?

I have one dog who does not always play nice with strange dogs.

I have another dog who will chase birds, possibly across provincial, state, and country borders.

If they're going to be offleash, I need to be able to call them and have them come to me fast, no matter what.

Like this:

If you click to embiggen, you'll see awesome mud splattering as Daisy drives hard to get to us. (or possibly to chase her doggy friends. This was not taken during recall training.)

Also on my shelf of dog training stuff, amidst the dvds, books, e-books, binders, training notes, saved e-mails, I have several gems from Dee Ganley & Brenda Aloff, all focused on how to deepen our connection with dogs. We can motivate dogs to be with us & to stay with us, if we understand what motivates them. The first part of good recall protocol exercises is always to consider & make up a long list of motivators (& 'punishers' or aversives as well. These are things to avoid happen anywhere near you, or as a result of a recall command).

What is it that a particular dog likes, what will motivate him to work for you, what is his 'price'? How can you make being with you so amazingly wonderful that they think the sun rises and sets in your eyes? What will keep that dog's attention on you when distractions ramp up?

Not sure Darwin's attention is actually on me here. What is he looking at on his right?

I want to challenge myself to do a 'recall intensive' for 30 days and see what progress we can make. I'm not officially starting yet (though I did take Darwin out to a playing field on Monday & worked him on a long line with the whistle. He was awesome!), I'm still in the prep stage, gathering up all my resources and rewards. Darwin's especially are tricky - it's hard to compete with real live flying birds! I have ordered something which I'm hoping will blow his little brain. I'm keeping it under wraps until it comes (& no, I am not getting homing pigeons!) Once I officially start I'll update & try to keep track (probably on twitter) how things are going.

How about you? Are you working on training anything specific? Planning any intensives to improve performance?

(both photos courtesy of my friend who is a skookum photographer and has a delish new camera. She gave me permission but doesn't want credit. You can look forward to more great shots because I've appointed her official photographer of our feisty fido dog club outings. Even though she did make comments about needing her wide lens for Bear. Ahem.)