When we got Willie years ago, I didn’t know much about dogs. We just wanted one. We didn’t really want much from him. He was to be our well-behaved buddy inside, & go on good walks with us.
Well, life changes. We adapt, luckily dog’s are good at that too, as long as we’re clear with what we want.
I have since grown a desire to help troubled pet families, and to prevent pet families from becoming troubled in the first place.
Did this change what I wanted from Willie? Not at first. He’s great with all the different dog’s that have come over for weeks at a time, the ones that come for an hour at a time, he’s still a great walker.
The one thing that has changed is I need to work on his recall. Of course, even for well-behaved dogs this can be a difficult one. I’ve let him run pretty freely around the field, he knows the boundaries & comes back, just kind of whenever even when I call him.
I’ve been training for a couple years now, and this never has bothered me – it’s just the relationship we’ve had. The other day I was out with a client and her pup I trained, and potential client whom she brought along with her. Well, good ol’ Willie decided while I was talking to them (and obviously not paying attention to him), he was going to cross that boundary. He went into someone’s backyard.
I called my client’s pup & Willie to come back, and what do you know? My client’s dog came running, Willie stayed across the boundary (he had found new people, and he LOVES new people!). I had to go get him, and even when I was standing at the gate he refused to come.
The soon to be new client asked “you’re dog won’t come back?”
I explained “it’s something we’ve never needed. He usually stays within certain distance and doesn’t cross the set boundaries.”
Anyway, now I need to teach him recall, but I’m not starting from scratch tho. I’m restarting with 30ft long line. I like to bowl a tease-treat (plain old crunchy cookie) to create distance, call him to me, when he turns in my direction start the praise, as he gets to me while stepping away I start feeding with good soft tasty treats (1,2 or 3 bites depending on how quick he reacts and returns). There is a point in video where I pause and then restart in a more distracting area. When you add distraction, you need to lessen the distance and work back up to where you were with no distraction. I also changed to having Willie sit/wait in this area because he is so used to playing with his buddies here if I bowled the tease-treat I would be adding to the energy where I’m trying to have him
calm & paying attention.
It’s a little harder to teach when they’re older. You have learned behaviors to change and new knowledge/wants to instill. But it’s never too late as long as you’re clear, fair, patient, & consistent.
