I'm having a little trouble working on recall with my Black Lab Harley, he's about 18 months old now, we've had him for about 4 / 5 months. I've tried rewarding him with treats when he comes back and in the house his recall is perfect, he just won't do it when he's out. Well, he does, just 10 minutes after you start calling him. And its worse if another dog happens to turn up before he's come back to me.

I try to only let him off if I'm sure there are no other dogs in the area - usually about 1am when he has his last walk of the night as I know that the only way I'm going to manage to teach him is by practicing it with him but it is just taking forever. I don't want to have to confine him to the lead all the time as I know he just loves to run and if there's any water around he's straight in it and I want him to have that freedom, especially as I often have to take my 1 year old daughter with me in her pram when I walk him and he can be a real handful as he's not keen on walking next to the pram at the moment.

Can anyone suggest any way to speed things up a little bit? He's a big, strong dog and sometimes it can be a bit much. I don't want him scaring other people when we're out. He's friendly, he just barks and dances around a lot when he sees new people and especially when he sees other dogs and I know some people find that really intimidating, especially small dog owners.

I had this exact problem today with my 16 month black lab Harley! He just goes off into a world of his own and is totally oblivious to me.

Apparently the trick is to make yourself sooooo much more exciting than the other dogs, smells, people and in my case....especially people with food!

We're still working on it. Good luck.

Some people use a long training lead so they can run around then you can pull them in if they refuse to come back but it gives them the opportunity to practise (he does not sound like a runner so maybe this is not needed). The other thing is to turn your back and walk the opposite direction calling him, though I'm not sure what other dog owners would think of you doing that :lol:

A lot of people use a ball or tug toy? When he comes back he gets a little play, maybe that would be more exciting as it's visible to him?

I admit I am struggling a little with this myself. Mine is great if there is no dogs around or he knows the dog (his recall is great when playing with 15 dogs he knows!) but due to his dog agression he really does not want to turn his back on a strange dog, I have had to teach a stay and down instead for the moment which he is great at (I personally think is a harder command) and then I go and collect him, he's always on a long line anyway so I know he can't run at them.

The hard work will pay off I'm sure!

Is he in any way clingy to you? I taught my dog when he was a young pup and he didnt like me going out his sight (still doesnt if im honest). So i used to walk off like Evei suggested and made sure i disappeared from sight. Hed panic and chase after me. I dont know if that only works when theyre at the clingy puppy stage thou. Hiding behind bushes also works but you do get some strange looks for doing that.

I also found it helped if i took a different route each day. Dexter quickly worked our where i liked to go and would charge off ahead. Once i start chopping and changing my route he learned to stay close, as clearly i cant be trusted out alone.Again it depends how clingy he is.

Coming away from other dogs took a long long time. Lukerly Dexter knew who would play and who wouldnt so left the leaded dogs alone.

Try different tones, when you shout his name. I was always told not to keep shouting him over and over because you just turn into back ground noise. But If you say his name in a strange way he'll prob run over out of curiousity at whats making you make such funny noises :)

On one occasion Dexter was eating a poo bag (no idea what made him do that but obviously i needed to get it off him) and he wouldnt come back, every time i shouted him he was running away from me. So, in complete despriation, i stood on a bench and started waving my arms around, shouting random words in an excited voice. The completely insane act on my part was enough to make him leave what he was eating and come see what on earth i was doing. No laughing :) lol

He's not particularly clingy towards me. I've tried the turning around and walking away thing and it sort of works - just with a few minutes delay. Its almost like he's saying "you're not the boss of me, I'll come in my own good time thanks". The thing is when he's off and he does something he shouldn't (eg. going up to another dog) he'll be really apologetic when he does come back, he practically grovels.

The really funny thing is the way he is about his collar. We've got one on him and its as tight as I feel comfortable putting it and yet he still manages to slip it off on occasion, when he does though he just freezes, wont go anywhere and just cowers on the floor. I don't know why he does it as he's got no reason to fear me or my partner, we've never done anything to hurt him and never will but it is almost like he's terrified of being without his collar.

The idea of stalking off and leaving him without back-up often works. Don't call him multiple times as he knows it means nothing! Perhaps try training from scratch with a new word which he has not yet learned to ignore

With Brude, we have 'Wheeeerrreee's the dooooOOOooog', meaning 'I need to see you', and 'Here dog' when we want him close enough to get a lead on, though we don't always put his lead on, else he'd run off to avoid the lead when we call

you don't need an expensive long light lead. Attach a washing line to his collar which you can stamp on if he bolts, and can use to reel him in when he doesn't respond FIRST TIME to you calling him back

it is almost like he's terrified of being without his collar.Isn't it funny what kicks them off? Yep, he may find it some kind of security blanket

See, what you need is a remote control collar release buckle :P

I was going to suggest the idea of walking off- it works (most of the time) with a really naughty shihtzu that I know. He won't eat treats while we're out and when he doesn't want to come back then no amount of calling him will make a difference and a whistle just gets ignored.

What does work is putting the other dogs back on their leads, shouting 'Bye bye Bailey' and just walking off back towards the car. By the time we're there he's usually coming up behind us at a full run (apart from the times he's already left the field in search of more cow pats to roll in, of course).

With Molly she's learned that she's to walk to heel except when we send her off to fetch her frisbee, ball or whatever, but if she sees another dog she wants to investigate or even if another dog has tried to approach her and she's set off at full tilt to see them off, she knows my 'she who must be obeyed' voice and will stop mid-run and come back to heel.

If he doesn't know what 'bye bye' means immediately, he'll find out the first time he looks up after you've said it and you aren't where he thought you'd be.