Responsible recall

Responsible recall

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Edited: Apr 3

Responsible recall.

After being asked 5

times today already about recall I thought I would do a post.

As everyone will by now be aware recall is always a controversial topic when it comes to sight hounds.

I have always and will always be an advocate for responsible recall.

I think it is important that every one teaches and practises recall. If only to use in an emergency such as a dog slipping out a door or gate left open, or a cat coming into the garden when it shouldn't be there.

I will go on in this post to give the tips and tricks I give my adopters for recall.

If you don't want to teach your dog recall or don't believe in/ agree it that's ok, but please keep scrolling this post is intended to help not cause a war in the comments section.

Feel free to message the help a Hound fb page for more tips and advice.

Now let's get started :D

So what is responsible recall?

First off know your dog. Not every dog will be able to be let off the lead but even the spooks that might not use recall in the park should still practice incase its ever needed.

Know your area when you do go on to do recall it has so he a safe area for this. Away from main roads or traffic beaches, woods and countryside hills are ideal :) if you are in the country please make sure to follow the green cross code and watch out for sheep :)

The basics

Start small and work up to bigger.

Start in the house calling them over reward with a hight value treat and lots of praise.

Make the treat something they really like.

Keep doing this till they get the hang of it. I also make mine sit at this stage and wait before being let go again. A little often is better than in one sitting to avoid disinterest.

Next step is to repeat this in your garden (if you don't have garden borrow one or use a small enclosed space).

To start with I use treats, also then do it without treats so my dog knows to come with or without a treat. If they don't get a treat lots of praise and pats do just fine :)

Remember you may not always have treat to hand especially if your dog has just slipped out the gate. So make sure your dog will come back when you don't have treat too.

Work up getting to a bigger and bigger space. Enclosed fields, dog parks you get the picture.

When calling the back do it often. It's important the you don't only call them back to put them on their lead, this creates the association that the funs over its back on the lead. Not what you want. Instead call them back and let them go several times in any given session.

Once you have mastered this repeat the process using distractions.

Before going out into unenclosed areas check your adoption contract does your contract allow recall? If your planing on adopting and want to do recall make sure you adopt from a group that advocates or allows recall.

Once your comfortable with this and have built enough trust between you and your dog go out side and try it. A little every day. Practice makes perfect. Don't rush take your time. If your not ready today there is always tomorrow that's ok :)

A few tips.

-when calling my dogs over I have the rule they have to touch my hand before going away again. For this I use the buzz word touch. This stops them coming "close enough" and means they have to come fully over to me.

-teaching commands sit, no and wait also aid with recall training.

-know your area, is it likely to be suitable or not? Is there any roads or sheep you should be aware of?

-Be aware of other dogs off the lead, I like to keep them close by if there is other dogs about. You never know how good someone's dog or not is with other dogs. You also do not know how well under control and owner has their dog even if off the lead. I generally avoid the dog park for this reason and prefer canal walks :)

The golden rule is the most fun your dog should have off the lead is at your feet! :)

The person that knows your dog best is you.p

If I think of any more tips I'll add them later :)

Any questions feel free to ask.

Some of our dogs doing recall

A link to a video of Molly showing some of her recall skills.

https://instagram.com/p/BRQwJQKhc2p/

Yes your dog can sit!

Belive it or not yes your greyhuond can learn to sit. We thought we would share with you some of the training tricks and tips we use to do this. The first imporant thing when teaching your dog to sit is the treats. Finding something your dog adores will make his learning a lot quicker. Ours usually like fish, cheese or bits of chicken but you will quickly find what works for your dog. Teaching them to sit makes them learn to listen. Learning to listen is a key part of the training. Teaching sit can take a while, the actual teaching of it is a skill in itself. Once you start your training not just your dog will improve but also your own training skills. When we teach them to sit it's important that they learn to sit but also to sit until asked to get up (a great skill for the park). Our top tips When training use your command voice, this should be frim but supportive and encoraging. Don't just use your voice use hand signals too. This will help your dog learn quicker and is an excellent training tool. Be patient your dog will learn at it own pace. It doesn't matter if this is slower than your other dogs. Pracice several times a day in differnt locations eg. the garden, the park, the kitchen. This will help them learn to do the trick at any time and not just in your living room. Practice really does make perfect. We will be using the video below to talk though some of our training (well will be adding more vidoes soon) We have the video "Normans first sitting lesson." You'll see in the video I'm gently pushing down on him and gently pulling his neck backwards. When pushing him down its not about pushing to much. More about keeping the pressure. (This but can take ages, it used to take me quite a while but keep going you will get there) you will feel when he decides to sit down. I keep using the word sit as I do it. As soon as he sits give the reward with lots of excited praise. When he sits I keep him sitting for a moment and then ask him to stand back up. Again reward and praise. You can also put your arm behind their legs and push in and down to help if the first isn't working for you. Once they know the position it's a lot easier. Brining the neck up helps to encourage the sit. Then as he gets better you will be able to take your hands off sooner until he doesn't need them. So as your guiding him into sit pushing lightly down the way when you feel him sit you can take your hands off if he stops and gets up. Correct it and go again. He will get it with practice. We are firmly of the opinion that almost any dog can be taught to sit it just each one is different and needs slightly different training. This is Norman's fist lesson in learning how to sit. At the time of the video this handsome boy had only been with us a few days. Since then he has learned lots of new tricks. You can follow his story on our Facebook page. Ok my dog can sit now what? Once they have learned to sit they can take it to the next step. Choose which command you wish to use (we use wait) Start by getting them to sit, give the command, take a step back from the dog then reward and praise. Allow them to stand up follwed by more reward and praise. Each time you do this take an extra step back each time making the distance longer. If you have more than one dog you can try teahcing them to sit togeather. Be creative there is lots of fun things you can do once you have learned sit. If you have found this article usefull we would love to hear from you. We would love to see photos and vidoes of your dogs skills. Just use the #thesittinggreyhounds. Got another topic or trick you would like covered? Let us know in the comments section.

HELP

A HOUND

Yes your dog can sit!