If a dog won’t come to us from the other side of the room when called, he’s unlikely to do so when out and chasing off after another dog!
They call him. Little Chihuahua Rocky may just stand and look. If he does come he will stop short by several feet and then they will go over to him. Mind you – his humans give him attention whenever he chooses so in a way they are teaching him that he doesn’t need to do things when they choose.
What a great little character Rocky is.
The other day he ran out the front, and ignoring their calls was nearly run over. This prompted them to get in touch with me.
Reliable recall could save Rocky’s life
His ‘not coming when called unless he feels like it’ is also a problem out on walks. He is very reactive to other dogs (scared but brave) and will chase after them barking.
W
hat is the secret? Food!
There must be something ‘in it’ for him if they want him to come back.
The tone in which he’s called has to be clear and encouraging too but not repeated over and over. Being given several chances looked like he was being begged to come – and Rocky just turned and walked away.
Barking
Whilst he’s fine and friendly meeting new people when out, Rocky is barky and wary when they come into his house. Although he quickly accepted me, he started barking again when I walked towards the lady. He alerted to every sound outside and does a lot of barking in general.
We worked on rewarding not barking with food – particularly when he alerted having heard something, catching it immediately before the barking started with an ‘okay’ and food.
Where reliable recall is concerned I introduced a little game. The process needs to be done over and over (I usually say a thousand times) before it becomes sufficiently engrained to be a conditioned response which can be relied upon to work when really needed.
