Recall when off the lead

[Stedders]

I would appreciate some general advice from other, more experienced, Schnauzer owners.

Ziggy is now seven months old and, he is pretty much the perfect dog – but . . .

…. we’ve been gradually letting him off the lead more and more in local parks and he is pretty well behaved. However, there are occasions when his recall is poor (to the point of non existent) – this is mainly when he engages with another dog of similar age and playfulness. Older dogs who just tell him to get lost are less of a problem.

It doesn’t matter what treats we try to entice him with it has little to no effect.

In your collective experiences – do you think this is something he is likely to grow out of? Is this a well thing with Schnauzers (all dogs I suppose)?

[schnauzer]

Hi with my last girl she was a nightmare when off the lead she was about 3 yrs old before I was really confident letting her off the lead & even then she could still decide to take off but did come back. With our boy who will be 4 yrs old in May, he is totally different but we started to let him off the lead when he was just 14 weeks old so we haven't had this problem with him in fact totally opposite as sometimes when we let him off the lead he sticks to our heels & we eventually have to put him back on the lead as he seems happier on the lead especially if we are in a new area. We felt that we didn't let our last girl off the lead early enough & decided to do it earlier with our boy which we felt helped. But they are all different.

Hopefully Ziggy will grow out of it we use plenty of treats for recall.

[Dawnspell]

At 7 months hes about to go through adolescence, in other words he is going to go deaf, forget all basic training, and think he knows best and doesnt have to listen to you

I would keep him on a long line if hes ignoring you and not coming back. You dont want the behaviour to become ingrained. Keep up the basic training and keep practicing recall while hes on the long line.

Jasper even at nearly 2 is very unreliable and I dont let him off lead at all ( I use various lengths of long lines depending on where we are) if there are other dogs around as I know they are too much of a temptation

My previous dog Barney was also dog obsessed but he was easier to keep focused on me than Jasper and at 2 suddenly became sensible and was very reliable off lead.

[jo b]

Our Lily's recall has been a bit hit and miss too!

Our trainer recommended that we practice recall a lot the house and garden with treats, lots of fuss or a play with a toy....so that its not always a negative reason for calling her in (away from a fun time).

Also only to call her the maximum of three times if she doesn't come by the third time go and get her-as over calling makes them tune out.

[Schnauzerluv]

Idk, I have never let my minis out free unless it was my fenced in garden. I admit I never did a lot of recall training, but they were just not trusted off lead. For mine, prey drive was just too high and overrided any fab treat reward I could offer.

My boy Ozzy is also 7 months old. He always comes to me in the garden and he's still very much attached to me, I couldn't imagine him not wanting to recall, but I don't underestimate that prey drive!

Never set your pup up for failure. Be 100% confident he will return to you before you let him off lead. A long line works well for training.

[Stedders]

Thanks very much to everyone who has replied and to this and apologies for not replying sooner.
Simple question: how does "long lead" training work?

[Dawnspell]

Basically it just means that you are in control because they are at the end of a long line and not off lead doing what they want. As you know the further away they are the deafer they become so if they are on a long line you can always reel them in or as I quite often do I walk down the line so he cant go any further and hes not pulling on my arm sockets.

As they get better at staying close to you, you can drop it on the ground so it trails. Its very easy to then get hold of the line or step on it if you think there is a situation going to arise when they're not going to listen and may go away from you.

I've got various lengths depending on where we are. For nice wide open space like the beach I've got a 60ft one. He can safely play with other dogs unlike with a flexi lead, have a run around but I still have control. He would run from one end of a beach down to the other if he saw a dog

It also means you can practice distance recall safely.