Recall

I have a 10 month old whippet who has become increasingly difficult to recall. She’s a confident puppy but now is increasingly ignoring the whistle. I’m going back to the start again, recalling her more regularly on a walk and rewarding her with treats. Any other tips would be very helpful. Thank you

At 10 months, dogs are adolescent and are starting to feel more independent, so their recall often takes a backward step. I found having a hierarchy of rewards helped - kibble, liver cake, cheese - the ”what will it be” factor helps. I also like playing games on walks, like finding things or opportunities to sniff, to make hanging out with me more fun than bogging off.

And, if she is in any risk, or is likely to be a nuisance to someone, use a long line (always attached to a harness, not a collar, for safety).

JoanneF said:

At 10 months, dogs are adolescent and are starting to feel more independent, so their recall often takes a backward step. I found having a hierarchy of rewards helped - kibble, liver cake, cheese - the ”what will it be” factor helps. I also like playing games on walks, like finding things or opportunities to sniff, to make hanging out with me more fun than bogging off.

And, if she is in any risk, or is likely to be a nuisance to someone, use a long line (always attached to a harness, not a collar, for safety).

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Many thanks. Always use harness and will try using long line again. Thanks.

Sometimes for recall throw a treat behind you so she has to come in close to you as she passes. Never grab her when she does this - its purpose is to to reward the recall and get her accustomed to running back to you without being captured, and then finding something interesting to do as another reward. Once she is over adolescence, you will bless this behaviour. Most training involves a certain amount of manipulation of circumstance paired with really good rewards, and as JoanneF says - vary them. But always make them really good.

My approach was to never let recall fail - if I thought there was a chance that he wouldn't respond to the whistle, then I didn't use it. I saved it for times when there were no distractions and he knew I had high-value treats. I also had a range of 'less important' recall cues. These ranged from 'come!!', which I tried to make 100% as above, through 'sausage!' and 'pizza!' - both of which he was highly motivated by, down to 'This way', which really meant 'I'm going this way now, you might want to come to...' As I wasn't so bothered whether it would work or not, it seemed to take the pressure off him and could be quite effective for that reason.

If you start again, you might want to consider a whistle with a different tone as she has learnt she can ignore the whistle. But for the time being, while she's an adolescent, you're probably better focusing on management rather than expecting too much - concentrate on the low-distraction high-reward approach so she has a really solid response to the cue in that context before introducing distractions.

We were so pleased with the first three months of recall training, he was 100% on the whistle including a time when he stopped chasing a deer to come back to us. At around the when he started cocking his leg to scent mark and humping cushions it became unreliable. The first time it failed was when digging for a mole he could smell, after that when chasing something and then for no special reason.
Off-lead walks are now limited to forest sites surrounded by a secure deer fence or ones so huge that we are miles from a public road or sheep.
He is soon to be castrated (this has to be done as only one descended). After that we will try again with high value rewards and a different whistle - thank you for the tip.