Recall early stages

[tom_cairns]

Hi
I have a 12 week pup and training is going well. She is not terribly motivated by treats and there are times when she is not that bothered so I generally stop and wait for a time when she is more receptive. My question is regrad to recall. She is pretty good at responding when I use the 'come' command but at other times she does not respond. What is the best way to deal with this at this early stage? I know she is very young and am not expecting her to respond poperly yet it is really a question of how I deal with it when she doesn't respond at this early stage.
Tom

[Bill]

You must have her attention before you tell her to come. Start at short distances, like maybe 6 feet and gradually over time, extend the distance.

[tom_cairns]

Sorry, should have been clearer - I meant when she doesn't respond she doesn't come - I never tell her to come unless she is looking at me. And I am fairly certain she understands the command but is choosing not to at this stage.

[Bill]

I think you are mistaken, Tom. Even if she is looking at you, start from a real close distance like 6'. Don't call her to you from greater distances. When she is proficient at 6' move to 10' then after proficiency there to 15' and so on until she will come from greater distances. Do all this under minimum distractions. After she is reliable at 30' or 40', start introducing more distractions and start back at the small distances. This is a process that will take a few months to complete. It's not an overnight thing. She is not intentionally disobeying you. She is still a baby. Give her time to learn and mature. Reward her heavily when she does good and ignore her when she doesn't. Don't feed her for about 4 or more hours before a training session. She will be more food motivated then.

[Stephanie]

Also use really good quality treats - cooked pieces of chicken, liver, heart and vary them around so she doesn't get the same treat everytime. Also every now and then, reward her with a game of something instead, tuggy maybe? Make sure your voice is always happy and light. At training school, where there are a whole heap of distractions, the owners/puppies are taught recall the way Bill describes and always on their leads - the owners walk backwards calling and encouraging the pups to move forwards towards them.

[AnniesMom]

So we have a 16 week old GSP. She is struggling a bit with recall and fetch. We follow all of the suggestions here, my questions is this - at what age should we expect her to consistently comply. My hubby is getting impatient, but I think she's still just too young