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"losing their heads"

554 views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  Di 
#1 ·
Today Sammi who has in the last several months been so good with her re-call- I would say she is close to 95% or better, really I have been so proud! Today not so, we were at the dog park, she had been doing well, playing, swimming coming to me when called- on the way back to the jeep, she stopped listening to me, I mean she went deaf ::)! Taking off with other dogs to play, not coming to me UGH! What happend to my well mannered pup, I decided enough was enough and was just going to put her back on the lead, that is if I could get to her come :-[- A lady that was right there with her pup, watching Sammi's antics said, I know how you feel sometimes my pup "just loses his head"- that was it!! Sammi totally looked like she had lost her head! No excuses from this mom though, she will have to earn her freedom again! ;)- How about you- does your pup just ever " lose their head"
 
#3 ·
Yup... happened just last week when she ate poop. I told her to "drop it". Nope. I told her to "come". Nope. She just kept on chewing and everytime I would approach her, she would run from me. Then she would stop, turn around, sit and look at me and keep chewing. She had so much in her mouth it was literally coming out of the sides. :-X Besides being pretty darn disgusted, I was mad as heck at her. And to top it off, I think she was kinda proud of herself. ::)
 
#4 ·
Recall is a very special command to me. The only one that only makes sense when off lead, and the one I really want to be responded to. There may be occasional 'casual' recalls by me, but they are almost always training recalls, done when I perceive that the recall will be successful and rewarded.

Because I do not anticipate success at the dog parks, with 2-12 other dogs around, I do not use Come, Heel, or Here at the dog park. HK is pretty decent at keeping me in sight, so when it is time to move on, or bring her towards me, I just start walking away from her. She does come when she realizes I am moving away. When she gets out of sight, or if I am impatient with the walking away method, I carry a whistle the I blow once to get her attention. It works pretty well. I do not use the whistle to command her to come or anything else. It is kind of a, 'Hey! I am over here, in case you are interested.'

Anyway, it works for us.
 
#5 ·
Yes! Maggie and Daisy can lose their heads. Always without warning too. I have to have good reliable recall otherwise it will severly limit the things we can do. I'm surrounded with beautiful places to hike and explore, all within walking distance from my house. No recall = no off leash. When they get empty headed and decide not to come when called,we go right back to square one,long leads,etc. Not as much fun for them as off leash. I wish I could verbally explain it to them!
 
#7 ·
YES! Let Bodie and Mack out to pee first thing yesterday a.m. without realizing there were 3 deer grazing in the yard, and they went into Macho Maniac Mode, chasing the poor things over a stone wall and into the woods. I have never seen them run so fast, with me yelling like a shrew at them to COme, Stop .... anything ...... (like they even heard me, they had so "lost their heads" .....) FOrtunately they just stopped at our boundary and came back - I wanted to kill them both!
 
#9 ·
Endofile said:
Recall is a very special command to me. The only one that only makes sense when off lead, and the one I really want to be responded to. There may be occasional 'casual' recalls by me, but they are almost always training recalls, done when I perceive that the recall will be successful and rewarded.

Because I do not anticipate success at the dog parks, with 2-12 other dogs around, I do not use Come, Heel, or Here at the dog park. HK is pretty decent at keeping me in sight, so when it is time to move on, or bring her towards me, I just start walking away from her. She does come when she realizes I am moving away. When she gets out of sight, or if I am impatient with the walking away method, I carry a whistle the I blow once to get her attention. It works pretty well. I do not use the whistle to command her to come or anything else. It is kind of a, 'Hey! I am over here, in case you are interested.'

Anyway, it works for us.
I do the same for Sammi, usually just walking away gets her to come- maybe a quick whistle, yesterday nothing worked ::)- Oh well, I'll call it a set back and getting moving forward! :)
 
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