The Greatest Recall

Today, I thought I would write about my own dog training adventure since none of my dogs were there to witness it: the most enthusiastic recall I've ever seen.

I was training a pit bull named Marley, who is featured on this week's facebook note as October Dog of the Month. His story is amazing, but that's all detailed elsewhere, so I will just say that he was found on the street by his new mom, Gennifer, and definitely found the match he wanted. He is so attached to her (and nervous to boot) that it has caused a little aggression around other dogs as well as some separation anxiety.

In teaching him some rules that he needs to follow to put Gennifer a little more in control, we began teaching recall (to learn how visit my facebook page). In order to teach recall, you have to start small using a 6-foot leash and then build up to a 30-foot line and eventually off-leash. Since most of my lessons are at people's houses or in parks, I am generally teaching with a long line. One of the things I do to build up distance and distraction is start walking the dog down the street until he is sniffing or searching for something interesting and then have the owner call them.

Marley gave the kind of performance for which all dogs should strive (just without the drama). I took him around the corner so Gennifer was out of site. This made him very unhappy, and I had trouble getting him to focus on anything but her. I gave him a treat and let her call him from the top of the stairs at her apartment complex. He was so excited to get to her that he tried to leap onto a three-foot ledge rather than take the stairs. In his excitement, he missed the ledge, did a flip in the air and cut his lip and leg in the landing. All the while, he did not stop moving!! He hit the stairs in the same stride and made to his mother in under 5 seconds. We had to take him upstairs after that to clean him up, so recall practice was over, but I was very impressed at his dedication to the recall!

If you aren't sure you could call your dog from around a corner like that, keep practicing your recall! All of your dogs have a little bit of Marley in them (but without the stage dive)!

Love, Melinda