Time of recall--how fast?

[RocketDog]

Out of curiosity: I took Rocket hiking back behind my house day before yesterday. This is his "home turf" and he's very comfortable in the entire area. We hike there several days a week. When we are out in new areas, he stays very close and doesn't leave my sight, and often doesn't venture beyond 15 ft or so. Here, though, he will often run up around a bend in the trail, or go off trail up/down the drainages.

I don't really mind this, but right now with the snow, he's a lot faster than I am. I have been counting how long it takes him to come back when I issue one "Come" command or his "whistle". The average is 15 seconds. He can get quite a ways ahead sometimes, but like I said, he knows where he is and feels comfortable.

I'm just curious on whether this is too long of a time? Occasionally it's been 30 seconds and rarely, rarely, almost a minute. For clarification, he just turned 19 months.

Thoughts?

[wildo]

I think it's a hard question to answer. You haven't stated just how far ahead he is. Not to mention accounting of the fact that you're recalling off of the environment- which is clearly reinforcing. For Pimg, hiking is without question her #1 reinforcer. She loves it more than anything. So recalling her while hiking is like asking her to come off a steak or something. It adds time...

This video is my benchmark for an amazing recall. This was shared in Susan Garrett's PuppyPeaks program, and I asked Susan to make it public a while back so I could share it here.

Four Month Old Puppy Recalls - short version sgda - YouTube

Four Month Old Puppy Recalls - short version sgda - YouTube

[RocketDog]

I love that video, Willy. He's is at least 100 ft or more when I ask him. Sometimes, (I just asked my husband) it can be 100 yards. (He only does this because this is an unpopulated area, private land, no other dogs (EXTREMELY RARE and we know those dogs) no other people save for the two other men that hike there.

I would say the average is 50 yards, I guess? ( His recall is usually immediate if he's only 30-50 ft ahead. I can ask him to return any time and he does. His deer recall has gotten very good also).

[wildo]

If he's recalling 100 yards in 15 seconds, I'd say that's very fast. That's 6.67 yards per second. Pimg ran that fast on an agility course ONCE. It was soooooo fast- I couldn't believe it happened. I'd say you have a very nice recall if those numbers are accurate (and I'm not saying they aren't).

[RocketDog]

Well, the 100 yards was my longest example. That probably falls into the closer to 30 second range I mentioned. I just wanted to kind of see if I'm expecting too much, or if that's "too long" to be gone from sight, etc. I just timed him the other day out of curiosity. Our average hike is about 3 hours, so there's lots of variance in it. We're just about to go out now, and snowshoe.

[wildo]

I guess it's personal opinion on how fast you want them to recall. In the video I shared above, I know Susan's words were "When I call you, you drop everything you're doing and you sprint to me." That's what she wants in a recall. Every time. Without question. No exceptions.

I don't really care if Pimg absolutely, balls to the wall, sprints to me when I recall her. I don't want her walking back, I want her running. But she certainly doesn't have to be sprinting... I do care that she drops what she's doing or what she's chasing and comes back.

I think it's really personal opinion on how long it should take.

[RocketDog]

Thanks for your thoughts, Willy.

[Lauri & The Gang]

Do you reward him for coming back?

I think that's something we take for granted - that once our dogs know a command we do not have to reward them ever again.

Looking at it from a human point-of-view - I'm much more likely to interrupt something REALLY fun to do something else if I think I might have MORE fun doing that other thing.

What I would do is stuff some mid-value treats in your pockets when you go hiking and occasionally reward your dog for coming back when you call.

[RocketDog]

So we literally just got back (thank god for hot coffee, it's C-O-L-D out!) and I would say that his 100 yard can take up to a minute, his 30sec is about 50 yrds and his 50 is pretty much immediate.

I do reward him, with a little american cheese, lol, but his favorite thing is really running around out in the woods. I try to really praise him and engage in a little play with him, like it's a BIG AWESOME DEAL and then immediately release him back to run. Today, on the top, he ran down over the side of the ridge and I had to call him twice. I would say it took him a full minute to return, but he came from at least 50 yards up ahead. I'm not sure if I'm making too big a deal out of it or not. I mean, he comes back when I ask him, I guess I just worry about if he saw a cougar or something when he's not in my sight. It's not like he gets that far up, but we've only seen a cougar once with him and that was when he was much younger and he didn't actually see it, just smelled it. I don't know what he would do. I want to make sure his recall is 100%.

[MadLab]

You want to mix up the reward when he returns

If he anticipates the same reward he may sometimes recall slower

A bit of tug is a good reward, throwing a ball, or a hot dog or some other food he likes

Basically you want the dog to be guessing 'whats in store this time'

Heeling him a bit before freeing him to explore adds more obedience to the game too. Sometimes you might want him to stick with you so this is a good exercise to practice