OK, 100% is an exaggeration, I realize that it can never be guaranteed. But I had a minor incident with my puppy and I'd like to work with her to avoid it.
I was in a field in a park that wraps around a lake in the subdivision where I am renting. It's a pretty isolated field, away from cars and the trail the circles the lake. It was lunch time and I was working with my 5-month old puppy on off-leash recall. She was doing quite well, coming to me every time like a bullet and ignoring all the distractions of a new place. Then she noticed two women taking a walk around the lake. They were quite far--about a football field away. I tried to get focus / recall / just have her platz down. Nope. This time she decided she had to say hi. She tore across the field and started jumping on them looking for attention. It was completely non-aggressive but it turned out that they weren't dog people. The younger of the two women tried her best to kick Nikita. Thankfully she wasn't very athletic and 5-month old puppy is pretty agile; the woman wasn't able to make contact. I was running in that direction and finally the focus worked. Nikita looked at me, I called 'hier' and she left them and came back to me.
Avoiding the discussion on why someone would want to kick a 5-month old puppy, I freely admit that I was in the wrong. The park has a leash rule. I failed to control my dog.
Her recall while on a long lead and in my back yard is very reliable. So I thought I was doing the right thing by bringing her to new areas to proof her against different types of distractions. I've also thought we were doing well. I've been in other places and successfully gotten focus / recall with a squirrel distraction, another dog distraction, etc.
Any comments appreciated. I'm specifically looking for tips on how to teach a reliable recall in new places while avoiding failures like the one described above. The failures are dangerous (what if they had called animal control? what if she had kept running?) and I think they set back training.
Thanks,
-Dan aka Colorado
I was in a field in a park that wraps around a lake in the subdivision where I am renting. It's a pretty isolated field, away from cars and the trail the circles the lake. It was lunch time and I was working with my 5-month old puppy on off-leash recall. She was doing quite well, coming to me every time like a bullet and ignoring all the distractions of a new place. Then she noticed two women taking a walk around the lake. They were quite far--about a football field away. I tried to get focus / recall / just have her platz down. Nope. This time she decided she had to say hi. She tore across the field and started jumping on them looking for attention. It was completely non-aggressive but it turned out that they weren't dog people. The younger of the two women tried her best to kick Nikita. Thankfully she wasn't very athletic and 5-month old puppy is pretty agile; the woman wasn't able to make contact. I was running in that direction and finally the focus worked. Nikita looked at me, I called 'hier' and she left them and came back to me.
Avoiding the discussion on why someone would want to kick a 5-month old puppy, I freely admit that I was in the wrong. The park has a leash rule. I failed to control my dog.
Her recall while on a long lead and in my back yard is very reliable. So I thought I was doing the right thing by bringing her to new areas to proof her against different types of distractions. I've also thought we were doing well. I've been in other places and successfully gotten focus / recall with a squirrel distraction, another dog distraction, etc.
Any comments appreciated. I'm specifically looking for tips on how to teach a reliable recall in new places while avoiding failures like the one described above. The failures are dangerous (what if they had called animal control? what if she had kept running?) and I think they set back training.
Thanks,
-Dan aka Colorado