Training Rescue Hound Recall

[Cheetsy]

We’ve had our rescue hound pup 6 months now (he’s one) and he’s come along so much since my crisis first posts .

The new challenge we are having is teaching recall as we try and help him become a confident pooch. I feel like we should go back to basics really as it’s so hit and miss. My husband has left him off hand with a training lead attached to increase our chances of catching him if he bolts, which he does quite a lot. He’s an intact male and we’ve read and been advised not to neuter him at the moment while the testosterone helps his confidence. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s not been neutered or the fact that he’s a hound is making recall virtually impossible. If he sees another dog he gets so excited he completely loses his sense of hearing. If there’s a road or anything else in his way he runs off regardless. Yesterday he saw another dog across the road thhe jumped so high he somersaulted and banged his head on landing while on lead. On Monday he was at the beach and we waited and let him off once we were on a big empty beach, but he immediately bolted back to the car park to find a dog he saw when we parked.

Any advice appreciated, we’ve got a couple of friends with rescue puppy hounds that are experiencing similar.

 

[JudyN]

Is there anywhere you can let him off lead safely? There's a website that lets you look for enclosed dog fields in your area: The Only Listings Site for Enclosed Dog Walking Fields in the UK Then you can work on his recall in a safe place, and also he can let off steam, so he might be less of a handful when you have to keep him on lead or long line for safety.

What worked for me was having a range of recall commands. Some are quite casual - 'come along' means 'I'm going this way now,' rather than a direct command which might put pressure on him. 'Sausage' is self-explanatory. 'Come come come' is what he's supposed to recall to, but isn't 100% reliable. And then there's the whistle...

I started training the whistle at point blank range, in the house. Whistle - food. Whistle - food. Whistle - food. Then increased distance, then took it outside, and increased distance and distractions. But I only use it when I'm practically 100% sure it will work, otherwise he will learn to ignore it (like he sometimes ignores 'sausage' and 'come, come, come' if he's having too much fun). If he's taken off after a deer, or has found discarded food, I don't bother whistling because I know it's very unlikely to work.

I reward for all recall, and VERY highly for the whistle. I don't train with the whistle often - at most once per walk - because otherwise it becomes humdrum. I want it to be social. But I reward it really highly, with enough praise to make me look like an idiot.

Disclaimer: My dog is mummy's boy and hates to let me out of sight on walks. He is also a sighthound rather than scenthound, which yours looks like, he's food obsessed, and he's not really into other dogs. At a year old, yours is going to take a fair old time to train reliably, but if you hang on in there it will get much better... eventually! Regard the whistle training as an investment in that long-off future time, because otherwise it's too tempting to use it when you need him to come back even though it won't work anyway - and then he'll realise it's ignorable.

 

[Cheetsy]

Is there anywhere you can let him off lead safely? There's a website that lets you look for enclosed dog fields in your area: The Only Listings Site for Enclosed Dog Walking Fields in the UK Then you can work on his recall in a safe place, and also he can let off steam, so he might be less of a handful when you have to keep him on lead or long line for safety.

What worked for me was having a range of recall commands. Some are quite casual - 'come along' means 'I'm going this way now,' rather than a direct command which might put pressure on him. 'Sausage' is self-explanatory. 'Come come come' is what he's supposed to recall to, but isn't 100% reliable. And then there's the whistle...

I started training the whistle at point blank range, in the house. Whistle - food. Whistle - food. Whistle - food. Then increased distance, then took it outside, and increased distance and distractions. But I only use it when I'm practically 100% sure it will work, otherwise he will learn to ignore it (like he sometimes ignores 'sausage' and 'come, come, come' if he's having too much fun). If he's taken off after a deer, or has found discarded food, I don't bother whistling because I know it's very unlikely to work.

I reward for all recall, and VERY highly for the whistle. I don't train with the whistle often - at most once per walk - because otherwise it becomes humdrum. I want it to be social. But I reward it really highly, with enough praise to make me look like an idiot.

Disclaimer: My dog is mummy's boy and hates to let me out of sight on walks. He is also a sighthound rather than scenthound, which yours looks like, he's food obsessed, and he's not really into other dogs. At a year old, yours is going to take a fair old time to train reliably, but if you hang on in there it will get much better... eventually! Regard the whistle training as an investment in that long-off future time, because otherwise it's too tempting to use it when you need him to come back even though it won't work anyway - and then he'll realise it's ignorable.

My disclaimer is that I’m a hot mess at the very thought of him being off lead, but I know for safety we need to work on it and also he needs to have fun! It’s such a minefield. When we took him to puppy classes they mentioned looking at enclosed fields so we need to follow that up. Another schedule needs to be put together I think for that training. He’s so ridiculously excitable though I’m not sure how successful we’ll be

 

[JudyN]

It might be worth googling for suggestions for 'saluki recall'. Their poor recall is legendary, but it is possible to train them. Being hound x box-of-frogs means that the same approach should be useful for you.

 

[Cheetsy]

It might be worth googling for suggestions for 'saluki recall'. Their poor recall is legendary, but it is possible to train them. Being hound x box-of-frogs means that the same approach should be useful for you.

Thank you. I’ll definitely do that