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Who says lurchers don't do recall?

Josie said:
Oh the wonders of food!
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I'll say - after just a couple of walks armed with liver cake and dried meat, my friend's dog now has better recall to me than to her. Mind you, that's not saying much...;) The trouble is, whenever either of her dogs does come back, Jasper insists on a treat too because he was already here which must be EXTRA good :D
 
JudyN said:
I'll say - after just a couple of walks armed with liver cake and dried meat, my friend's dog now has better recall to me than to her. Mind you, that's not saying much...;) The trouble is, whenever either of her dogs does come back, Jasper insists on a treat too because he was already here which must be EXTRA good :D
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Dennis does the same! Thinks he deserves a treat also even though he’s never left my side
 
Jimmy has taken to looking up at me on walks, cute mode turned on, saying "give me a treat!". If that doesn't work, he'll sit down - his usual stance for us giving him food or a treat - and engage extra-cute-fluffy-cocked-head-mode for a treat. I have to say this usually works :D At least his attention is on me.
 
Sometimes Jasper gives me an 'I've been a good boy Mum, do I get a treat?' look when I can't work out what he's done. Normally I give him the benefit of the doubt - we may have just passed a driveway with a cat up it that I didn't notice, or a dog 200m away, or a juicy cow poo... Rewarding 'being good' definitely includes rewarding 'Not being naughty'. Occasionally though I do have to tell him that he doesn't get a treat just because there was a person on the other side of the road, or a cyclist went by, or quite a large car...
 
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Whenever i’m training with multiple dogs, ALL the dogs are rewarded when the dog who is being “worked” at the moment, does anything that gets rewarded. :)

Essentially, I reward my audience for being a good audience - they mustn’t interfere, beg, mug the other dog/s, mug me... just spectate politely, or do their own thing w/o pestering or getting in the way, or accosting passersby, and otherwise misbehaving.
So long as they are polite to others & not molesting anyone, they get rewarded, too.

BUT... I will reward differentially.
If the audience is just hanging out, they get mediocre tidbits.
If the audience is actively observing, they get much better fare. ;) . Dogs can & do learn by observing others, so mindfully watching gets the big bucks.

I will also reward differentially when I call the GROUP in... the 1st dog to arrive gets the caviar, the runners up get the chicken breast. :D
I just call, “Puppy puppy puppy!...”, or “Come, come, come!”, in a rapid fire happy pitch, & generally, as soon as one gets moving toward me, the others catch on quick, & race in.

Having a group cue for dogs when out walking or at agility or hiking or whatever, can really prevent difficulties when unexpected things occur, such as a wandering cow, a porcupine or skunk, a free-roaming cat, a dirt-biker on a footpath where he doesn’t belong, a loose dog shows up who’s aggressive, or any of hundreds of possIble problems.

Once i had to call all the dogs in when my fellow hiker turned an ankle, & we had to leave immediately, with her hobbling along, one arm slung over my shoulder. I was very glad I had a way of getting all the dogs to come with us, quickly, when seconds earlier, they were scattered over an eighth of a mile of trail and woods.
What good dogs! :) They were all very well-rewarded, when we got back to the car.

- terry

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