Recall issues

[RichardFreedman]

My dog is a 4 year old Great Dane. We live on a 50-acre farm with plenty of room for her to run, but when she is off leash, she likes to visit my neighbor who has small livestock and she will not come when called. I've tried training her in an enclosed pasture, with treats, with praise, but nothing has worked so far. 

[Adrienne]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums!

If your great dane is left outside off leash and takes off, more than a recall issue, we are likely dealing with a management issue at this point. In other words, left to their own devices, most dogs will choose to stray away given the choice, especially if they can gain more reinforcement by visiting another area and spend time outdoors on their own. Sort of like a toddler/child who is asked to stay put in the front porch and cannot resist to go play with the neighbor's kids rather than just thumb-twiddle by the front porch. 

So we need to closely evaluate what your dog finds so reinforcing from visiting the neighbor's. If she spends most of her time outdoors, she likely grows bored and seeks entertainment from your neighbor's property. Great danes in general are not very high prey dogs, but they descend from Irish wolfhounds and were used as catch dogs, so there may be chances that in some specimens prey drive may still be quite present, to the extent that they find chicken, rabbits or other furry animals irresistible. On top of this, the more a dog gets to escape and gain a pleasant experience from escaping, the more they will try to escape.

Calling a dog at this point will therefore go to deaf ears, and risks becoming quite irrelevant, considering that, the more we call a dog and the dog doesn't respond, the weaker our recall becomes. It's as if we are un-charging all our hard work, hence the importance of calling back dogs exclusively when it's easy and when we know there is a high chance of them running back to us, especially in the most delicate initial stages, when we are building the foundational blocks of a recall.  In this case, you are competing against a dog's instincts and established  history of reinforcement.

Sure, we can try to tempt the dog with tasty rewards, but in some dogs, food rewards may not be able to compete well with the adrenaline rush associated with engaging in prey driven behaviors and hunting. It's sort of us being asked to stay hold a sport for 5 dollars when our neighbor offers us 500. 

Management therefore in such a case would entail taking steps to prevent these escapes from occurring in the first place. Here are some management ideas:

-Erecting a securely fenced-in area or a dog kennel, (I am not a fan of invisible fences due to several flaws and risks) so that the dog can spend some time outdoors without worrying about him straying. When dogs stray off leash, on top of the problem of the dog not coming when called and gaining reinforcement, we must consider other risks such as encounters with wildlife, eating something potentially toxic, killing livestock, neighbors getting upset from damage deriving from the dog. 

-Erecting just partial, temporary fencing (you may find several  temporary, affordable options).Partial fencing is fencing that is limited to just the neighbor's property line so to prevent these non-wanted visits. The nice perk of this is that sometimes, neighbors are even willing to split costs. 

-Keeping your great dane on a long line when he needs to be taken out. A long line is sort of like a long leash that has a clip that attached to the dog's collar or horses's halter. It is often sold in horse tack and supply stores. 

Now, this doesn't mean we can't train this dog to come when called. We surely can, but it will take time to establish a strong attachment to your property. I don't know how long you have had her, but if she's been with you not too long 50 acres is sure a lot and your dog may need to develop a secure -base attachment to you and your home to ignore the strong temptation of crossing the boundary. Until then, we really need to engage in management until we can work on over ranking your neighbor's strong competition and keeping it up (because even the best trained dogs may at tomes decide to take off given the right circumstances). Here are some tips to make your neighbor's yard less salient and gaining some extra points. 

-Stimulate prey drive with toys. If your great dane is attracted to your neighbor's small animals, it would be important to provide outlets for this drive. You can try to recreate part of that same prey drive high by getting your dog focused on toys. A ball, flirt pole or a Frisbee may mimic the erratic movements of prey. The best part is that, unlike prey, the dog will be actually more successful in catching these items so it also helps release frustration that may build-up when the dog is unable to catch prey. A game of tug may also be a good way to release the need to catch, grab and bite. Dogs with high prey drive may go bonkers over a tug toy made with real rabbit fur. 

-Start training in low distraction areas. Your enclosed pasture seems like a good start. You can then add gradually distractions and practice on a long line. Dealing with a dog who has high predatory drive requires obedience training around strong distractions. It always helps to start in low distraction areas with the dog under threshold. You can read about threshold levels here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/  Initially, you may therefore need to keep your dog on leash or on a long line and at a distance from anything the elicits predatory drive. If at any time your dog appears distracted, it often means that you have progressed to fast and you need to take a step back and work on less distracting levels. 

Your dog may also benefit from being taught to focus versus trying to search for prey. I personally like to reward high- predatory dogs for making eye contact with high-value treats. If the treats are high value enough, the dog should be making eye contact more and more. Here is some eye contact exercises:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/look-into-my-eyes/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/the-airplane-game/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

You can then raise criteria, and get closer to the areas where the dog rehearses predatory behaviors, up to the point of being off leash and being able to focus. In many instances, sending your dog back to resuming his predatory behavior of sniffing and exploring may be the best reward!

-Reward Voluntary check-ins. Sometimes, dogs do not realize that sticking by you can be rewarding. They simply do not know. You can walk your dog around the yard on a long line and reward him for sticking by your side and looking at you. If you do this often enough, a time may come where even off leash he will still stick by your side now and then, versus being completely oblivious to your presence.

Voluntary check-ins are also important to reward. When your dog is with you out in the yard (on a long line), make sure you always reward those times where he heads your way and checks on you. This will overtime, strengthen your bond.

When I used to teach group classes, we often had during the first day of class the owners walking around with their dog off leash. Often the dogs wandered around and weren't much aware where their owners were, even when the owner was out of sight for a few seconds. At the end of class, we repeated this and it was impressive how focused their dogs were this time, following the owner around and always keeping an eye on them. It was evident that they had bonded together over the 8-week class.

-Create the Foundation For a Strong Recall. After your dog has learned to make eye contact with you and regularly checks in with you, he is ready to learn the basics for a successful recall. Of course, calling your dog when she is actively escaping or hunting would be setting her for failure, so at first you will have to be picky on when you call your dog. If you take your dog out first thing in the morning in your yard to explore, give her time to sniff around and monitor the changes that have occurred from yesterday. Yes, your dog notices changes. There may be new bird poop in the yard, the bunnies may have left new scent on a path and your dog may want to relieve herself. Let her explore her environment.Then, after a while, you will notice he is content with his exploration and may be less intent in sniffing/searching/marking. This may be a good time to call her from a close distance and reward with some high-value goodies/toys. 

-Make the Indoors More Stimulating. Many dogs with high prey drives find the outdoors very interesting and reinforcing so they may dread coming back inside. Calling these dogs to come indoors may feel almost like punishment. I personally, like to protect my recall by not over using it, and I invest in other cues to get the dog to come back inside after venturing to the yard. I may suddenly run and head back inside, which often leads to the dog following me.

You can even put going back inside on cue by saying something like "let's go back inside" in a very happy voice, then, once you open the door, let a rainfall of treats fall from your hands so your dog can go on a fun "treasure hunt games." Day after day, the dog looks forward to coming inside versus dreading it as it ends all their searching, sniffing and hunting activities.

So make sure to make the inside a place where your dog can engage in rewarding activities that stimulate her mind. Brain games (Treasure hunt games, the muffin game, the bottle game), interactive toys, food puzzle are all great ways to provide mental stimulation!

I hope this helps,

Let me know if you have any questions, 

Best,

Adrienne

 

 

[JMFS]

On 8/3/2020 at 4:57 PM, AdrienneFarricelli said:

-Reward Voluntary check-ins. Sometimes, dogs do not realize that sticking by you can be rewarding. They simply do not know. You can walk your dog around the yard on a long line and reward him for sticking by your side and looking at you. If you do this often enough, a time may come where even off leash he will still stick by your side now and then, versus being completely oblivious to your presence.

This one I think is often overlooked and undervalued by we humans, yet it's so simple.  Once I started following this advice I found my dogs coming around often to "check in" with me.  Even when they're tearing through the yard, romping and chasing one another they'll come over to me and pause for a moment.  I reinforce the heck out of this visit. 

Eye contact / visibility is another key factor for us.  Gertie can be sniffing around in the yard and I'll call her, she'll ignore me.  But if I wait until I catch her eye (sometimes I'll make motions to force the attention to fall on me) and call her once she see me she comes running 9 / 10 times.

I have my back up plan, too.  A silent whistle.  I like this for evenings when I don't want to disturb neighbors by shouting for my pup (I'm a night owl and it's not uncommon for me to be out at 3 am).  Silent whistle training is all about repetition and reward. 

I do recommend buying a high quality whistle like the Acme brand whistle.  I tried the Petsmart $4.99 whistle and it's about half the volume of a normal whistle - not very quiet at all.  The nice thing about whistles is that they Should carry further than our voices.  I have not attempted to recall from a mile away, but it's comforting to know that if one of my pooches gets out that I'll have something that reaches further than my voice as I'm walking or driving around looking for them.  Thankfully the One time Momo got out of the yard he went straight to the front gate and waited to be let back in.  We're still mind-boggled as to how his arthritic old self got out - a walk around the entire fence line revealed no points of exit without an impressive jump.