# Gettin him to come with enthusiasm



## VaBeachFamily (Apr 12, 2005)

OK, so Cullen is doing GREAT in Schutzhund right now, but they want to see more enthusiasm, to have him RUN to me when he retrieves or is called. 

Anyone have tricks, tips, hints? Anything? He always just DARTS for the ball, and TROTS coming back.. and when I call him with a HERE he comes swift, but not fast!


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

Yes! Couple of ideas.

Have someone hold him...RUN AWAY with his toy, calling his name...Super excited...turn around and start running backwards, and when he is pulling have your friend let him go...Do NOT stop him. Throw the ball between yours legs or behind you, so he keeps running past you. The more distance you put between him and you the faster he will go. 

Another thing I've been doing with Tag is similar, I'll throw a piece of food behind me between my legs (aiming for about a 10 foot throw), he will run to go get it, I'll turn and back up and yell TAG Come!! and throw another piece of food between my legs...he runs between my legs to get the food. We go back and forth like this and he picks up speed, grabbing the piece of food and immediately turning back to run between my legs again. 

I teach the front "Hier" as a position, and don't ask for it until they are coming towards me quickly already.


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

What JKlatsky said!

I wouldn't worry about formal retrieves yet, not at his age. I would just work on setting up a foundation of him RUNNING to you! When you play with him, throw a tug or ball, tell him to bring, and RUN AWAY!!! RUN AWAY calling him, goofing around, being an idiot, lol!! Get his prey drive and excitement all reved up!

Same with the recall. I do a platz, walk away all formal like I'm in trial. Turn around and face him like I'm in Trial. Call "Come" like I'm in trial, and I EXPLODE in crazy goofyness, run away, when he is already coming I pull out his tug, wave it around, stop and throw it behind me! I only occasionally do a formal recall where I want him in position (because by then, he is coming so fast he just about knocks me over!) 

If Baron is already giving you formal retrieves and formal recalls, don't worry about those specific behaviours, work on making it fun and exciting, and letting him go nuts!


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## VaBeachFamily (Apr 12, 2005)

We aren't doing the formal retrieves yet, he's actually working mostly on focus, downstay, and coming in front... but my training director has just told me he wants me to get him to come with more enthusiasm, because if I allow him to just trot back all the time, it will carry over into the formal retrieves later down the line.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I like the restrained recalls.

I'm not sure I agree about the retrieves. My dog's formal retrieves are different from his formal recalls and different from how he would informally retrieve while playing fetch. If you are throwing the toy or doing fetch games I'd be more concerned with the dog wanting to come back quick to re-engage with you or play tug than be concerned with how it carries over to formal retrieves.


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## Hunther's Dad (Mar 13, 2010)

I bought Ivan Balabanov's four DVD set. The DVD about teaching the retrieve covers that very subject. It's a little too lengthy to spell out here, but I've been very pleased with the results I'm getting re: coming back as fast as going out.

The set of Balabanov DVD's is a little pricey, and there may be others out there just as good (Leerburg, maybe?).


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

When we work on speedy returns with retrieves I actually teach my dogs to run back and jump into me with their toys. They like to body slam me and then we get to play again...

I start out by playing tug with them sitting on the ground...When they start to pull I lean forward and let them win...they I praise them and lean back calling them into me...when they come back we play again. Usually keeping it very close like this helps build return behavior and gives them less opportunity to run off with the toy unless you've already inadvertently taught them to be possessive. 

You then take the same game and stand it up. Using lots of body language to communicate to your dog, leaning forward and getting low when your dog tugs, and then leaning and moving back to get them to come into you. 

Around 3:15 in this video I start playing with Cade with his ball. (This was some time ago) That's where I use this and ask him to bring toys back to me. At the very end I throw out his ball pretty far. He gets a little distracted once he picks it up, but them you can see he remembers what he's supposed to do and picks up speed to come back and jump into me. I built this behavior and now it's faster, and when I go to do the retrieve formally, I just have to add in the "Hier" position.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

I recently got Michael Ellis's video on teaching the retrieve. It is very good and I recommend. 

When you teach the retrieve it is pretty quiet stuff. I start with placing the DB in the mouth and teaching the hold. Then the exercise is backchained from there.

Some dogs will bring more drive to the retrieve once the tossing comes in but others will remain in the quieter mode the retrieve was taught in. Of course, my guy remains quieter. So after he has the entire retrieve sequence learned, I add a tug or ball as reward. I sometimes tease him with the toy before throwing the DB. He is getting much faster after bringing the toy into the picture and making drive a part of the exercise. But, it is a rather calm exercise I start with for teaching.

The recall can be made faster through the various games mentioned above. I am still doing restrained recalls with my fellow as I don't have much of a stay on him yet. Staying kills the drive but the restraint and excitement of me running away while he is held back builds power into the recall. I am with Lies in that somehow the recall and the retrieve return seem like different critters.


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## Jason L (Mar 20, 2009)

JKlatsky said:


> I start out by playing tug with them sitting on the ground...When they start to pull I lean forward and let them win...they I praise them and lean back calling them into me...when they come back we play again. Usually keeping it very close like this helps build return behavior and gives them less opportunity to run off with the toy unless you've already inadvertently taught them to be possessive.


I like that!


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

Jason L said:


> I like that!


Ditto that!

I also really like restraint recalls, I found that this helped with Starks return as well. He is a spitfire when he is sent out, but upon the return, he takes his sweet old time. Also, running backwards while he is coming at you helps too. I also use A LOT of play reward, almost like we are rough housing. He loves that physcial stuff.


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## Mac's Mom (Jun 7, 2010)

Mac is almost 7 months old and still does not consistently come when I call him. I've gotten a lot of good ideas from this sight and will keep working on it.

However, my husband says not to freak out about it because he's still a baby. What do you all think?


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## hudak004 (Aug 3, 2006)

Crack the whip after you say the command


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

Mac's Mom said:


> Mac is almost 7 months old and still does not consistently come when I call him. I've gotten a lot of good ideas from this sight and will keep working on it.
> 
> However, my husband says not to freak out about it because he's still a baby. What do you all think?


I say set him up for success. Don't give a command you can't enforce. If you doubt he will come, don't call him then shrug your shoulders and make excuses. Go get him. Don't let him get into situations where you may not have the control you need. Make yourself so much fun and so attractive that he will WANT to come to you everytime. 

What I've done a lot with Gryff at that age, is call him to me randomly in a crazy excited voice and whip out a tug toy or ball, and play tug with him and get him to play fetch with me, then I let him go back to romping with Keeta or let him go back to mousing in the field and so on. 

His recall is rock solid! (Knock on wood!) I still re-enforce his "come" by playing tug or getting him to fetch when he comes - then he knows it was worth dropping everything and coming to me, because look how much fun this is!!! Just this evening we were walking in the woods and he took off after a rabbit, and recalled instantly!! He even picked up a stick on his way back to bring to me so we can tug. 

So don't call Mac if there is any doubt that he won't come, each time he decides to ignore your recall, he is learning that he can ignore the recall. Set him up for success and establish a strong foundation of coming to you for play before you expect him to recall off great distractions like bounding bunnies.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Mac's Mom said:


> Mac is almost 7 months old and still does not consistently come when I call him. I've gotten a lot of good ideas from this sight and will keep working on it.
> 
> However, my husband says not to freak out about it because he's still a baby. *What do you all think*?


I think your husband is BRILLIANT!!! (but you don't have to tell him if you don't want to... :wub: )

You've got a puppy and over the next year he's still got alot of mental and physical maturity and learning. It's best that we GUIDE them and teach them rather than 'crack the whip' and come down on them like a ton of bricks. 

As already mentioned, set them up to succeed and manage situations. If he's running off after a squirrel, you aren't going to win that one. Now if he'd been on a leash when he saw the squirrel, and you said his name with a bit of a leash pop if he didn't look at you..........THAT's training and teaching and managing. Takes alot more prior planning and smarts from us to teach.

You in group dogs classes? He's a perfect age to learn while you go to the class to learn how to TEACH him!


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## jakeandrenee (Apr 30, 2010)

At what age should you really start seeing that focus and recall? The OPs pup is 7 months??


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

In that video I posted Cade was 10 months. 

At training I would expect a 7 month old puppy to be engaged with me for the most part. Meaning that they should be conditioned at that point that at training we play and pay attention to Mom because when we are there we play games. Not to say that they won't space out occasionally, but they shouldn't be checking out completely. If they do they need to be put up. 

And I wouldn't expect that sort of focus and reliability always at home, especially if I didn't have anything motivating on my person and there were squirrels and other smells, and my puppy is used to operating more independently at home.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

If your pup is not coming when called then he should not be put into a position where he can make this choice. When are you having problems with his recall?


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## VaBeachFamily (Apr 12, 2005)

Was that last question aimed at me or the other person? I don't have issues EVER with him coming when called, he ALWAYS comes, just not as quickly as we want. He also, at 6 1/2 months, do do eye-to-eye focus, we just dont make him do it during a heel or anything yet, but he is great at it... like I said, we don't have too many issues, just the trot


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## Lauri & The Gang (Jun 28, 2001)

JKlatsky said:


> At training I would expect a 7 month old puppy to be engaged with me for the most part. Meaning that they should be conditioned at that point that at training we play and pay attention to Mom because when we are there we play games. Not to say that they won't space out occasionally, but they shouldn't be checking out completely. If they do they need to be put up.


I would also add that if the pup is more interested in something else then *YOU* aren't making the training interesting enough.

One thing I see time and time again in training classes is people with large dogs walking at a snails pace when trying to teach the Heel.

A BORED dog is one that will not be paying attention to you.


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## Jason L (Mar 20, 2009)

If Cullen knows how to play the two ball game, then you can try this variation to help build some speed ... just make sure Cullen knows how to duck slightly when going under lol


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

Jason, I play two ball with Stark all the time but the other day at the field I misjuudged him and he plowed into me, I went flying on my butt infront of atleast 20 people... most of them laughed while I dusted myself off in shame.. lol.


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