Joined
·
3,695 Posts
Firstly, apologies for length!!
I seem to be having a couple of little problems with Indy, mainly to do with recall.
From the garden she's fine, recalls when she's asked, same when we go down to our local beach. It's when we get into strange surroundings that she won't do as she's asked because she's obviously very interested in what's to see and smell.
For example...NE training day. She did excellently with learning to walk to heel, but I suspect she got a little bored watching the retrieves and such-like so when she did finally get let off (the first and third time), she went off on one...but the second time she was sent for a retrieve, she did really well and came back when asked :? Today we went to visit my family where they're staying at a caravan site, we'd planned to go over to a reservior later in the day. We had a nice play with the ball before lunch and she was fine. Played nicely with the ball, had a good run about and a sniff off the grass around the van, then came back into the van when asked to. Yet once we'd had lunch and got into the cars to drive to the local reservoir, she went off on one and refused to get into the car! She didn't go out of sight, but would not let us get close enough to put her onto the lead/into the car! After around 5 minutes of her making a complete fool of me (much like at the end of the NE training day - if westmacott or centrefire is reading, I'd appreciate your input here) we had to get into the car and start driving away, at this point she actually came rushing up to the driver's side (like "noooooo, don't leave me!!") and was happy to let my partner put her into the boot. Earlier in the day we'd visited a friend who have a Springer, she'd never been there before and the Springer was too nervous to play with her but she amused herself and again, was easy to round up and place back into the car for us to drive to the caravan.
When we got to the reservoir, I put her onto a long line and let her go into the water to have a splash about, but she refused to let me reel her in and the result of the melee means I've really hurt my finger :sad:
I had to put her back into the car at that point, she didn't protest as I suspect she was tired!
She seems to have this trigger...she'll be fine and do as I ask and then suddenly the switch is flicked and it doesn't matter what I say, what I do or what I offer her, she will not return to me. I don't get angry or stressy with her, I find ignoring her and walking away or hiding will get her to eventually return and at that point she'll stop and sit, letting me hold her collar or put her lead on but obviously I can't keep doing that! It's kind of like a bumtuck run I suppose, she gets mad eyes and I can imagine her sticking her fingers in her ears, pulling her tongue out and saying "Ner ner ner ner, you can't catch me..." I can't work out if it's an overtired response or not, but I expected that at the age of almost 1, she should have a fair bit of stamina!
It's a bit odd, even when there are distractions, she will always "WAIT" when told when the boot is opened and not try to get out. I can get her to sit at the front door when we've finished a walk, I can take the lead off and she'll walk into the house when asked to, she won't try and make a run for it. When I ask her to sit and I remove the lead for whatever reason, she'll always "WAIT" until I release her to go on a free run or whatever else it is we're doing.
I could do with some input here because it's all well and good her having nice recall and doing as she's asked when we're somewhere she's familiar with, but she just seems to go totally crazy when we're somewhere new and it is literally like having two different dogs!
*pulls hair out and nurses bruised finger*
I seem to be having a couple of little problems with Indy, mainly to do with recall.
From the garden she's fine, recalls when she's asked, same when we go down to our local beach. It's when we get into strange surroundings that she won't do as she's asked because she's obviously very interested in what's to see and smell.
For example...NE training day. She did excellently with learning to walk to heel, but I suspect she got a little bored watching the retrieves and such-like so when she did finally get let off (the first and third time), she went off on one...but the second time she was sent for a retrieve, she did really well and came back when asked :? Today we went to visit my family where they're staying at a caravan site, we'd planned to go over to a reservior later in the day. We had a nice play with the ball before lunch and she was fine. Played nicely with the ball, had a good run about and a sniff off the grass around the van, then came back into the van when asked to. Yet once we'd had lunch and got into the cars to drive to the local reservoir, she went off on one and refused to get into the car! She didn't go out of sight, but would not let us get close enough to put her onto the lead/into the car! After around 5 minutes of her making a complete fool of me (much like at the end of the NE training day - if westmacott or centrefire is reading, I'd appreciate your input here) we had to get into the car and start driving away, at this point she actually came rushing up to the driver's side (like "noooooo, don't leave me!!") and was happy to let my partner put her into the boot. Earlier in the day we'd visited a friend who have a Springer, she'd never been there before and the Springer was too nervous to play with her but she amused herself and again, was easy to round up and place back into the car for us to drive to the caravan.
When we got to the reservoir, I put her onto a long line and let her go into the water to have a splash about, but she refused to let me reel her in and the result of the melee means I've really hurt my finger :sad:
I had to put her back into the car at that point, she didn't protest as I suspect she was tired!
She seems to have this trigger...she'll be fine and do as I ask and then suddenly the switch is flicked and it doesn't matter what I say, what I do or what I offer her, she will not return to me. I don't get angry or stressy with her, I find ignoring her and walking away or hiding will get her to eventually return and at that point she'll stop and sit, letting me hold her collar or put her lead on but obviously I can't keep doing that! It's kind of like a bumtuck run I suppose, she gets mad eyes and I can imagine her sticking her fingers in her ears, pulling her tongue out and saying "Ner ner ner ner, you can't catch me..." I can't work out if it's an overtired response or not, but I expected that at the age of almost 1, she should have a fair bit of stamina!
It's a bit odd, even when there are distractions, she will always "WAIT" when told when the boot is opened and not try to get out. I can get her to sit at the front door when we've finished a walk, I can take the lead off and she'll walk into the house when asked to, she won't try and make a run for it. When I ask her to sit and I remove the lead for whatever reason, she'll always "WAIT" until I release her to go on a free run or whatever else it is we're doing.
I could do with some input here because it's all well and good her having nice recall and doing as she's asked when we're somewhere she's familiar with, but she just seems to go totally crazy when we're somewhere new and it is literally like having two different dogs!
*pulls hair out and nurses bruised finger*