Yay Eddie!

I got some great news yesterday! I've been working with a eight year old Italian Greyhound named Eddie and his mom Lynda (pictured above) on recalls for a couple of months now. He was a dasher and who had one too many close calls with cars, so Lynda wanted a recall she could trust. Eddie and I have been doing lots and lots of outside work with an extended lead. He's made good progress and is a happy learner.

Eddie's new recall got put to the test yesterday; Eddie managed to get off his back deck and into his backyard. Once Lynda saw this she called his cue, "With me!" And what did our little dasher do? He dashed right back up to mom for a treat! It is so exciting to hear that training is working and I'm terribly proud of Eddie. I'm going to make sure he gets an extra tasty treats during our next training session!

Reinforcement is Key

Dogs go where they are rewarded, and like any other living creature, you need to make what you're asking of them worth it. Your dog is not going to come to you just because you love each other and have a bond. Would you pull yourself away from facebook or a good conversation just because someone called away? If you aren't going to get reinforced with something, probably not. It's the same for dogs. Those scents on the ground are really interesting and the chance to run around off lead is really fun. So backup your recall with a really good treat. You want your dog to start thinking coming to you is just as fun and rewarding as sniffing the ground or running about. Even I act a lot faster if someone dangles cookies at me as a reward.