Coming When Called or Not

[Julie, Izzie & Max]

We have two doodles and they will be two years old in January and March of next year.  When they are playing and running outside off leash, they do not come when called.  They only pay attention to each other and just keep running and playing with each other.  This can be very dangerous and I am worried about  their safety.  They do come when called inside.  They have been to several training classes and did come when called in the class.  They both have their CGC.
I am thinking the problem is DH and me.  Is there any special training methods that anyone has used to teach your doodles to come when called off leash outside.

[Adina P]

Coming inside when they are less able to get away is easy.
Coming when called when off leash is MANY STEPS and much training time away from the above. So it will take some considerable work to train a dog to RELIABLY come when called while off leash.


Some important factors:
#1 They MUST be trained separately until they are MUCH improved
#2 They MUST be trained on a long leash until they have shown incredible reliability
#3 They MUST be trained in different environments, under different distractions
#4 NEVER call them with their official recall word unless you are VERY certain they will obey or you have means (long leash) to ensure that they do.
#5 Each dog is always a VERY GOOD DOG when they finally arrive in front of you.

Remember just because a dog will do things on command in the house (where the distractions are very low and they know you can enforce something) doesn't mean they will do so in the yard, in the park, or anywhere else until you've worked them in various places and around various distractions and they have proven themselves.

[Carol Brand]

Adina said it all re: training. In a nutshell, your dogs don't listen to you because they know they don't have to. Because they are off leash, you can't enforce your recall command and frankly the fun of running around with brother overrides their desire to please or comply. You need to keep them on a thin longline when the are outside so that you can reel them in if they don't come when they are called. You may also consider getting trained on using an E-collar. Most hunting dogs I know are trained with E-collars so that their handlers can give corrections at a distance.

Finally, I just want to mention one more thing. As a breeder, I NEVER NEVER NEVER place two puppies in a home at one time for the very reason you are experiencing. I find that it is too difficult for owners to separately train the individual dogs and that the dogs tend to focus more on each other than their handler/owner. I tell owners to get a dog trained and settled in a home before bringing on a second dog. I think spacing of 18 months to 2 years is ideal.

[Julie, Izzie & Max]

Thank you for the great advice. We let things get a little out of control over the summer after we finished our last training class in June. We have been taking them to our lake house this summer which is on three acres all summer and have been letting them run too much. We are going to have to be diligent in their recall.
We did not originally plan to get two puppies within two months of each other, but that is how it worked out and we couldn't be happier with them. We did not want to get two puppies from the same litter just for the reason Carol mentioned. Sometimes things just don't work out like we planned. We got Izzie and were on the waiting list to get a second puppy in about a year. We were way down on the list when Max's litter was born and we planned to get a puppy from his parents next litter in about a year. But, Max had a problem that required surgery and he was not picked and was the last one left in the litter when our name came up. We almost didn't take him but decided to go ahead and get all the house training over. We had Izzie house trained and she had been to puppy training already. What a huge mistake it would have been if we had not taken him. We have said many many times how incredibly lucky we were that all those people on the list ahead of us did not take him. He is so wonderfully sweet, affectionate and normally calm and we are so grateful that he is a member of our family. We love them both so much and they have been such a blessing to us.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I think you will find re-training them will work just great. They forget but pick things up again quickly. We relax with Peri, then she gets bad with some things (or "forgetful"), we train again and she picks it right back up. Izzie and Max are total dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BTW we take Peri out into a field with a long leash and practice there...back and forth between DH and myself...recall the whole time. She is pretty reliable. Not 100%, which is our goal, but pretty darn good. Always a work in progress!!!!!

[Carol Brand]

I'm glad you love him and he is lucky to have you. However, I have to question why a breeder would go ahead and place a puppy in a home that already had a young puppy. I think it is a breeder's job to keep each individual puppy's best interest at heart not to just place puppies off a waiting list (i.e I think it was the breeder's job to counsel you to wait). I think too many breeders are too eager to move puppies out the door or they are not experienced enough dog trainers/handlers to understand the ramifications of placing two puppies in one home. This is not solely a Doodle issue. I see it with multiple breeds and it makes me cringe.