Slow Lazy Response to "Come" command

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Maybe I shouldn't complain because Tara pretty much always responds to "come" around our property. HOWEVER, she doesn't respond instantly. For instance in the house, if I call her, she will stand up, do a BIG stretch, YAWN, then SLOWLY walk over to me like she is about 100 years old (she isn't 2 yet and has no physical issues in this regard).

 

Outside in the yard, she will turn to look at me, then turn away and sniff something and then look back at me and USUALLY will come running.  But sometimes she won't start toward me until  I begin to take one step toward her. As soon as she sees me start toward her she is ON IT and SO happy to come to me!! But I am not getting an immediate, snappy response. It is almost like she is considering her options. 

 

Does anyone else have this issue? I am not sure quite what to do as she IS responding. How do you tell a dog to hurry up? Should I respond to this as I would if she didn't come at all? That doesn't seem quite right either so I haven't done anything.

 

Any ideas?

[Adina P]

I wish I knew! Rosco is the only dog I worked HARD with on the recall so far. And he's just the KING of slow pokes. I never figured out how to make him come speedily.

What Clark did with his border collie (so half human dog) was when he was teaching the recall (or later in the teaching) he'd run backwards as fast as he could (with her on a long leash I think) and add "hurry" after he said "come". Or something like that.

I definitely think it COUJLD help to try the running backwards while reeling the dog in during several practice sessions, perhaps to get her used to moving faster...?

What is your response to her if she didn't come at all? To some degree, I think that MIGHT be the right answer. A delay of more than a second or two might as well be a refusal or 'just a sec as I think about my options.'

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I do feel like she is just borderline refusing to come. She hasn't quite "gotten it" as Jane says-"you do it because I say so" We feed wildbirds and most of the time when she stalls outside she is in that area which has lots of smells and distractions for her.

You know, Tara is the first dog that I have had that does not respond to my running backward the way a dog is "supposed to" Ha! In the past my dogs could never resist running toward me if I ran away from them either forward or backward. But Tara has never done it. It is very strange ?? So I don't think I would have much luck with that approach. First I would have to train her to chase me!! LOL!

In the past when she was in more formal training and didn't come I normally had a fairly long line on her so I could get control of her pretty fast and didn't have to chase her down. Once I had the line I would return her to the spot where she was when I told her to come. Then I would walk her to the spot where I was standing when I told her to come with a couple of small corrections along the way. Once we arrived at my original position I would tell her how wonderful she was or give her a treat. I think that is why now, when I start taking a step toward her she runs to me. Because she remembers that she can't get away with NOT doing it AND she may also remember the corrections. But she knows now that she can push it to the point where I take that first step toward her because she definitely watches me to see if I am starting toward her. Right now she is just wearing a flat collar most of the time so it would be harder to do what I did before unless I go back to the long line.

[Adina P]

What I meant by running backwards was DURING practice. "Tara, COME" followed by you, holding the long line and reeling her in, WHILE running backward so she has no choice but to come quickly. But I don't have any good suggestions for moving from THAT to off the long line.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Okay I see what you are saying.

It looks like I may need to do some practicing with the long line again for a bit and see what results that gives, at least outside. I'm not sure about inside though.

Inside it seems like she is slowest when I call her when she is sleeping. That is when she wants to go through all the yawning and stretching. I don't know how long it takes a dog to go from asleep to wide awake. I have read that cats do it faster than any other animal but in the case of THIS doodle it seems like she wakes up groggy.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Here's a tip that I found on Facebook. This is a trainer than my brother used for his Board & Train who posts "tips" each week. If you've been using a "reward" based training program, this is something that you may want to try.

Tue Tip: Come, call your dog room to room in the house, when the dog gets to you PRAISE make believe you are putting the leash on SURPRISE him with a treat and let him go, do this for 3 days then change the reward, a toy,affection, let him go, call from inside to outside,then practice outside. This way we teach that c...ome means love, food AND play. The important part of teaching come is letting them go!

[Carol Brand]

Tara comes in slowly because she doesn't HAVE to come in quickly. There is no consequence for taking her sweet time. In a recall, the dog should always respond instantly and come at a brisk pace. The dogs don't need to gallop back to you, but they should be in an active trot.

I would go back to working the recall on an 8' lead. Put her in a sit/wait and move off so that the slack in the leash is taken up. Call her to front. The minute the command leaves your mouth, you should collar pop her and start jogging backwards while still facing her. PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE You need to be the funnest thing around. Get excited!!!! Make it seem like a total party to come in.

Now as she comes in, spread your legs and throw a ball or treat between them or have a giant petting party as she goes through. This is enforce her coming up all the way to you and it will keep up her speed (i.e. you don't want her to slow down 5' from you). Plus, it makes it fun. Eventually you can fade out the pass through and just have the dog come to front.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Carol, what's your opinion on the need to "let them go" during the training phase of the recall? Obviously there are times when that just doesn't work because you need them to come and stay with you. When I read that trainer's tip it did get me thinking. For example, when I was teaching my guys to fetch and return the object to me the trainer told me it's really important to give it right back to them (until you decide the game is over). I'm wondering if training recall is similar in that way.

[Carol Brand]

In my experience, until a dog is highly trained, you should never give a command that you can't enforce. So if I let them go, how would I get them back? When I'm training, I generally do three repetition of an exercise and then quit (always ending on a positive note). So I would keep a dog on a leash the whole time. At the end, they would come off the leash or we would move on to another exercise. But.... if I had a dog who was super slow to respond to the recall out in the yard, I don't think I would have them off a long line because if they don't come when they are called, they have re-enforced that they don't always have to. They instantly learn that coming is optional. Remember the Beagle lady I talked about. She once told me that her Beagles are NEVER offline for the 1st 10 months of their lives. WOW! That is a lot of work and time, but it is also the reason that her Beagles (breed most likely IMHO to take off at a whim) have such great recalls. They come regardless of the distraction.

As far as retrieving goes, I don't give my dogs back the toy. I guess I teach the retrieve in a way that the act of retrieving not the toy becomes the fun.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Thanks, Carol. It does make sense that you can't let them "decide" whether to "come" or not.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Thanks Carol it sounds like that is a good place to start.

I have noticed something with Tara and that is that she seems to differentiate between training time and non-training time when responding to the come command. When she is on leash or she sees me getting treats or her special toys she becomes very attentive and responds readily. But it is almost like a game to her and when the game is over then she goes back to the slow, lazy responses.

Will the exercise you are suggesting get us past this issue too?

[DeeDee and Sheila]

Carol, I went out and got a 30 ft. lead yesterday and then went to the park to work on recalls. I actually KNEW at least one thing. I didn't let her get out of range so if I said come and she didn't, quickly, I gave a tug on the rope and SHE GOT IT after a couple of times. Maybe that is bc I have worked on come so vigilantly since she was born. But then my dumbness came in when I didn't put 2 and 2 together about the yard thing!!!!

The long lead also made me see that Sheila associates sit in front of me on the come command, but if I just say sit out in the park somewhere or close to the car she didn't get THAT!!! So now I have to work on sit in the park, right? Starting close to me and then working her way out further and further.

Luckily Sheila doesn't like to be too far from me, but she has alot of poodle in her and doesn't train as fast as my last labs did. I could always produce a kong w/ a string on it and they'd come a runnin'. These labradoodles do DECIDE what they want to do. I'm just catching on to that. Labs mostly just obeyed, for a treat or a ball.

[Carol Brand]

Doing distance work with dogs is very challenging. Getting a dog to sit on command at a distance (first time, no creeping forward) is an actual exercise at the highest Obedience level. There are many ways to teach it, but they all involve starting close and working out.

As far as the Lab vs Poodle training issue. Poodles typically learn much faster than Labs. Unfortunately this means that Poodles learn to do the wrong thing just as quickly as they learn to do the right thing. (See Stanley Coren's Intelligence of Dogs http://www.stanleycoren.com/e_intelligence.htm)

Remember, just because a Lab would come running for a kong on a rope does not mean that it had a trained recall. Would that same Lab have come when called if you had no treat/toy and if someone else was throwing the kong? Here is the thing to understand. Poodles are a smart, distinguished breed. They thinks a lot of themselves. They have an innate desire to please their owners but at the same time, I found that owners do need to prove that they are worthy of their Poodle's respect.