Probably a dumb question...

[Snark]

I'm debating about teaching Riley the Emergency Recall... The thing is, I haven't ruined his regular recall yet and he flies in whenever I call, "Riley, Come!" Doesn't matter if he's inside, outside, across the yard (a couple of acres), out of sight or harassing the older dogs. I do make sure he always gets a big jackpot and lots of praise for responding. After I release him, it's kinda funny to watch him nonchalantly wander off while keeping a weather eye on me, in case I feel the need to call him again... Even funnier to watch him indoors, he'll wander away from the room I'm in and I'll catch him peeking around the corner. (I do call him again, then we'll either play or work on something else.)

I have yet to proof him off leash away from the fenced dog yard and I probably won't until he's older... So, should I start adding the Emergency Recall? Would it confuse him? Or just be added 'insurance'?

 

[Promethean]

I don't understand. A recall is a recall. If properly trained and reinforced it will work under difficult conditions. I've never trained an "emergency recall" Can you explain how an emergency recall is different than a regular recall? With the assumption that the dog responds to the regular recall just fine.

 

[Maxy24]

An emergency recall is different because of how motivating it is. Dog is ALWAYS rewarded heavily with a really good reinforcer (food usually) an it is NEVER used for something negative (calling the dog to go inside when he doesn't want to, to get nails trimmed, for a bath, to take something away from him, etc.). Many people will regularly or even occasionally call "come" without giving a reward beyond "good dog" *pat* or will use come to bring the dog home or inside. This will cause the dog to slightly or not so slightly loose faith in the command being worth it. For many it's not a problem because there is never something attractive enough for the dog to blow you off, but it could come along. So the emergency recall is basically the super rewarding recall that ALWAYS means awesomeness.

Now if you are still always heavily rewarding the come command and are not using it for negative things it is just as good as an emergency recall right now. Technically no one NEEDS an emergency recall, it's just a precaution that could save the dog's life. As far as your situation it's really a personal decision, if you are really confident in her regular recall and the dog comes happily and quickly every time, and you are working to make sure you keep it very rewarding then you may deem is unnecessary.

 

[Criosphynx]

how old is he? If hes young i'd work on it NOW not later.


I tend to not have a separate cue for an emergency recall...BUT I tend to give much better rewards for off leash recalls in stimulating enviroments. If that makes sense

 

[Snark]

how old is he? If hes young i'd work on it NOW not later.


I tend to not have a separate cue for an emergency recall...BUT I tend to give much better rewards for off leash recalls in stimulating enviroments. If that makes sense

He's 5 months old... and yeah, you make sense. The first time he came (off leash) in the yard (he was a good 50 yards away), he got a huge jackpot.

 

[Brattina88]

I don't understand. A recall is a recall. If properly trained and reinforced it will work under difficult conditions. I've never trained an "emergency recall" Can you explain how an emergency recall is different than a regular recall? With the assumption that the dog responds to the regular recall just fine.

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/t36494/

 

[Promethean]

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/t36494/

I guess I do have an emergency recall, but in my case it's just a recall.

 

[lizzybeth727]

I think it's great to have two cues that mean essentially the same thing. Some dogs will respond better to one cue than the other, and it certainly never hurts as long as you continue practicing both. For example, with my dog, her name means "look at me," and "leave it" means look away from that and look at me.... essentially they have the same meaning. While I'm good at not calling her name unless I'm ready to reinforce the eye contact, I'm much better at reinforcing leave it because that one is more difficult for her and more important to me.

 

[Doberluv]

We call our dogs to come all the time. Some people have trained their dogs a very good, reliable recall. My Doberman had a super recall. He came no matter what almost every time. I think once or twice, I had to call him twice and one of those times was when he was chasing a bear off the property. My other dogs, pretty good, but not as good as his was. (of course, I don't work with them all that much lately) But nevertheless, no dog is perfectly, 100% reliable. You just never know when that one time, for some reason, he won't come.

Our voices are muddled, we're not always perfectly consistent. (come on....admit it) LOL. They hear the same old cue all the time, day in and day out. They come to us in response to our cue and they do it often....same old, same old...

The point of the emergency recall is that it is practiced only on an occassional basis. It has a unique cue that the dog doesn't hear all the time. The behavior in response to this cue is associated with the highest value, the most stupendous, gourmet reward, which they get a boat load of every time they come to this unique and seldom used cue. This is what makes the emergency recall so effective. It's just that added, extra something...like adding octane to your fuel. (I think. I don't really know what octane does exactly.):rofl1: But because it is not an every day thing, it tends to have some really special meaning to the dog and gives an added boost.

 

[ihartgonzo]

My emergency recall became "here"... I use it in Obedience/Agility/etc, to call my dogs from a recall, because I'm calling them to a specific position. I always reward it heavily to keep them motivated. I was going to use a different cue for my emergency recall, until I realized they are 100% reliable and super enthusiastic about "here".

"Come" is just toooo easy to mess up! On off leash walks, I always find myself saying "come", just telling them to catch up to me or whatever.

 

[Snark]

"Come" is just toooo easy to mess up! On off leash walks, I always find myself saying "come", just telling them to catch up to me or whatever.

Yeah... I can see myself screwing up his recall at some point. He hasn't gone on my off leash walks with the big dogs (my cue for them to catch up is 'let's go' although I think they'd probably prefer to use it on me since I'm the one usually lagging behind. )

I'm going to go ahead and start Riley on his emergency recall. Thanks everyone for your input!