Why won't my dog to return to the whistle everytime?

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Why won't my dog to return to the whistle everytime?

Can you trust her to sit and stay while you walk around her or go out of sight?

Tuesday, 05 December 2006

If I sit my springer puppy and walk away, she will come running on the whistle, but if she is sniffing around the garden and I try to recall her, she ignores me. Can you offer any training advice?

A:

The art of successful training is to build gradually a close bond with your puppy, so that it will exercise self-control and look to you for reward and guidance.

To attempt to give a command you cannot immediately enforce will only teach disobedience and harm your relationship with the dog.

The fact she is ignoring the recall whistle is symptomatic of a deeper problem. Do not continue to put her in situations you cannot control until full obedience has been taught in the confines of a controllable training environment.

Can you trust her to sit and stay while you walk around her or go out of sight?

Your presence has got to be appealing to her and this is done through positive training methods to teach basic controls which are, themselves, the foundation for all future training.

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