getting their attention

Today was a great day to be outside so I took Maui and Cali out for
about 1 hour. They were on 50 and 30 foot training leads because their
recall is not perfected yet. I didn't hold the ends of the leads, but could
grab them if needed. Anyway, we had a great time! When I brought them in,
they had water and then sat by the door again. I decided to take them to
the park (this time I held the leads) so we could practice some things there
too. After being at the park for an hour, I brought them home. When we got
home, Cali immediately went to sleep on my bed and didn't move an inch for 4
hours! I had a lot of stuff to get done so it was nice.

Anyway, while I was working on recall, the main problem seemed to be
getting their attention prior to giving the command. I would try calling
their name but when they were distracted by other things, they wouldn't look
at me. I tried making other sounds to try and get their attention but it
didn't always work. When it failed, I would grab the lead and give it a
quick tug. That worked and they looked at me so I could say "come". As
long as they were already looking at me, they would come 90-100% of the
time. If they weren't looking, they'd only come a percentage of the time.
Any advice on how to get them to look more often or come without having to

MauiJNP...

oh, Maui knows Cesar! Cali might have to be introduced though.

MauiJNP...

yes, I imagine that would be a problem!

look at me first? Do I need to go back to phase 1 where I call their name
(inside and outside) and they get a treat just for looking? I plan to ask
the trainer on Wednesday when Cali has her next class but I like to check
here in the meantime. Thanks for any help.

dallygirl...

i'm glad you had a great time out with your dogs thats always great to
see :).

you have to get your dogs attention and keep it and to do that you need
to be more exciting and unpredictable.
after all why bother coming to you when they can sniff out the park
gossip and you will still be stood there waiting for them?

try hide and seek,i still play that with my shih tzu but it works.
another thing i do is to just walk the other way and to wait until they
just walk in front of you a bit and turn around and run away. you can
do this on and off lead. after a while they keep an eye on you because
your unpredictable.
when you get them running after you just say good dogs, get them to sit
and treat them. try a running back recall too, sit them down and step
in front telling them to stay and call them but running back, get them
to sit and reward them. they ran after you because you were doing
something different but the end result was two dogs who came when
called and were treated when they sat.