Hi everyone: Are there any Greyhound people here? One of the volunteers in our animal facilitated therapy program has a 2 year old Greyhound that was rescued from the track. She is a very nice dog, gentle, kind and quite obedient in most things. However, there is one major issue we have been unable to resolve: the dog simply will not come when called. I am not a dog trainer and do not pretend to be an expert in teaching dogs. However, I have managed to successfully train my own dogs as well as many dogs in our program. However, neither I nor the true trainer has managed to teach this lovely dog a reliable recall. My method for teaching recall is fairly straight forward: the dog is on a standard 6’ leash; I call the dog to me and offer a treat/toy and praise as reward. Once the dog understands the word “COME”, I graduate to a 20’ lead and we do recall until the dog has accomplished perfect recall on leash. After this we head to a fenced in yard area and begin off leash recall work. I follow the rules as I understand them: no recall when asking the dog to leave something fun; no recall to correct the dog; no recall when unable to enforce the recall and never issue the recall word more than once. I have managed to train most dogs to be reliable on recall using this method. This Greyhound is the first dog that I have been unable to reach with my methods. Even on the 20’ lead she is not consistent in her recall. If a small animal – rabbit, squirrel, bird, etc – is nearby she appears not even to hear the command. Our volunteer is feeling really frustrated and quite sad that her dog is not able to run free with the other dogs because she cannot be trusted to come when called. And, I certainly share her frustration.

 

Several people have told me that Greyhounds will never be reliable in their recall because their prey drive is so strong. I’ve always believed every dog can be taught if we find the right approach to training. I also fully endorse Cesar’s theory that we need to look at dogs in terms of: animal – dog – breed – name. Therefore, I have to believe we are doing something wrong in our attempts to communicate with this dog. Does anyone here have any advice or experience with this breed or with dogs that have difficulty mastering reliable recall? Any ideas will be very welcome!  

Be careful using a long leash on a greyhound a trainer did it in England this year and broke the dog's neck. Only this style of dog seems to have issues with necks but there again you do have it in dobies as well. I think you may always have issues with this dog as she's ex-racing and her eyes have been geared up to chase. so maybe a chase recall or how about using a rabbit skin on a horse lunge line as a toy for her to recall to? I have done that before noe for terriers and greyhounds, give what they want but under your control.

 Chase recall is easy to teach and I won't go into it unless you want me to a I'm fairly convinced you have an idea how to teach it anyhows from reading all your previous posts. But ask if you want me to post it here and I will. 

 

The other stuff I can think of is withholding food and working her for it but be carful of gastric torsion here. And make sur she doesn't interact with other dogs until this is resolved or you'll lose any ground you've gained. How about clicker training?

Thanks for the ideas. I have heard that Greyhound necks are exceptional fragile. When you look at these dogs it is easy to see why this might be the case – those long thin necks. The woman who owns this dog has tried teaching recall using various techniques and has yet to achieve a reliable recall. I had not thought about doing a chase recall; however, I can see some sense in this technique. An ex-racing dog is likely to immediately fix onto the chase object and thus might also respond to the command “COME” when encouraged by the chase object. I think I’ll give this a try the next time the dog comes over.

 

German Shepherds – of which I have 2 – are especially prone to bloat and gastric torsion. My now 10 year old dog had a bloat episode when she was about 3. Fortunately, she did not suffer torsion and recovered quickly with no problems. However, I have known 3 dogs that died as a result of torsion, so I tend to be exceptionally careful – some would say paranoid. I’ve read that Greyhounds are also very prone to the disorder and we are very careful with Sadie. None of the dogs (mine or any others in the program or on our farm) are fed until they have rested at least an hour prior to a meal. They are also not permitted to run until at least 2 hours after eating. The Greyhound’s owner understands about bloat/gastric torsion and seems very responsible in that area.

 

I certainly agree with your point about allowing the Greyhound to interact with other dogs during training. I like using older dogs with young puppies as a means for training and behavioral changes; however, when a dog is failing to “get” a basic command, having another dog around often leads to greater distraction and even more trouble learning.

 

Thanks, again, for sharing your ideas.   

Hi, At our dog training classes we use to do them outside in a field and there were all breeds of dogs in our class, including an ex racing  greyhound. We all did everything the same no matter what breed we had. We started off with our dogs on a lead and we used treats and gave the command "come" while we were close to them. When they came to us they got a treat. If they did not come we made it happen by doing a small tug on the lead, just like Cesar does when he corrects the dogs. Once our dog could do that we increased the distance between us, just by going to the end of the lead, when that was done we added the long line. All the dogs did so well, that after awhile we had them all of line with excellent recalls, even though there were rabbits around the field we trained in. I kept that up with my dog and introduced a whistle as well and now for ages if I just whistle once, he comes 99% of the time on first whistle, he sits in front of me and gets either a frisbee as a reward or a small piece of cheese. I think the trick with a recall is making sure your more exciting to your dog than anything else in the park, but I am sure you know that already as you already train dogs. I use to think I was more exciting, but my trainer use to say no boring and make me work even harder lol. Even when other dogs come to us in the park, I don't have to worry about him running off after them as he never has, because me and his frisbees are more exciting to him. It is hard work and somedays I feel shattered after it, but I can relax now whenever he is off lead. I did have my work cut out last year when he discovered squirrels, but now I just say leave and he will ignore the squirrels.As you know recall is  like everything lots of repetition. I know you have done all what I have done, but as I said the greyhound in our class, had a great recall, but not when it joined the class lol. For squirrels my trainer told us to tie a fluffy pencil case on a long line and someone rode around the field on a bike dragging the pencil case, so it appeared it was a moving fluffy animal, when they did that I had to work on my leave command. I also got my husband or son to run around in the park doing this when we did not have a bike. I worked on this every single day until he had mastered it. That is how I got my dog to listen when squirrels are around. I won't say he is perfect, he still has the odd blip, but I keep at it and I have seen loads of improvement since summer of 07.

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Temporale