Tag: dog recall training

Chai’s formal recall, iteration 5.2: the barrier level(s) – higher value distraction (liver) in 3 containers and different locations

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I’m calling this post iteration 5.2 because it is (still) the fifth stab at distraction recalls and we keep playing at level 2 (barriers).

The plan

After consultandolo con la almohada for a few days, I decided that my next step was going to be a high-value distraction in a container rather than a lower value one without a barrier. I came to the concusion that repeating 3 different parks with 3 different containers, each holding a high-value distraction Chai would gain access to with my help, would best prepare her for taking another stab at off-leash distractions. Below are the next steps: 3 locations per container (not always the same 3), resulting in a total of 9 challenges at level 2 (off leash dog, distraction C – difficult – behind a barrier):

The reinforcer would be the same value as distraction (liver) from my hand, followed a release to the distraction itself which I would then open for Chai who values distractions more than treats from my hand. The reason I treat from my hand rather than using just the distraction as a reward in this scenario is that treating from my hand teaches the dog to come all the way back rather than predicting an immediate release – and in an emergency situation, that’s what I need.

Container 1, location 1: liver

August 12, 2023

As always, I use a tongue click when Chai turns towards me – and as almost always, in the video below, my microphone isn’t picking it up. The treat from my hand is a piece of liver – same as the distraction in the container she then gets to eat. I love how she doesn’t treat the container as a food toy anymore but waits for me to open it for her! She knows the drill!

Kiba’s Park:

Container 1, location 2: liver

August 13, 2023

Toy Play Plaza

Today, Chai started towards the container while still chewing on the treat from my hand. She already knows she’ll get the distraction, and she is waiting for me to open her containers! I love it! I’ve been hiding my camera behind trees or bushes so it doesn’t become too much of a set-up cue. However, I suspect Chai still knows when things are set-ups. She’s just too damn smart to trick.

Container 1, location 3: liver

August 14, 2023: Dead-Poultry Park1

I didn’t film this one and am happy about this session for two reasons: one, Chai didn’t come across my stealthily set-up liver container right away. We had to stroll past it several times until I called her, almost nose on container, and got a beautiful response. This tells me that the tripod is a cue to look for a distraction and recall. Going forwards, every container will have at least one session I don’t record. The other thing I’m excited about is that I finally made it to an environment I haven’t done any distraction recalls in so far. I love mixing things up to help generalization!

Container 2, location 1: liver

August 15, 2023: Kiba’s Park

We mastered container 2 in its first location! I handled things the same way I did yesterday with container 1 at the Dead-Poultry Park: rather than filming, I set up the distraction stealthily and casually came across it. No tripods, no big production that may have given away that we were training. Chai nailed it and got both liver from my hand and from container 2! I’ll try and record the next recall again.

Container 2, location 2: liver

August 16, 2023: Toy Play Plaza

I tried setting up as casually as possible: first the tripod, then walk away, then walk past it, then place container #2 while Chai wasn’t watching. Of course she turned and saw it, moved towards it … and did a beautiful “Schnee” recall. I had planned to loop another loop before encountering it, but this worked too. It was lovely to see the recall work just as well in Game’s presence.

Container 2, location 3: liver

August 17, 2023: Dead-Poultry Park


After running around and working on other things for half an hour, we did …

Container 3, location 1: liver

… on the other side of the Dead-Poultry Park:

Container 3, location 2: liver

August 20, 2023: Chapultepec

The video below shows two sessions. In the first one, you’ll see Chai coming from a different direction than I do: left of screen. This is the first time in a while she didn’t give me a single-rep success on the first try! You’ll also notice that in both sessions (the second one was half an hour later and successful), Chai noses the container more than she has in the past. This is new as well. Part of it may be that we’re out here with a dog friend and Chai may be a little overstimulated and therefore more impulsive. OR yesterday’s “Schnee” recall failure at Fancy Park I (a recall that wasn’t part of my training set-ups) may play a role! I already know this puppy learns FAST and exactly what you teach her – which isn’t always what you want her to learn!

Generally, according to my recall protocoI, I would have a second go right after the first one and only take a break after getting a success. I didn’t do that in this case because Chai was very excited and my friend was waiting and keeping their dog from joining the fun. Taking a break felt like it was more likely to set Chai up for success – and my patient friend as well.

I can’t wait to find out how our NEXT mouse trap session will go: when Chai isn’t over-stimulated, will she succeed right away in our third location? Will she be as nosy as she was at Chapultepec? Stay tuned!

Container 3, location 3: liver

August 24, 2023: Kiba’s Park

Achievement unlocked at the first try! Party for the puppy!

… which brings us to the last check mark! We’ve made it through all 9 container challenges:

What’s next for Chai?

I do not want to go right to unprotected distractions. I’ve been there, done that and failed at it before. I’m thinking I’ll do liver (or maybe chicken to mix it up) behind a real-world barrier (fence) in three locations. Reward with something even higher value (cream cheese)? And then do unprotected low value distractions (dried fish?) in the real world and, once again, reward with something REALLY high value (cream cheese)? Maybe even go back to the long line stage before trying off leash? I’ll have to think about that one some more before taking the next step, becaus there is one thing I know for sure:

We will have to approach Chai’s off-leash distraction recall beast carefully. This dog is lightening fast when it comes to learning what is accessible to her and when! Stay tuned (well, if you’re into this kind of stuff. If you’ve read this far, I suspect you are!) The paragraph above is just my first thoughts; i.e. it’s musings, not a training plan and subject to radical change.

  1. Named in honor of the impressive number of dead roosters or chickens in various states of decay – but always rotten enough that I couldn’t tell whether they were roosters or chickens and giving off a deliciously disgusting smell – that Chai has found and rolled in in this particular park. ↩︎

Chai’s formal recall, iteration 5.2: the barrier level(s) – kibble container #3 (wire mouse trap)

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If I’m not mistaken, my reinforcer for the kibble recalls is liver in all the videos below (same value as chicken).

Container 3, location 1

I started on a long line. She reoriented as soon as she spotted the container – so I took a break to loop around the park and then set up in a different part of the park off leash!


Well done, puppy!

Container 3, location 2

Two days later at our toy play plaza. You go girl!

Container 3, location 3

Yet another park for our third location!

Session 1

In real time, I had the impression that Chai’s response was below baseline speed (even though it looks good on the video). To be on the safe side, I took a break and then did another session in a different part of the same park. (Note that my new Chai-tailored recall strategy is not like my distraction protocol: I get to take a break right away and then try in a different location.)

Session 2

After a 10 or 15 minute break; different location in the same park.

In the video above, Chai definitely turned on a dime! Achievement unlocked!

Distraction recall round 4 – chuting back to a closed container, or: Chai’s formal recall: the barrier levelS (plastic kibble container #1)!

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Enter: a new reinforcement strategy

After returning to our headquarters to strategize, I decided to start over with the last successful step: a closed plastic container taped shut. I also changed my reinforcement strategy: not only would Chai get a handful of chicken – I’d also open the kibble container for her after the “okay” release. She has taught me that she needs both reinforcers for me to be successful: knowing that she can reach a distraction, even if it is lower value than what I have, trumps coming back to me unless she also gets that distraction. So we’ll try for a compromise: what, little Border Collie, if I reinforce you from my hand AND give you access to the distraction after?

A closed plastic container!

July 18, 2023

Another barrier attempt at distraction #3 at the park! The reinforcer: a handful of chicken (rather than a single piece), “okay” release, and I am opening the plastic box for Chai to eat the kibble distraction as well: look how powerful your person is! That opposable thumb thing is quite amazing!

5-rep session:

In the session above, I set Chai (or rather myself) up for success in all the ways I could: we haven’t done any impulse control work today and she has already had some time running around to get out the cabin fever. I also made sure she acclimated to the space I was going to train in before setting up.

When acclimating, Chai met two toddlers (human kids her age who were fascinated watching her). Nice experience! They just watched each other; no direct contact, which is perfect.

Then our first session with the closed see-through container taped shut took, as you just saw, FIVE reps until we got a success! Good timing: after rep #5, I was both out of kibble and chicken.

This is fascinating to me! Chai clearly learned yesterday that in this situation, she can blow through her recall because she’ll get the kibble – and this set us me back in the sense that she now also tries going for a closed container that she used to succeesfully recall away from in the past!

With the adjusted reinforcement ritual, I hope Chai will learn that she’ll get everything (chicken AND kibble) if she comes back, but will not get chicken if she doesn’t. With the closed container, she still got the chicken after trying to open the closed container in vain. Once I use freely accessible kibble, if she doesn’t come back before reaching the kibble, she won’t get the chicken (but still get the kibble if she blows through my recall). We’ll have to see how good the pragmatic little Border Collie’s mental accounting skills are!

Tomorrow morning, we’ll try for a single-rep success at this same location, repeating today’s set-up and reinforcement ritual!

July 19, 2023: will we get a single-rep success after a night’s break?

We changed the direction of the recall … away from the piano mural rather than towards it … because the piano mural stage had a dance class going on. Now if you were a student of mine, I’d tell you to just wait and try for your single-rep success some other time. But I am me and with my own dogs, I LOVE to experiment. Since I knew Chai wouldn’t be able to help herself to the distraction without my help, I decided to give things a try with this slightly different location. I had no idea if she’d succeed the first time – but I wanted to find out! It took her two reps:

Would she have been able to do it in a single rep if we had kept the environment exactly the same (not changed recall directions because of the dance class)? Maybe! Maybe not. There’s no way of knowing! One thing, however, I know for sure: tomorrow we’ll go for that single-rep success again!

July 20, 2023: single rep success with the closed container!

Woohoo! Now just to decide how to proceed from here … I don’t expect the previous strategy of the open container to work – at least not yet. We need another, more different dragon plan! Time to take a break and strategize, little Border Collie …!

Chai’s distraction recall training – round 2.2: starting over with level 2 (barrier) at a different park

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June 29, 2023

Since yesterday, we failed at off-leash recalls, I remembered: oops. I haven’t done barrier recalls in the real world, have I? No, I have not. So that’s what we did today. We went to our favorite toy play Plaza and started over there – with barriers in a difficult location that wasn’t the same one we had just failed in off leash. While we never did the barrier recall with our most difficult distraction that was still missing from our work on the roof of the apartment building, at least that was the only step we skipped: barrier levels at the park is what comes next according to my recall tracker! (There is a reason my recall distraction protocol follows the order it does: I’ve tried different variations with different dogs and found this order to be the most successful for most dogs.)

I’m titling this post “round 2.2” because I see it as my second stab (the first “2”) at distraction recalls, and I’m starting at level 2 (the barrier level, indicated by the “.2”).

Future me chiming in here from a bird’s eye view:

Steps we have already tested out of are indicated by a check mark, past steps I skipped are crossed out and steps I am tackling in this post have a green arrow in front of them. Future steps yet to be tackled have a square in front of them:

Empty plate behind a barrier at the plaza – success!

My reinforcer, as of yesterday, is a piece of chicken from my hand followed by an “okay” release to check out the distraction.

While Chai would certainly have liked to investigate the plate after my “okay” release, she DID it – a recall success, no doubt! Upwards and onwards: the intermediate distraction!

Paper bag behind a barrier at the plaza

This is more difficult! According to my recall protocol, we want a single-rep success at every distraction step. That means the very first rep of a session needs to be a turn on a dime. If it isn’t, the session continues until the dog is successful. Then, after a break of at least 15 minutes, we do another identical session – aiming for a single-rep success again.

In the video below, you’ll see 2 sessions: Chai isn’t successful on her first attempt. Therefore, our first session has 2 reps (the second rep is a turn on a dime). We then take a 15-minute break of park fun and repeat an identical session, getting a single-rep recall success in our second session! Achievement unlocked

Our most difficult distraction: kibble behind a barrier!

Wooohooo! Even though I had to change barriers and head to a different location in the same park – during our 15-minute between-sessions break, Chai didn’t only play in the fountain but also figure out how to get behind the first barrier – we are getting a single-rep success with distraction 3!

I can’t quite believe how well my puppy is doing and call a second time (going off the rails of my recall protocol, which calls for sessions to be ended as soon as you get a single-rep success) when Chai is looking right at the kibble, trying to get into the playground. She nails this second recall too and I’m convinced: my puppy has tested out of distraction #3 at the barrier level! Go Chai!!

Our reinforcer, by the way, is still chicken from my hand – and a “Get it” piece of chicken in the second rep in the video above – followed by a release to the barrier. I decided to not open the gate to the playground and give Chai direct access to the kibble at this point: look and smell yes, eat no.

Stay tuned to find out what I’ll try next …!

Urban art chase: I’ll run a second scavenger hunt – I just haven’t decided what piece of off-the-beaten-track CDMX art we’ll end with. But I already know I’ll make things more challenging – and potentially more fun – this time around by sending you all over the city!

CHAI’S DISTRACTION RECALL TRAINING – ROUND 1.3: LEVEL 3 (off leash) IN A difficult ENVIRONMENT, aka C goes rogue and skips 10 steps, the world is over, the water is wet and all the pizzazz.

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“Oh, honey. […] The world is over. Who cares how fast you go!”
(Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin)

June 28, 2023: Fresa Parque off leash distraction recalls and skipping 10 steps

I confidently went to Fresa Parque in order to tackle level 3 (off leash) distraction recalls. Yep, you read that right: I haven’t worked on level 3 recalls either in the house or on the roof – Chai’s easy and difficult environments. I haven’t even worked on a protected difficult distraction on the roof yet! Future me made a table showing the 10 steps I am about to skip and the 3 most difficult steps I am about to tackle (check mark: achievement unlocked; strike-through text: skipped; green arrow: about to take a stab at in this post):

This first video shows the easiest distraction – our good old empty plate. Chai was a good sport and recalled away from it. I did two recalls rather than just one because she didn’t look like she knew the plate was even there … and then we danced! (Because what else are you gonna do when Gretchen Felker-Martin informs you that the world is over!)

Empty plate, off leash, park

Paper bag, off leash, park

Next, we tackled distraction #2: the intermediate one, our paper bag. This time, Chai clearly saw it. She beelined towards it and came right back when I called. Good puppy!

As confident as can be, I did the next obvious thing: set up distraction #3. KIBBLE! Our most difficult distraction! For the very first time, a completely unprotected edible distraction – several distractin protocol steps before it was time for a challenge of this magnitude.

Kibble, off leash, park

What do you think happened?

Chai knows this is an edible distraction, and she knows it is unprotected. She does the sensible thing and eats it. What else would one smart, pragmatic Border Collie do?!

Silver lining: you see her hesitate ever-so-slightly when I call. The recall response is almost on auto-pilot, that’s why. Then, her conscious decision to of course eat what is right in front of her wins and she goes for the kibble.

Kibble – second attempt

What would gone-rogue me do next?

I decided it would be a good idea to repeat the distraction – this surely was a one-off error! I’d just call earlier next time and all would be well.

You are seeing me have an extinction burst here: Chai has given me SO much confidence in her distraction recalls that I trust my reinforcer (Chai coming back) is going to happen again. Of course it is!

(Or is it? Let’s find out!)

Kibble – third attempt

The conclusion extinction-burst me draws in the video above is not one I would draw if I was looking at my tracker, away from the park and back at the drawing board. But I was still surfing the wave of extinction and trusted that I’d get a beautiful recall if I only reinforced once before releasing Chai to the kibble. She had simply let me know that found food was better than “Get it” chicken. Who knew I am such an optimist! (I had enough brain cells switched on to realize that ignoring my marker cue (Get it) and going for the distraction instead did not count as success even though Chai responded to the original recall.)

Third time’s a charm? Let’s find out …

Surprise: third time’s NOT a charm. What I believe happened here is that the second repetition reminded Chai that there was unprotected food available – so she went for it again in the third one. Clever Border Collie, outsmarting your human like this after building up his confidence!

One NICE thing the video above shows is that it’s no big deal if your dog gets the distraction. I know that, so I don’t worry about it. Laugh it off if something doesn’t go as planned and go back to the drawing board! It’s a game! We’ll just keep playing.

Tip for my Calling All Dogs students: do what I say, not what I do! Print out your distraction trackers, have them somewhere you can see them, check off squares and, most importantly, have a look at them every time before you do a recall training session! It might have been able to resist my cunning puppy’s master plan if I had followed my own advice!

Urban art clue #7: You should, if you want to, have found the blue fence and know which side of it the art piece is on. You now have two options: either you keep looking on that side until you find the art piece …
or you make finding it a bit easier and scroll down for your last-but-one clue:
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.
.
.
.
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the art piece is at (my) shoulder hight at the outside wall of the building.

Also, I verified something: this piece of urban art has got to be by the same artist as the original one I posted (without the blue spraypaint behind), but it is not, in fact, the same piece. The first picture I shared is very close and on the same building, but has been boarded off. Urban art is ephemeral!

CHAI’S DISTRACTION RECALL TRAINING – ROUND 1.2: LEVEL 2 (Barrier/helper) IN AN INTERMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT!

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June 25, 2023

Distraction recall, level 2 (helper as barrier): easy distraction (empty plate), intermediate environment (roof)

Zane agreed to be my helper at the barrier stage in our second environment as well: up on the roof we went!


Chai did beautifully – so we took a break, played ping pong recalls on the roof and then moved on to our intermediate distraction: the paper bag!

Distraction recall, level 2 (helper as barrier): intermediate distraction (paper bag), intermediate environment (roof)

Chai anticipated my recall and turned towards me right as I called! Superstar puppy: few experiences feel as good as seeing a distraction turn into a cue before your very eyes!

Now the sensible thing would, of course, be to take a break and move on to distraction number #3 – the most difficult one: kibble! For whatever reason, we did not do the sensitive thing: we stopped here and declared the roof stage a success. Distraction #3 just skipped my mind and we headed back down to start a day of coworking. No roof kibble recalls for Chai. (Mark my words: print out your distraction tracker if you’re a student working with it! I came up with this protocol and not even I seem to be able to keep it straight!)

Urban art clue #7: you already have enough information to narrow down the possible streets and go looking. This clue will let you find the correct street triangle: the building and accompanying terrain the art piece is on is fenced off in blue on all sides. Narrow down the streets it could be on and find the blue fence.

CHAI’S DISTRACTION RECALL TRAINING – ROUND 1.1: LEVEL 1 IN A DIFFICULT ENVIRONMENT!

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June 24, 2024 – first things first: happy CDMX pride day!1

… and now on to our regularly scheduled dog training programming!

Level 1 (Chai on a long line), distraction #1 (empty plate – easy), environment #3 (difficult)

In an ideal world, I would have recognized that the long line tightened in the moment or reviewed the video before moving on and noticed it then and there. I’d then have repeated the same recall, taken a break and repeated it again. Single-rep (first rep of a session) success on a long line? Only then would I have moved on to distraction #2. It’s not an ideal world though and I was in a hurry to meet my friends. So we took our break and then soldiered on:

Level 1 (Chai on a long line), distraction #2 (paper bag – intermediate), environment #3 (difficult)

I got lucky! Chai’s long line did not tighten this time! In retrospect, I can’t believe what she let me get away with after tightening the line with the easy distraction! (Also in retrospect, it does make sense because she had already figured out that the long line would stop her, including in this environment, and that she was on a long line.)

We looped around the park for a while to give Chai a break, and then set back up for our most difficult distraction:

Level 1 (Chai on a long line), distraction #2 (paper bag – intermediate), environment #3 (difficult)

The reason I put the kibble on the plate is that otherwise, it wouldn’t have been visible against the ground.

… and believe it or not: the long line actually did stay loose again! Chai is building my confidence! She’s got this! I‘ve got this! We are invincible! (Or are we?)

Urban art clue #5: It sits on a border street between two colonias. The colonia the art piece belongs to has more than one part (as established yesterday). The colonia it borders only has a single part.
Also: updated picture! The original piece seems to be gone or have been altered, but we have a new one in its place! Urban art is alive!

  1. I am critical of the commercialization of pride events and aware of the fact that especially trans women are being shown the door – and much, much worse – in Zona Rosa on a regular basis. Trans women are being disappeared and murdered right where Pride is celebrated quite literally all the time. I see the announcements of missing people and murders on my news feed, and there are a lot of them.
    It was still the first time that I was in CDMX in June and I wanted to see the biggest Pride event I’d ever had a chance to attend (this is the biggest city I’ve been to this time of year). So that’s what I did – this year. Next year, I’ll go to the protest marcha de la Tianguis Disidente instead. Gotta remain true to my values, and pretending that every queer person is treated equally and we’re all one big happy family is most certainly not one of them. This year, I was happy to be in my city though, buy a pride flag to wear as a cape and jump into the rainbowy river of people with my friends. ↩︎

Chai’s distraction recall training – round 1.1: level 1 in an intermediate environment!

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Next stop: the roof of our apartment building! We’re off to a strong start with the empty plate. (The reason no one here is running full speed is the fact that it is HOT!)

Upwards and onwards: intermediate distraction on the roof – the paper bag!

This went so well – after a break, we head back for our third and most difficult challenge in the intermediate environment: kibble!

At first sight, the video above looks great: Chai recalled, didn’t she? Well – yes and no. Watch again! At 00:11, she does a double take. I should not count this as a win, but repeat the session. I saw the double take in real time and again when reviewing the video. And then I said to myself: you know what, she is doing SO well – nevermind that little hesitation. Oh, past C, my friend! Future C smiles at you and shakes his head. You lowered your guard! You don’t know it yet, past C – but nothing escapes the twentythird sense of The Border Collie. She won’t let that one slide …

Urban art clue #4: it IS in one of the neighborhoods that have more than one part (when I say parts, I mean the equivalent of Upper, Lower and Midtown Manhattan.)

Chai’s distraction recall training – round #1.1 (of many!) Today: level 1 in an easy environment!

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Since the person writing this post is future C, I can tell you: this is the start of a very long strategy game between puppy Chai and me!

In this first round of distraction recalls, I planned on using my distraction protocol (the way I teach it in Calling All Dogs1 at FDSA). We’d work our way through it – should be a breeze! – and move on to more interesting training projects! (Future C laughs out loud. Oh, past C! You are too cute when you underestimate The Border Collie!)

3 distractions:

  1. Empty plate (easy)
  2. Crumpled-up bag that used to have food in it (intermediate)
  3. Kibble (difficult)

3 locations:

  1. Living room (easy)
  2. Roof (intermediate)
  3. Park (difficult)

3 levels of distraction protection:

  1. Long line
  2. Off leash, distraction behind barrier (helpers and fences)
  3. Off leash, no distraction

I have a distraction training tracker I ask my students to fill in because I know how easy it is to accidentally skip steps. I filled it in for Chai as well. This is what it looked like. The mistake I made was that I didn’t print it … so I soon stopped looking at it and eventually went rogue. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Like the good protocol-following dog trainer I am, I started with my empty plate in my living room and with my puppy on her long line:

June 22, 2023

After successful completion of the easy distraction, we moved on to intermediate:

Seeing how well this had gone, we took a break and then upped the ante: our most difficult distraction in location #1 on a long line!

What a superstar! We got to check off the first three boxes on the distraction tracker! (Or we would get to check them off, physically, if we had printed the tracker. Since I don’t own a printer, printing stuff involves exporting my Google doc to a PDF, transferring the PDF to a USB stick, walking to a print shop that may or may not be open … You get the picture. It’s easy to start out with good intentions and not follow through when printing is more than just clicking a button!) But hey – I shouldn’t be making excuses for myself. Truth be told, I thought I had taught and used this protocol SO many times that I knew it by heart anyways. Who needs a print-out! Not past C! (Future C cracks up. Oh, dear past C! You’re in for a surprise!)

  1. Which happens to be running this term in case you want to hop in! I’m giving away a free Bronze spot on Facebook – go grab it! ↩︎

Chaiary: the Kiba recall challenge!

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Chai has a good recall away from dogs, even out of full-on play. Only Kiba is different: Kiba is Chai’s best friend. She is only a month older and they have the same play style.

Chai is able to recall … But only once they have played and Chai has satiated on Kiba. When she first sees her and hasn’t yet had an opportunity to play, she cannot currently respond when I call.

I love a good challenge, so I’m going to work up to recalls away from Kiba before Chai has had a chance to say hi!

June 12, 2023

Here, I’m trying an informal recall on leash: I will use the leash to stop Chai if she doesn’t respond. I will wait her out if she doesn’t respond and then “okay” release and drop the leash. Only once I get her to recall on “Pup-pup-pup” alone do I want to try and use her formal recall cue. That’s the plan for now anyways!

There were a two or three more recalls between June 12 and July 22 that I didn’t record and didn’t take notes on … And sadly, all I remember is that I did not get Chai to respond on Pup-pup-pup on the pink long line. Picking back up with a video on July 22:

July 22, 2023

Today, I decided to try a shaping approach: I would simply wait Chai out, release with “Okay!” and drop the leash as soon as she reoriented, weight-shifted or moved an ear back towards me. Well – I did, and Chai said, “Now what?”

Next time, I’ll either run up to Kiba together with Chai or call her when she checks in rather than releasing her right away: check in – recall – tongue click – chicken – “Okay!”

I don’t want to introduce that “Now what?” confusion into our recall!

Is one of the above options better or worse than the other one? No, they are simply different. Go with your gut if working on a similar challenge with your own dog!

July 24, 2023

I botched today’s training plan even though I went over it in my head before getting to the park: Alan and Kiba were late, so Chai and I worked on positions and personal play first. When our friends suddenly came around around the corner, I barely had time to hit record on my phone … And I ended up repeating yesterday’s session rather than doing what I actually wanted to do, which was call Chai when she reoriented. Anyways, here’s the video! Looking a bit better than yesterday, so we’ll take it as a win either way! And next time, I will call her!

My challenge: I only get a single recall to practice this because once the two Border Collies have had a chance to greet each other, I can call Chai without problems. The challenge is before they’ve said hi to each other! We’ll try again Wednesday.

July 26, 2023

I stuck to the training plan today, called “Schnee” as soon as Chai reoriented, got THE most enthusiastic response and ran back to Kiba together with her. I had planned on using my informal recall cue but the formal one came out of my mouth instead. It worked though – so all good!

Finally, things went (almost) according to plan … and I did not record it. Sad face. I’ll repeat the same step another time to get a video.

Today’s single salvageable picture of a great session isn’t very helpful!

August 3, 2023

Off leash Kiba and off leash Chai met at the park today. We hadn’t planned for it, but I felt optimistic, had chicken ready because we had just practice a food distraction recall, and just went with it! I used my formal recall cue (“Schnee!”) since it had worked so well the last time and Chai spun right around from running up to greet her friend, came back for her handful of chicken and then enjoyed a good play session. WE DID IT! I’ll repeat the exercise to get video proof. But oh-SO-proud of my girl!

Some pics from after the recall and after they played – by now, I had had time to get out my phone! Happy pups!

August 23, 2023 (the date in the video thumbnail is wrong)

FINALLY, I got my formal recall away from Kiba on video! Chai saw Kiba – checked in with me – looked at Kiba again – recalled on “Schnee” and got a piece of liver before being “okay”-released to play with her friend! SO proud of my puppy! (And SO grateful for these two friends – this human and his dog – and the fact that I can count on them unconditionally and for much more than just training dogs. Thank you, Alan.)

September 8, 2023: using the opportunity for another formal off-leash recall before saying hi to Kiba

I used today’s play-and-training-and-catching-up meet up for another recall away from Kiba before the dogs had a chance to say hi. I reinforced with liver and okay-released Chai to play.

You’ll see in this clip that recalling away from Kiba has become easy for Chai: as she’s growing up, she’s getting less playful which makes Kiba less of a difficult distraction than she used to be. Good girl, Chai. Sooner or later, I’ll have to stop calling you a puppy!

This video concludes the Kiba recall series! Recalling away from her bestie has turned into a walk in the – literal – park for Chai!