Recall
Although it is prohibited to have a greyhound off lead in a public space here in WA, improving their recall is still very useful. A well trained recall enables us to enjoy more off lead activities in safe, private spaces. When our dogs come when called it strengthens our bond and promotes a positive training experience. The example below shows how we worked with foster Yoshi, calling him away from the boundary fence where he was becoming over stimulated.
Ensuring your dog has good recall can literally save their life, so if you are struggling with this seek the help of a qualified dog trainer. Please note that we have no official dog training qualifications but have lived with and loved greyhounds for more then 30 years and continue to learn from them everyday.
DON'T CALL THEM REPEATEDLY
Doing so will diminish the value of their name as a recall cue and potentially lead to them ignoring us.
We should only say our dog's name once, clearly and with a positive tone. We can add a cue word like "come" or "here" with their name and hand gestures to further communicate our wishes.
HOW WE GET STARTED
In a quiet location, away from distractions, we can start by showing Yoshi a toy or a tasty treat and praise him as he moves towards us and give him the reward. After a few repetitions, whenever he looks at us or as we say 'checks in' and starts to move towards us we can add the verbal cue 'come' and my usual hand signal is to bring my hands to my torso. Use whatever you are comfortable with, just try to keep it consistent.
PRACTICE IN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS
Once Yoshi responds consistently in our quiet location (backyard) we can move back to the front yard when it's quiet and less likely to have anything super exciting like a dog walking past. We continue to practice on lead at first just in case something super exciting comes past and progress to off lead again as we gain consistency.
REWARD THE DESIRED BEHAVIOUR
Anytime Yoshi settles and relaxes on the grass we reward this behaviour. If he rushes to the fence we don't react but instead wait for him to check in again and call him then.
If I am calling Yoshi away from something interesting to go inside, I need to take a few moments to reward him rather than taking him straight away.
BE CAREFUL
It doesn't matter how well we know our dogs, if they are fixated and overstimulated by what's happening on the other side of our fence we would not walk up behind them and grab them by the collar, they might get a fright and react without thinking, resulting in a bite so having a lead on while working through the process can be very helpful.
GET IT & TOUCH
We use 'get it' and 'touch' during the process to increase the instances of 'check ins' and interactions. Throwing a treat out for Yoshi to seek and find increases the opportunity of him turning and checking in so we can practice 'come'. We start by calling Yoshi from just a few steps away, and gradually increase the distance. I'm doing this on lead here but note the lead is loose and I am not pulling on it. We work on lead and off lead through the process. Having him on lead will be good for when we progress to heading back to our busy front yard.
WATCH FOR AND REWARD CHECK INS
When Yoshi is off lead (not training) in our busy front yard we watch very carefully anytime he goes to the fence and we wait for the exact moment he turns towards us (checks in) and we say 'Yoshi Come' and offer him a reward as he approaches. The reward could be just some attention and loves if we don't have a treat on hand.
JUST A FEW MINUTES EACH DAY
Yoshi's recall has improved greatly in our short time together, it's far from perfect but with daily practice, just a few minutes each day he'll continue to learn and to further improve his response we would slowly increase the difficulty and level of distraction.
You'll also notice that in many occasions in the videos Yoshi is already anticipating what I am going to ask, he is a very quick learner :)
Good luck and remember to have fun!