Practising Recall

Beni is an eleven month old Rottweiller, many thanks to Beni’s owners Paul & Cheri for allowing me to use these videos.

Learning Fieldwork

Early days for two excellent exercises, on the property search the dog is looking for a purse. As soon as Beni indicates it I reward him with his ring, play & tug of war then ensues. You will notice that he has been taught to maintain his sit until released, thereby improving his ‘impulse control’. We started by teaching him to search for his ring. We then hid another object and as soon as he showed an interest in that we reward by dropping his ring on the object. Now he will indicate any object with fresh human scent on it.

To progress the exercise we would like to extend the length of time that the dog will indicate an object, before rewarding.

An introduction to tracking, although Beni will eventually be working in a harness with a tracking line. At this stage we are just introducing him to the game, so I am happy with just a long lead and collar. To start with I would lay a straight line track, then just take the dog for a walk along it. Once we get to the other end and the dog receives a reward, he will start to make a connection about how to achieve a reward the next time.

Eventually we can combine the two games by laying property on the track, which when the dog finds it, he will stop and indicate before continuing the track.

Beni is a great example of a dog that loves a challenge, and appreciates the opportunity to use his nose.

“The quickest way to develop a relationship with a dog is to engage in hunting games with it”

Brenda Aloff