# Training recall- positive reinforcement



## catsaqqara (May 20, 2011)

I came across this issue in another thread and thought I would share the success I have had training a recall during out of control moments.


Bambi is/was a more out of control dog when it comes to barking, she has always barked at dogs and people but it started out of frustration and spiraled into madness after a dog park incident.

I have handled on leash barking differently but this is what I have done with her going nuts at the door.

She is single minded and nothing has been able to stop her in the past when she gets like this. I used to manage this by asking her to go into another room with the door shut. I can now call her in a normal tone quietly and she comes running, the recall has lessened her intensity overall and she is barking more appropriately. 

I recommend a whistle that you "charge" before hand because it is consistent and loud, When nothing was happening I trained a recall with the whistle around the house, I even asked her to stay and then call her with the whistle across the house to speed this up. Once she Was good with that I prepared to put it into action by getting some super tasty treats and showed them to her, let her know I had them. I set up the situation and tried to whistle right before she started barking It took quiet a few times of this before she started coming to me before she was done barking, when she waits until "it" is gone to come I just tell her "too bad" and no treats for her. I found it important to drop my anxiety about her barking, she already does it and annoys whoever already so being anxious about disturbing others doesn't do any good.

After the initial stage I stopped showing the treats, moved farther from the door and switched to my voice and had to yell so she could hear me, I have 2 barkers (Bambi and my retriever Carmella). I have already trained an emergency recall (special for Bambi a long time ago) where I yell because emergency situations are not calm and I don't want to take the chance of being frantic and she being unsure about my tone.

Then as Bambi became more reliable with coming I lowered m voice to become quiet and moved farther away(where I normally am in the house), treated if she came and said "too bad" if she came after it left. I moved to scarce treating with rare Jackpots at this time(as she is used to). I think this took about 2-3 months with opportunities to train multiple times a day. But remember I let Jaden and Carmella do their thing because Jade gets excited but doesn't bark and C barks appropriately when she is not encouraged by Bambi, I was asking her to ignore them and focus on me which is hard! It takes longer but is worth it, you might be able to get this done a lot quicker if you don't have to fight the pack mentality.

A little note about the yelling thing, a long time ago I taught Bambi that my tone of voice and level means nothing when I am calling her to me by varying it slightly time after time and using good treats and lots of praise when she reached me. She was so submissive and somewhat fearful this was just a way of proofing her recall.

I would love to hear other stories about the success you have had with barking or other, using positive reinforcement.


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## tortoise (Feb 5, 2012)

I used recall for barking at home. Jet would tear off across the yard barking like crazy at neighbors. I didn't want to lose his barking, but it was too much. His recall is good, so I recalled him from barking. Even my 5 year old son can recall him from barking.

At first when I recalled him from excessive barking, I would crate him. He was getting so that he would do the protective bark just to get me to come to the door. Crating him afterwards discouraged him from barking in that tone to get my attention. This also worked - he will whine or bark quietly if I forget to let him back inside, but no more sassy-pants.

The barking at home is perfect now. He still barks at our druggie neighbor that walks by (I let him and encourage it! :angel: ) He occassionally barks at neighbors but only when it is unusual. The last time was when our next door neighbor was backing a trailer into his shed with help from friends - at night.


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## msminnamouse (Nov 4, 2010)

I don't understand crating a dog for barking. A crate is supposed to be their own little private corner to go for some peace and quiet, as well as a place to put them when they can't be trusted with the run of the house or when recuperating. Why would you want to taint it with punishment?

I teach everything with as much positive reinforcement as possible and when all else fails, I remove the reinforcement for a behavior or alter the behavior into a preferred behavior. Angel has OCD and her medication is helping a bunch and she's just starting to be able to be in control of her barking. Previously, she didn't even know that she was doing it and couldn't stop once she was aware. She would even bark in her sleep. She has a near solid recall (I've slacked on this due to my sleep problems) and all I have to do is call her away from what she's barking at or ask for another incompatible behavior and the barking is forgotten. I let her bark three times and call her off. I'm also in the process of teaching her to bark "in an indoor voice". Ginger is trained to do an "indoor bark".

All with +R. Some -P if I turn and walk away from her and she no longer has my attention or audience, or if I don't give a treat. She comes running over all proud and I lavish praise on her and sometimes a treat. And I'm happy because I know that she'd rather listen to me than bark her head off. Not that I've intimidated her into coming when called. It's her choice and I've made it a reinforcing choice to comply. 

The more education I obtain on training, the happier my dogs and I are. The less we clash. The more we work together. 

I use capturing, shaping, luring but I don't use modeling. I don't feel that it encourages a dog to think for themselves. Just my opinion and how I go about things.


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## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

msminnamouse -- although I have never crated a poodle (I have only owned poodles), I always thought it was to be a safe place, too. I guess I have been very lucky and never had many of the more serious behavioral issues that are discussed here. Most of mine have been solveable with lots of patience and working at it.


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## msminnamouse (Nov 4, 2010)

I'll agree that a time out can be a very useful tool. Not so much to punish but to reset a situation and to calm a dog down and even to calm yourself down. For example, I was working with a dog that became very defensive due to his very punishing background. One of his issues was he developed a very low threshold in what he could tolerate.

One such issue was collar handling. I had no idea. No one told me. I went to attach a leash to his collar and he tried to attack my hand. He didn't hold back at all and he gave no warning either that I could see, since I was looking at the collar, not him. Growling must have been punished out of him because he didn't growl in warning. 

So I shepherded him into my laundry room and left him in there for a couple of minutes to cool off, and I also needed a breather from that intense situation. I needed to approach this level headed. And I did. We tried again, with me counter conditioning him to having his collar touched. It became a fun game for him because he got to wrestle every time I needed to touch his collar. That was his positive motivator.

I've also used this for VERY persistant attention barkers. The kind that just turning away from and ignoring them won't do the trick because they'll move to face you or they think it's a new game, even your ignoring is attention to them. I'll walk them into the bathroom and out, they bark, it's back into the bathroom and repeat until I get the response that I want. Then they get attention. It's not a punishment room as much as it's a stimulent free zone for them to reset from.

But the point is, if I shut these dogs in their crates, it would be poisoning the crate for them, attaching negative associations to it. 

That's why I use a room that a dog wouldn't otherwise go into. That room gets poisoned. But no big deal unless the dog needs to use the toilet or do laundry! Obviously, don't use the bathroom that you bath the dog in! Baths can be stressful enough!

But almost any behavior, no matter how severe can be approached with medical intervention (for physical and psychiatric disorders), behavior mod and even outside help if it's over your skill set or you're just out of ideas. 

I'm not a huge fan of crating. I've always just taken dogs outside to go potty and had dogs who were safe with free run but some dogs can't be trusted with that much responsibility, and being crated is a good thing to learn anyways for traveling, hospitalization, etc.


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