We haven’t managed to take Beanie or Biggles to obedience classes for a few weeks due to work commitments. Tonight was our first night back (Biggles’ class tonight, Beanie tomorrow) and I was a little apprehensive as whilst we’ve been working hard on training it’s been mostly recall related. I honestly expected Biggles to have problems remembering what to do.

Biggles gave everyone a big surprise. Teachers Val and Carol couldn’t believe how calm and laid back he was since they saw him last – in fact I was accused of drugging him at one point! He was as good as gold, and performed without treats even. When told to sit and stay he kept his bum stuck to the floor no matter what chaos was going on around him. The only slight problem was a tendency to roll onto his back for a tummy tickle mid-way through ‘down-stay’ exercises. He did so well that he’s been promoted to the next class.

Here’s hoping that Beanie does just as well in her advanced class tomorrow night!

And whilst on the subject of training, our emergency recall practice seems to be paying off. We’ve been working hard on it for two or three months now and over the past few days we’ve tried it out while Beanie and Biggles were some distance away from us and quite engrossed in what they are doing. It’s worked every time. The moment we call they stop what they’re doing and run to us like little bullets. Today we decided to be brave and give it a real test…

Beanie and Biggles had clearly picked up a scent and took off at high speed, baying their heads off. Most Beagle owners (including us until today) assume that Beagles are in fact deaf when on a scent as it’s impossible to get their attention. Well, they were about 200 yards away from us and about to disappear out of the meadow and into the trees. Paul yelled our magic word at the top of his lungs and they both instantly skidded to a halt and sprinted back to us.

The fundamental rules of Really Reliable Recall are:

• Practice recall using your emergency word three times a day
• Use highly valued rewards, and make the reward last at least 30 seconds (i.e. keep feeding treats for 30 seconds).
• Only use it when you are 100% certain that your dog will come to you.

We took a gamble on rule 3, but fortunately it paid off. But we won’t make a habit of this – tomorrow we’ll be sure to make it nice and easy for them.

Normal, every day recall is coming along well too. I won’t claim that it works EVERY time, but most of the time they’ll break off what they’re doing and come to us when we call.

Finally, here’s a couple of pictures from today’s walk: