Recall

 A cool and misty day today and we headed out to hike some trails.  The state park that we visited was completely deserted when we got there.  The dogs got to be off leash almost the whole time.  It was a perfect opportunity to practice recall with Booker.

Since we've gotten him, he has pretty much been glued to our side when we are out and about.  However, now that he is a little older, Booker is comfortable venturing away from us - usually where Sisko goes, but also on his own.  So we want to make sure he stops and comes back when we tell him to.  He is doing really well with stopping immediately when we say "STOP" but he doesn't always come right back when we tell him to.  We'll continue to work on that.  But for being less than 5 months old he is doing pretty well!

 

Recall is more than just coming back when called, though.  It involves your dog "checking in" to make sure that he stays close.  Booker's doing great with this!  As you can see in this video, we are walking along and he has gotten in front of us.  We don't call to him or otherwise give him a command, but he chooses to stop and look back to make sure we are close and once he sees that we are, he continues on.  

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A post shared by Booker and Sisko (@boxeradventuresny)

This is a great indicator that Booker is confident yet still knows his place in the pack. We definitely want him to be a confident dog who enjoys exploring and doesn't need constant assurance, BUT also knows that he needs to stay close to us.

So we got some good exercise and some good training in.  Training is best when it can be done in "real world" experiences and feels organic to both you and your dog.  We balanced the training with the fun of just letting the dogs romp around, play and explore.

When we got home, I put a turkey in the oven so they both got the benefit of the giblets!  Not a bad way to reward some very good dogs!