Training leads?

[Kaz and Harvey]

As you know Harvey had never been socialised and with much patience and perserverence he will now "sit, stay, leave" with other dogs, next step is recall cause I would love to let him off the lead and walk with me

I have seen training leads that are about 30ft long, are these a good idea to try recall with him and do you think I should maybe get a whistle or just use voice commands any advice would be welcome

Thank you in advance

[J&J]

Yep they fine..

Long lines are very handy indeed, not only for training but at times when you want to give your dog some freedom but do want ultimate control! Such as when walking in new areas or where live stock might be around etc..

But do be perpared to be tangled up around people if they are playing with other dogs, and/or trees as they will go the opposite way than you

And it's wise to wear gloves cause believe me friction burns do half hurt...

And I've found knotting the line in several places is rather helpful for the time when you allowing them to tow the line around, if they ignore the recall and dash of, you jump on the line and wait for the knot to hit the feet!

I actually make my own up (I'm a cheap skate ) when they pups and you'll just starting the recall training, I tend to use a shorter line length as you'll starting a lot nearer to them, and you get so tangled up with a real long one..

At the moment my long line is being employed tied to a ball or dumb-bell in a attempt to encourage Ellie to bring back balls etc on commande, as at the moment she nicks other dogs balls and see's it has a game to try to entice you into chasing her to get it back! Which of cause we don't do just wait until she gets fed up to retrived it

Long lines are a Great idea
I have a 30 foot leather one
With any long line though one rule to remember never wrap the end around your handI learnt the hard way Kaiser took off couldnt get the line off in time and ouch bruised hand for 2 weeks

[Tedsmum]

I would definately recommend using a whistle for recall.
It gets the dog's attention better than your voice and can be heard accross open fields with the wind against you, when you voice will fail.
Prime the whistle by blowing it in the house ( I use two peeps for Ted's call) and they immediately give him a treat.
He will soon learn that the whislte means treats but he has to come back to get them.

I whistle train mine as Gill describes. 2 peeps. I use an acme 210.5 as it has a nice pitch.

I have used a long line as well, it was a fabric one so I knotted it randomly along its length to stop friction burn, but you and the dog do get cotted up so I prefer a whistle.

Both mine race to come back to the whistle now. I do things like varying the reward and hiding while blowing it.

[Kaz and Harvey]

Thank you all for your replies
I am going to get a long lead and whistle and make a start this weekend when hubby and I are together

[GV9297]

I too have both for Diesel. I have just started training him to come back to the whistle - but the long line is great for when you start training stays etc as you can tie them up but still give them a certain length of line. My long line came from PAH for about £7.99.

[Stuart]

I also find that whistle recall is the easiest to teach,...

I have a nylon long lead, thankfully I have never used it for my dogs because it burns your hands badly, even though I have knots every foot or so,.... but if I was going to get a long lead, I would look to buying a horse ring lead,..the long ones that they use are leather, light and strong