23/10/2026
TRAINING CHIPS 🐾
We took him home at 8.5 weeks. He has a unique little life and wasn’t allowed access to his own backyard for many weeks as I run a dog business from home. He was always inside, in a crate or on leash and I do believe this helped his recall immensely as he couldn’t practice ignoring his name or commands. We started basic training and name recognition immediately. He is very food motivated so was regularly rewarded for responding to his name. At 9 weeks old I started walking him with my safe dogs. He watched them recall. He followed my side naturally and is very bonded. My sons or husband would hold him at distance and he would race towards me so I added in calling his name then “come” and the yes marker. It was always really fun for him and I would often run backwards so he would run towards me quickly.
There wasn’t necessarily a plan for this training, it just fit into my day to day life. I love being outside with dogs and love watching them be free. His recall was really good from the start so I would let him explore more and more. He regularly checks in and rarely goes too far anyway. Then it was just lots of practice, repetition, praise and rewards. It is typically the same beach and bush tracks but if it was different I would always do a lot of repetitions at the start. We did do some recall training in puppy training classes but by that point he had reliable recall anyway. He has honestly only missed a recall once and he was distracted by a bird so I may go back to a long line and find a birds to practice near next. He did come back but his recall and leave it commands are very important. We are both always learning and practicing. He has the best recall in my packs at only 5 months of age and now most of my regular dogs come to “Chips” too. Learning with a pack has really helped him and all “my” dogs (except for my cavalier 🤦♀️). I’m excited for him to live a very fun fulfilling life with this level of recall and want to try agility next.
