My neighbor's 'training advice' ruined my dog's recall

Linda from two blocks over told me to always call my dog's name in a stern voice so he knows I mean business. Tried it for three weeks straight at Elmwood Park and now my golden retriever flat out ignores me when I say 'come' because he thinks he's in trouble. Spent $150 on a private session with a trainer to undo that mess. Anyone else get bad advice from a well-meaning stranger at the dog park?

2 comments

2 Comments

rayc3815d ago

That's brutal, man. Your dog basically learned that "come" equals getting scolded, which is the exact opposite of what you want. A stern voice works for some things but not for recall, that's a hard lesson learned. Glad you shelled out for a pro to fix it, that's money well spent in my book. Take this with a grain of salt, but I've always found a happy, excited tone works way better for calling a dog back.

miller.jason14d ago

Is it really that serious though? I mean dogs are resilient animals, they bounce back from a lot of mistakes we make. Sure it's not ideal to scold them when they come back, but it's not like you ruined the dog forever. You fixed it with a pro, that's good, but I bet if you just changed your tone and kept at it the dog would have figured it out eventually. People act like one wrong command is going to break their dog's brain for life, but dogs are pretty forgiving. I've seen owners mess up way worse and their dogs still turn out fine.