Category: Performance Events ¤
  Author: Shirley Chong ¤
   Title: Fixing the Crouch on Recall ¤

   Sionag Black has a Golden who is doing the "crouch on recall" in 
training for the drop on recall. Sionag has tried doing mostly 
motivational recalls and only occasionally throwing in a drop to try 
to speed her up.
   Sionag--to be honest, you're creating your own problem. Right now, 
your girl is trying to tell you "I want to do what you want, but I'm 
not exactly sure of what you want." Instead of explaining it to her 
and putting her mind at ease, you're keeping the whole thing 
mysterious by NOT dropping her and denying her the opportunity to 
learn when to drop. No wonder she's anxious--I would be too!
   So, how to fix this? Drop her, drop her, drop her, drop her, drop 
her, drop her, drop her, drop her, drop her, drop her, drop her drop 
her drop her dropherdropherdropherdropher... Get the idea? <G> Show 
her EVERY conceivable condition under which she will have to drop. 
Let her understand the whole drop scenario thoroughly. She's trying 
so hard to figure this out for you. Let her become an expert in the 
drop on recall!
   Once she's an expert, you will stop seeing the crouching. You'll 
see confidence. THEN AND ONLY THEN do you work on speed. Did you ever 
learn to rollerskate? If you did, you'll remember going verrrrry 
slowly and if you built up speed it was scary--it felt uncontrolled, 
you were afraid you wouldn't be able to handle keeping your balance, 
slowing down, navigating turns, watching out for obstacles, etc, if 
you got going too fast. How would it feel if you had someone trying 
to talk you into going fast before you felt ready to handle it? What 
if someone had demanded that you learn rollerskating by simply 
thinking about it most of the time, with only a few seconds of actual 
practice with skates on--it would take you a long, long lonnnng time 
to get comfortable. You might well never get comfortable with it! How 
can your Golden girl get comfortable with something you aren't 
allowing her to practice frequently?
   If she had an acceptably fast recall before you taught her the 
drop, she will have an acceptably fast recall when she understands 
the drop. Right now, you're working on too many criteria at once: 
when to come, when to drop, when to get up again, how fast to go. 
Just work on the drop and get that totally crystal clear for her--the 
vast majority of dogs speed up again on their own once they 
understand the drop.
   A dog that truly understands the drop can do ten drop on recalls 
in a row and then do a straight recall--and be perfectly comfortable 
with both.
  
M. Shirley Chong
The Well Mannered Dog