@eeeefarm said in Not wanting to be put on leash:
Although it is pretty common for Basenjis to decide to be difficult when they reach a certain age, it doesn't help matters when you are predictable in your routine. The trick is to keep them guessing. Recall, put the leash on, reward, turn them loose. They have to guess whether the recall is just to give them a treat or if it's the end of playtime. If the location of the car is a dead giveaway, I would randomly leash, open the car, put dog in car, then take dog out, unleash resume walk. It takes patience but what you want is to build an automatic response so she starts to just come without worrying about whether this is the actual end recall. BTW, this is a strategy I learned a long time ago with hard to halter horses. With me, they were never sure if it was work or just carrots!
That's interesting, I haven't heard of that before, and I'm not sure I fully understand it. Also, I've not had any experiences with Basenjis of a certain age deciding to be any more difficult than they already were. Incidentally, what is this age or age range?
I try to be as predictable as possible when it comes to most routines and I keep them wanting to do the activities and behaviors that I want them to do by teaching them from the beginning to like doing them, by not giving them a chance to rehearse behaviors that would ruin the desired behaviors (i.e. management), and by teaching obligation after puppyhood.
When it comes to recalls specifically, my training usually takes about 2 years to fully teach and it begins immediately when I get the puppy. First, I use the restraint from when they pull in the harness to build motivation in the recall so that they really like coming to me. I also use high value food rewards while using the harness to make it even more impactful.
After this, the training starts progressing to recalls around competing motivators, call-offs, call-aways, etc. etc. It's 2 years worth of training (on average), and there's a lot of drills and training and preventative measures that are taken to ensure a reliable recall for the rest of the dog's life.
Because I focus on this during early puppyhood, they do this very reliably when they get older because they've had a history of doing it and liking it, and don't have a history of running away from me.
After puppyhood, I teach obligation. After they know how to do it reliably (i.e. learn to like doing it), I teach the dog that they always have to do it when I say. This is typically where the pressure comes in.
Recall is the most important behavior that a dog can learn. It takes a long time to make it reliable but it's necessary.
