Recall Training Taking a Turn

Hi all,

I’ve been working on my dog’s recall for quite a while now, but every time I think she has it down solid she’ll do a complete 180 and ignore me.

To preface, my dog is a 4YR Australian shepherd/border collie mix. She’s got a ton of energy, as you can imagine, but I wear her down a lot before I start training anything. We go to the dog park pretty much daily so I can run her.

She’s not very food motivated and more toy motivated, but if another owner brings in a toy for their dog she stays right on them until they either give it to her or I come over and grab her. She won’t listen to my cues at all and just acts like I’m not even there. I can’t even redirect her with her own toy because she wants whatever isn’t hers.

It’s kind of embarrassing and it feels like a setback with all of the recall training we’ve been doing. She’s always been distracted extremely easily, but we’ve slowly worked through it. Though, with her recall I’ve been feeling pretty defeated since it only works if certain conditions are met.

Any advice on how to go on from this point would be appreciated.