sixteen month old german shorthaired pointer whose recall was solid from month four through month thirteen in every environment we tested and has come apart in the last ten weeks specifically in field settings while remaining intact at home and in suburban environments, looking for the version of this adolescent sporting breed recall regression from families and trainers who lived it because the published material does not name what changes when the breeds working drive activates

Beck is a sixteen month old german shorthaired pointer male we brought home at ten weeks from a hunt test breeder who has been a real partner on the foundation work and remains available when we have questions. From week sixteen through month thirteen we ran a standard positive recall protocol with the additions our breeder recommended for a pointing breed, name response on a long line in graduated environments, recall to whistle with food reinforcement initially and a short retrieve game built in once the response was reliable, three to five reps per session three to five sessions a week, generalized across our suburban neighborhood, the local off leash park at off hours, our friends fenced acreage outside town, and two trips to the bird field at our breeders training grounds where we worked under his supervision. By month nine Beck had a recall response we trusted at a hundred yards on neutral ground and our trainer agreed he was on track for the adolescent transition.

What changed at month thirteen and what does not match the published descriptions. We were at the bird field with the breeder for a casual session, no live birds, no other dogs, an environment Beck had been in eight times before and worked clean in. He locked up on a scent line at roughly sixty yards out and i called him. He paused, looked at me, and went back to the line. I whistled. He paused again, looked at me, and went back to the line. My breeder said let me try and called him with the whistle pattern he uses in his own field. Beck came back to him on the third whistle, not the first. Indoor recall is one hundred percent. Yard recall is one hundred percent. Suburban park recall is one hundred percent. The field recall has come apart in a specific way that does not look like the published descriptions of recall regression which all assume the regression is a generalized weakening, and where the published material on adolescent regression broadly assumes the pattern is hormonal or motivational rather than environment specific.

What we have tried in the last ten weeks. Three weeks of remedial foundation work on the long line at home and in the yard, recall is bulletproof there and Beck is engaged and confident, so the foundation work feels like it is missing what is actually going on. Two weeks of higher value reinforcement at the bird field, the working pheasant scent on a check cord that our breeder pulled together for us, Beck oriented to the work and the recall response improved on the lighter scent lines but the heavy scent line still produces the pause and resume pattern. One trainer consult with a regional pointing breed trainer who told us this is normal field maturation and to ease off the recall pressure and let it consolidate, which i understand as advice but is not what i would do without the version from families and trainers who have specifically walked through this pattern and resolved it.

The questions i actually need answered. one, is the field specific recall failure with intact recall everywhere else actually a recall regression in the conditioning sense or is it the breeds working drive activating in a way that the foundation work did not prepare for and that requires a different kind of protocol. two, if it is the working drive activation, what does the protocol look like to integrate the drive into the recall structure rather than fighting the drive with stronger reinforcement, my breeders advice points this direction but i cannot find published material that walks through it. three, the timeline question, families who have been through this with pointing breeds, did the field recall come back inside a season of structured work or is this a multi year piece of the breeds development, our breeder hinted at the longer timeline and i want to plan for the realistic version. four, for trainers reading this, the regional trainer recommendation to ease off the pressure and let it consolidate, is that the right call right now or is there structured work to be doing inside the consolidation window that protects the foundation while the drive integrates. Beck is a wonderful dog and i do not want to mishandle this transition. happy to provide more detail on the protocol and the sessions we have run, looking for the version of this advice that comes from families and trainers who have lived inside it