Lyra is now about 20 months old, and we got her as a completely undisiplined 6 month old rescue. Now having her here for a year and a half, shes working well, but its all about time, training, diligence, practice, repetition, repetition, repetition....... its EVERYTHING. Recall training  has been a learning experience for Lyra AND us!. Shes coming along nice, but still being young, shes full of spark to run, hunt, its like crazy. Youve heard they can be thick skulled? Uhh, yeah! If their nose is taking precidence over responding to you or their name; GOOD LUCK.

We use it all. Dog whistle (100% reliable particularly on our property). Treats.... hot dogs 1" are great... But its all about trust and positive relations. These dogs are incredibly smart, and intuitive. They will love you to death and perform fantastic.

When actively in training mode we limit the period. Stop before she becomes bored or distracted. Training is fun, but its also a mental exercize, it should be fun. If its not, we stop, and come back to it another time. She will respond sooner or later.

Yes, GSPs can be a lot of work. But what a great experience for us all.
 

I had no idea about the 2 1/2 - 3 year time frame but looking at Tessa it seems to be dead on. Well, I guess I really now once she is 3 years old. She is now 20 months and I just had her in a bird field yesterday - whole different set-up from the dog park where we train - and I am delighted to say her recall and overall compliance was a ton better than in the fall under these kinds of distractions. I was able to recall her from crossing over into other people's fields and also heeled her out of a whoa away from a crippled bird, and then redirect her - all of which would have been totally unthinkable just three months ago. I wanna say that while a combination of both, this is due to her maturing more so than consistent training. Or maybe she just had a good day (we'll see how it goes next week). Lots of work to be done still but I can see how in another year or so she could be a very good girl.

Oh, and: Do you have any photos of Lyra? Since you are new to the board, you may not be aware of the policy that you MUST post photos of your dog

This is all so encouraging to read. Lyra shows so much potential with her demeanor, everyday we are anticipating her 'zeroing in' on minding, and so willingly.

We just keep saying, stay the course, stay the course... and see learning opportunities eveywhere we go.