That's the gist of it. Your goal is to set your dog up to win, not to fail. Let him wander off while attached to the cord, then tell him to come, and reel him in, and praise him for it. Another thing you can do......two people sit in a room with treats. Take turns calling the dog back and forth between you, giving the dog treats and praise each time. The dog will figure out real quick to just go back and forth from person to person to get treats, so the key is to not give the dog a treat unless you actually called him. You have to be on the ball and call him before he starts heading your way. If he comes before you call him, ignore him and have the other person call him. You're trying to build the brain connection that "come"=good things, not just that running up to you=good things. Eventually you can do it from different rooms and floors of the house and add in distractions, too.

If your dog happens to run away.....don't call his name 5000 times, youll just teach him to ignore you. When you eventually catch him, shower him with praise, no matter how frustrated you are. Dogs don't really think about the past or the present. If you punish your dog once you catch him, he won't connect the running away with the punishment, he'll just connect coming to you on his own with the punishment. If you shower him with praise, then he'll connect coming to you on his own with good things. Try to catch him without calling him. For example, when our dogs were young puppies, if they happened to get out I would try to avoid telling them to come, but they'd jump into an open car door, or fetch a stick and bring it back, and i could catch them that way. Anything to make them come to you without calling them 5000 times. It's not ideal, because the dog can connect running out the door with an on-demand car ride or whatever, but if your dog gets out you're past the point of what's ideal and you're just trying to make the best of a less than ideal thing.

Fully agree. Crouched in the blind, wings are locked, dog is focused, and some knot head is blasting on his whistle across the marsh while his fool dog is swimming in the opposite direction.

Guys I used to feel that way too until I had a dog truly whistle trained. No yelling couple tweets on my whistle get dogs attention and a hand signal. Dog going where want it to go couple hundred yards out. Whistle isn't the problem it's untrained dog owners with untrained dogs. I've only ever trained retrievers and you get what you get how you train.
My sister and her husband train service dogs for veterans with disabilities. You wouldn't believe the people they run into with supposedly trained services dogs. When one of the dogs they train goes to new handler. They spend time with that person so they know how to properly handle the dog. The dogs are highly trained but their still just dogs. Need reminding of some things from owner.

Mac

"Never Forget Which Way Is Up!"

Oh, so that was you!

Mike
If they were yelling "Bubba" it wasn't me. But I know who it was. Lmao.

I got a black lab puppy coming in first part of December. Not sure I'm able to keep up with a puppy anymore. For sure probably be the last one.
Thinking I may have to train it to pull me up out of the chair. So yeah I may be that guy flopping around in marsh yelling and blowing the whistle... LMAO be needing rescued by someone..

Oh I forgot.
The leash hitch you showed me years ago for heeling your dog.
I use that since and it is real deal.

Mac

"Never Forget Which Way Is Up!"

Hey buddy,

Good luck with the new pup. I figure I've got one more dog coming yet. Charlie is 6 and so far so good.

Got a name picked out yet?

Yea, that half hitch is the real deal. No extra bucks spent. Dog is in charge of making sure he heels. We've shown that to quite a few dog owners and it changed that tugging program forever.

Now if they could just produce a lab with the personality of a golden retriever . . .