hope you guys do good in obedience! theres lots of good advice here already, but Ill add in some more...

At our advanced obedience classes, we pratice recalls right when we get there. Have your boy on a 6-ft leash (or a longline if ya want), throw a good-smelling treat, like liver treats or cheese, a few feet away and tell him "Find". Right when he picks up the treat, say in a happy voice "COME!" gently pull on the leash and walk quickly backwards, while facing him and holding another treat low enough so that its at nose-level to him. When he comes to you and takes the treat, praise him and tell him he did a good come. Increase distance and speed up the process as he gets better. I suck at explaining this, but hopefully you can figure it out... these exercises have worked really, really well for Gonzo! At the beginning of class we usually do about 10-15 repititions and sometimes they have a contest to see who can do the most solid recalls in 1 minute (Gonzo won a cool ropey for doing it 17 times!). Also, when he is off leash I call my dog in a happy voice and run the other way... he always comes to that. If you think about it, when your dog is running away and trying to play with you, he will just keep running if you chase him. By running the other way, you encourage your dog to follow you. good luck with everything! I bet Kodie will do awesum in his classes