Recall
Recall is not a word an action or a sound. It is the outcome of the dog wanting to be next to you and wanting you to be next to them.
The infographic below, created by Homes Alive Pets, shows five essential steps to follow when teaching your dogs to recall and transition to good recall off the leash. Please click on the image below to learn more.
What:
Recall is a command or signal you can give your dog to make it come to you. It is an essential skill for every dog. Even if you feel like you are never going to let your dog off leash, there could be a time when the leash, harness, or collar fails, or the dog gets out of the house or car without you knowing. Recall is an essential skill to teach any dog.
Benefits of a well-conditioned recall:
- It gives you and your dogs more peace of mind and freedom on walks.
- It is a legal requirement to have your dog under Effective Control
- It can help you and your dog get away from dangerous situations
- It builds and strengthens the bond between you and your dog and creates confidence in each other.
How to teach Recall
Step 1. Conditioning the word:
The most common word for general recall is the word 'COME'.
While teaching your dog the meaning of the recall word its important use the word just before or the second they start running towards you not while they are distracted.
I you say the recall word "Come" while the dog is busy or ignoring you it = Stop doing fun things and return to me.
I you say the recall word "Come" while the dog is running towards you then mark it it = Run to me for good things
These 2 exercises are a great way to start teaching recall at home. Ideally start these exercises at times when your dog is hungry or interested in treats.
If your dog loves pats and attention give them a lot of attention, praise and pats before delivering the food.
Exercise 1: Come = freedom
- When your dog is a short distance away call its name and show it a treat.
- As it start moving towards you say the word "Come" then mark as soon as it is close to you and reward it by throwing a piece of food away from you.
- When your dog finds the food and eats it, wait for them to orientate back towards you then repeat from step 1.
- After a few repetitions you won't need to show them the food anymore to get them to run towards you. at this stage start marking first then reach for the food and throw it.
If your dog gets distracted or they don't return back to you, Avoid repeating the word come especially while they are sniffing the ground looking for something else as this could teach a dog to start to ignore the word or develop a negative association towards it and they may start to ignore you when you try to recall them.
Instead lure them back by pretending you have something really special or try the exercise when they are more food motivated and less distracted.
Exercise 2: Come = The party is at my place
- Grab a handful of your dog's food and mix it with some high value treats.
- Show them what you have then run away from them. As they start chasing you Say "COME" and when you stop mark your dog next to you and drop a bit of the food on the floor and start moving away from them towards another area where they can still see you.
- When the dog finishes what they are eating and starts to move towards you repeat the word COME, mark when the dog is next to you, drop the food at your feet and repeat.
- Avoid repeating the word COME if they are still busy looking for the food in the last area simply make yourself more exiting by moving quickly from one place to another as if you were trying to run away from your dog.
Tips: We may unconsciously use the word “Come” plenty of times during the day when talking to our dogs as well as amongst each other. Each time the dog hears the word and is not rewarded for it, the word becomes less valuable. We can overcome this by always marking and rewarding when we use their name followed by the word come.
Step 2. Conditioning the action:
When you use your recall in the real world chances are that when your dog returns you will be reaching out to them and clipping them onto their lead. This can sometimes spook our dogs and they may run away or dance out of your reach when you try this. This can sometimes even turn into a fun game of catch me if you can for your dog. To avoid this when you practice your recall condition the leash into it.
Repeat the exercises in step 1 - This time when the dog comes to you hold their collar, click the leash clip (you only need to make the sound not attach the leash) then reward them.
Now throw a second piece of food a short distance away while keeping a hold of the collar and say, LETS GO then release the collar and walk with / follow your dog to the food on the floor, or have your dog chase you.
Step 3. Adding the value:
Start pairing the reward for recall with different types of reinforcement like a game, of fetch or tug, the opportunity to Go, Sniff, access to certain areas or even to the outside and even the opportunity to meet other dogs and people.
You can do this outside by having your dog in a long line. When they see something they would like to get (and is safe for them to go to) simply let them get to the end of the line, then say the COME command. When the dog orientates back to you, repeat step 2 but this time follow them to whatever it is they wanted to get to.
Always try to reinforce the behaviour with what your dog was doing or about to do when you called them back or something better. For example, if your dog was playing with a toy you can reward with a game, if they were foraging in the grass you can reward with a find it, if they were smelling something interesting you can reward with a novel smell or redirect them to the nearest object that has interesting smells on it.
Tips:-
The outside world has a lot of things that distract our dogs and a distracted dog is often a non-responsive dog. If you struggle to get your dog's attention when outside Chirag Patel's Counting Game may help.
Ultimate recall I use a whistle for the ultimate recall as the sound is extremely loud and can be heard over great distances. Also unlike the word come a whistle never conveys anger or panic like your voice. Dogs can often pick up on fear, anger or frustration in your voice and this may make them ignore you, slow down or move/run away in an attempt to give you the space to calm down which is often counterproductive to a recall.
We can also make sure we always set the dog up to succeed when training a whistle and make sure we are ready to heavily reinforce it, thus creating an extremely positive emotional response in your dog’s brain when they hear the sound.
Steps to start conditioning a “Whistle”1. Put your dog in a long line 2. Wait until your dog is already running back to you or use the “COME” command to get them to run towards you. Whistle as soon as the dog is close then quickly run away from the dog to build speed, fun and excitement.4. When your dog catches up to you make a big deal of it, celebrate their success with multiple forms of reinforcement such as food, praise, play, pats and smells.5. Once you have finished rewarding your dog say the “Let's GO” command or something similar and go with your dog back to the area they just came from. 6. Slowly increase difficulty, by adding more distance and practising in more distracting environments.
Tips-Only use your ultimate recall in Emergencies or while training when your dog is 100% guaranteed to come back to you so they NEVER associate it with anything other than coming back to you.
While it is possible to use a tool to whistle it is recommended that you learn to whistle so that you can use it in emergencies when other tools are not close at hand.
More fantastic resources:
Susan Garret Dog Training Blog, Fear Free Happy Homes, Whole Dog Journal, Karen Pryor, Podcast: Absolute Dog - Sexier than a squirrel,