Recall

[JudyN]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

I'm posting this as part of a set of helpful 'easy reference' articles for common questions and problems. Feel free to add additional information on recall in this thread but please start a new thread for specific questions relating to your dog.

Note that this article is spread over two posts as it a little too long for the forum software to display in one post.

Introduction

If you only teach your dog one single skill, make it recall.

Why, I hear you ask?

Because whatever your dog is doing that you don’t want him to do, if you can recall him, then he won’t be doing it any more and you can get him under control. Also, the consequences of you dog not, say, sitting when asked, are unlikely to be terrible. Not being able to recall your dog means there is a real risk of the following:

• Chasing livestock, possibly resulting in the death of livestock and, potentially, your dog (farmers are permitted to shoot dogs who are worrying their livestock).
• Chasing wildlife – have you ever seen the viral video of Fenton the labrador chasing deer in Richmond Park? I’m sure I’m not the only one who didn’t find that funny.
• Running onto a road.
• Going up to other dogs uninvited. Ideally, we shouldn’t let our dogs approach any dogs without permission from the owner, but this is even more the case if the other dog is on lead, wearing a service dog harness, or wearing a yellow bandana/jacket/etc., which may indicate that the dog is nervous or not friendly towards other dogs. Even if your dog is always friendly, the other dog may not be – and a confrontation could both injure your dog and put the other dog a long way back in any training.
• Raiding picnics.
• Going up to and greeting random people who decided to wear their new, white, dry-clean-only jacket that day (this happened to a friend of mine and her over-friendly lab – she had to pay £60 to have the jacket cleaned).
• Going up to people with a dog phobia, who have a right to enjoy their walk without having to deal with their fear.
• Investigating dead seals and other unsavoury stuff washed up on beaches.
• Refusing to come to you at the end of a walk, turning a lovely one-hour walk into a very frustrating two-hour walk.

I could go on... and on and on. Believe me, there is nothing more scary than seeing your dog climb a 100-foot cliff like a mountain goat and then chase rabbits towards the sheer drop into the sea...

So that’s the why, now for the how...

The key to teaching excellent recall is, as far as possible, only to use your cue when you know it is going to work. You never want to be one of those people shouting, ‘Fido, come! Come Fido! Here! Get your bum back here Fido! Come, come, come! FIDOOOOOOOO!!!!!’ That is an excellent way of training your dog to completely ignore you.

So, you start at point-blank range. In an environment with no distractions, e.g. your living room, say your cue word when your dog is right by you, and give him a reward. Once he realises that the cue predicts a reward, cue him from three feet away so he has to move towards you. Gradually increase the distance, so that you can call him from another room (excellent for when he’s lying on your bed and you’re not sure if he’ll agree to get off). The key is that he should always be thrilled to hear the cue, and come running towards you doing handbrake turns round the corners, then screech to a halt in front of you with a huge expectant grin on his face. If he ever shows reluctance (because he’d just settled in the sunny spot on the sofa, or was hoping to ‘help’ your partner prepare the evening meal), then you need to go back to the previous step. Really high-value treats, maybe ones that you only use for recall, can help a lot. And a recall should always be rewarded, even when it is reliable, either with a treat, a game, or even an ear rub; because you want your dog to know that coming back to you when you ask will be better than anything else he might be doing.

Once his recall is solid in the house with few distractions, try increasing the distractions... gradually. Call him when another family member is playing with him, or when he’s playing with a toy, for instance.

Then, take it outside. You need to start somewhere with as few distractions as possible, maybe your garden. As far as possible, try to avoid other people and dogs, birds, leaves blowing around... whatever is likely to distract your dog. Gradually increase the distance from which you call him. If not in the garden, then keep him on a long line so he can’t take off. The key here is...

Set him up so he cannot fail​

Gradually – and this may be days, weeks or months, depending on your individual dog – increase his distance from you and the level of distraction. But only one at a time. And be prepared for unexpected distractions, such as another dog suddenly appearing. You really don’t want to be hollering at him to come back if he’s simply not ready for that level of obedience, or he’ll just realise that ignoring you is an option. And on the subject of obedience:

Obedience isn’t something that comes naturally to a dog. Some humans have the idea that because they feed and care for the dog, a good dog will always do as he is told, and if he disobeys he is ‘bad’ and should be reprimanded. It doesn’t work like that. A dog with think, ‘What’s in it for me?’ So you need to make sure that they really want to do what you want to do, at least initially. If you keep up this approach then doing what you ask will become a habit because (usually) doing so is in their interests. Yes, some breeds (and individual dogs), like collies, seem to want to please their owner, to follow instructions, and then to wait for further instructions. But other breeds (salukis spring to mind) think more along the lines of ‘I’ve considered your suggestion. Possibly later, but for now, I’ve decided that I’d rather do this’ which makes sense if your ‘suggestion’ means that the fun ends.

Over time, with careful training, you should get to be more confident in your dog’s recall and can dispense with the long lead where it is safe to do so. Make sure that you regularly practise recall on walks, in situations where you know he will come back, and release him to do his thing again once he has recalled – this will reinforce his training and show that recalling doesn’t mean the fun stops. If he’s still a pup, be aware that, like any self-respecting teenager, he is likely to test boundaries or rebel when he hits adolescence. Go back to basics, repeat your previous training, and trust that one day he’ll be more level-headed again.

When on walks, always try to be aware of any ‘abscond’ triggers – in the words of Patricia McConnell, try always to look 50 yards and 5 seconds ahead on walks. Will you ever get perfect recall, in the face of all distractions? Yes, you may well if you have trained carefully. Though there may be some situations where recall will fail. If you can see your dog isn’t going to come back, then don’t keep calling him – it will achieve nothing and will teach him that ignoring it is an option. And some dogs are never going to be safe off lead, at least in some situations. If they could pose a danger to livestock, wildlife or other dogs, then accept this and keep them on lead, and maybe investigate enclosed dog training facilities. The website Dog Parks Near Me (www.dogparksnearme.co.uk) might help you locate one, though it doesn’t seem to be complete (there are at least two such facilities near me that it doesn’t show).

 

[JudyN]

A word on cues...

It doesn’t matter to the dog what word you use, but you don’t want to use a word that he hears often in other contexts. Don’t use his name – for one thing, ‘Fido!’ will be used in all sorts of contexts, and he doesn’t know when it means ‘come here’. If someone shouted ‘Judy!’ to me, I’d look up and say, ‘What?’ rather than go to them. And if they carried on shouting ‘Judy!’ I’d just shake my head, ignore them and wander off. You might even want to use a made-up word so your dog doesn’t hear it in other situations. If your dog’s recall has become unreliable to a verbal cue, choose a new word. Or use a whistle (although you will still need to train the recall to the whistle, in the same way as you would train to a verbal cue). The sound travels a long way, which is an advantage if your dog is disappearing towards the horizon at a rate of knots, but you do of course have to remember to take it on off-lead walks. And a whistle doesn’t carry any emotion, so your dog won’t notice if you are getting frustrated.

Visual cues can also be useful – you could pair your cue with, say, standing sideways and patting your thigh. A visual cue is also useful if your dog should become deaf later in life. This of course relies on your dog regularly checking in with you, so he actually sees it. That’s a separate skill to train but essentially it involves rewarding your dog for voluntarily looking at you – any time he offers that check-in look, tell him ‘good boy’ and reward.

I found I developed a range of recall cues, though this was in part because of failing to follow the above guidelines when training my dog. ‘Sausage!’ was one of the first, originating when we were working on recall in the house. For general-purpose, low-octane situations, ‘Come! Come! Come!’ worked well. The BIG recall, for situations where I really needed to get him back, was three blasts on a whistle, and I was very careful not to overuse it, and to reward it really heavily. It was almost 100% reliable... hey, he was a deerhound x lurcher and a very ‘independent thinker’ to put it politely! Having a range of cues means that you can hold back on the BIG recall for more urgent situations and use the others for when the stakes aren’t quite so high. But remember to use it occasionally in less high octane situations so it is regularly reinforced.

When your dog blows you off...

It should go without saying, but I’ve seen it happen a lot – if your dog doesn’t recall, don’t shout at him in an angry voice, and when he does eventually come back, don’t tell him off or even give him the cold shoulder. Why would he want to come back to you if you sound angry, and if he knows coming back to you means a telling off? He’ll be even less inclined to come back to you next time.

Ending walks

If you’re not careful, being recalled can come to mean the end of fun, or the end of the walk –which of course could make your dog reluctant to come back to you. To avoid this, recall him a couple of times during a walk, then let him go and do his own thing again. If you see a dog you know he likes to play with, you could even recall him and then let him go play – playing with his friend is the reward for coming back.

When you do want to end the walk, don’t wait till you are back at the car park/road/route home. Instead, call him and put him on lead a little earlier, and not always in the same place, and enjoy on-lead quality time together (a bit more training with rewards?) before heading for home.

Rewards

I’ve referred to treats as rewards throughout this article as that’s what worked with my dog. If your dog isn’t food motivated, you could see if something like cheese or tuna cake would do the job, but maybe your dog would prefer a squeaky ball or a quick game of tug? Work out what works best for you, and/or mix it up a bit.

In conclusion

Watching your dog bounding back to you in delight is a joy to see. It’s one of the most important skills your dog can learn, and one of the most satisfying for the owner (especially when other owners are looking on in envy). With a little bit of effort, most dogs can have a strong recall and it’s something you will never regret spending time on.

Further reading

Total Recall by Pippa Mattinson: Reward-based recall training.

‘Recalling the Recall’ on Patricial McConnell’s blog: www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/recalling-the-recall

Any recall video on Kikopup’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kikopup+recall