Having a consistent recall not only prevents accidents, keeps your dog away from danger, and makes your life easier whether you are at home, in the park, or traveling, but also can be taught successfully if done correctly by both you and your dog.
Importance of Recall Training
Many well-respected professional trainers, including those affiliated with organizations such as The American Kennel Club, view teaching your dog to come when called to be one of the most important basic commands that should be taught early in a dog’s life.
Dogs are naturally distracted by things they hear, smell, and see, so realistically it would not be fair to expect your dog to return to you immediately when called if you do not have them properly trained. Therefore, recall training must be treated as a positive reinforcement based training exercise utilizing consistency and rewards for successful completions of the task for both you and your dog.
The length of time required to train your dog to come when called will vary depending on whether you have an older dog or a young pup, but either way, your dog will require consistency and repetition during the training process.
Trust and Training Foundation
According to the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), a dog that trusts his or her owner will be more likely to comply with commands than one that does not have an established relationship with its owner.
Set up a Positive Environment
Create No Negative Associations
Command Consistency
- The biggest issue with giving your dog commands is switching them up.
- Picking a short simple word that you can use to call your dog is an important part of teaching them a good recall.
- Always use the same tone each time you call your dog.
- Do not use the recall command unless you can enforce it.
- Be consistent in pairing the recall command with a positive reward.
- Your dog’s name should only be the “attention signal” for getting him to respond.
Using Rewards For Your Dog’s Recall Command
For your dog to learn the recall command, you must use rewards. Motivating your dog with rewards has been proven to teach dogs faster.
As time goes on, you can decrease the number of food rewards and continue providing praise and affection verbally.
Initiate Recall Training Within A Controlled Setting
Starting recall training in an environment that is controllable will assist your dog to maintain focus and will help your dog to learn quicker. It is best to begin with training indoors or in a fenced area that has minimal distractions; this will help provide you with a better success rate and will assist your dog in knowing the command more clearly.
Make sure that the training sessions are short and entertaining to your dog. End all training with positive reinforcement.
Training Support Techniques
- Utilize A Long Leash To Increase Safety
- Practicing regularly will give you a better chance of establishing reliable recalls.
High Value Rewards
Not all awards are motivating alike. Using high-value rewards (treats) such as small bits of either chicken or cheese will produce better results when training than low-value rewards. You should use these high-value treats for only training your dog to recall.
By using these higher-value rewards, you will help your dog establish the importance of your command above that of all other possible distractions. This is especially helpful for your dog when using his/her recall command when training in a more open area where there are many other potential stimuli for your dog.
Reduce Treat Dependence
Begin to Decrease Your Dog’s Dependence on Treats
As your dog begins to respond to your command (coming consistently), you may slowly start to reduce the amount of treats you provide. Replace your treats with other forms of positive reinforcement such as verbal praises, petting, and/or playing.
To, however, reward your dog with a treat every now and again to maintain the strength of the desired behavior you are trying to teach.
Distance and Control Training
Establish Your Control Over Your Dog While You Are Increasing Distance
In order to provide your dog with a greater distance from you during the command, you can use a long leash while you are training your dog. By having a long leash attached to your dog, you can provide your dog with an area to freely practice responding to the command while not being punished if they do not respond to your command because they have run off.
Training your dog, using varying distances, will help build your dog’s reliability and self-confidence regarding responding to the command.
Introduce Distractions
Introduce Distractions from the Real World With the Command
Gradually, throughout the training process, your dog will develop the demeanor to place your commands as their priority in any situation.
Identifying Mistakes in Dog Recall Training
Many dog trainers make the same mistakes while training dogs to have a perfect recall, so if mistakes are not identified, they can slow dog trainers down and make it harder for them to train their dog properly.
In some instances the experienced dog trainer was not aware of their errors and made the same error as a new dog trainer.
- A major error is calling the dog to you only when you want to finish having fun or when you are punishing the dog for doing something wrong.
- If the dog associates coming to you as the end of a fun activity, the trainer will have a very difficult time teaching the dog to respond to the recall command.
Many experts, such as Victoria Stilwell, mention that every time the dog responds to the recall command, it should be a positive reinforcement for the dog.
Another common mistake is inconsistency in the use of the recall command.
Do Not Correct Your Dog After He Comes To You
If you correct the dog after he has come to you, you are damaging the recall training. Even if the dog responds slowly to the recall command, or he was being a little unruly before responding to the recall command, if you correct him after he comes to you, he is going to begin associating that command with a negative experience.
As a result, the dog will not learn that responding to your command will be a good experience for him. Every time you should be rewarding the dog for returning to you, even if he returned to you late in his response to the command.
Do Not Overuse the Recall Command
When you use the recall command to call your dog to you, and you repeat it many times without your dog coming to you, your dog will learn to disregard the command and ignore the recall command.
Repeating the recall command without your dog coming to you will weaken the command, and will result in slow progress being made when trying to teach the dog the recall command.
Practice Recall in Your Daily Life
Training should not only happen during structured training sessions. Practicing your recall command within the context of real life will help your dog to understand that ‘come’ means the same thing, whether it is a training session or a normal life event.
When dogs are trained to respond to recall in the real world, they tend to respond much faster because they are used to being called in different settings. Training associations, such as those affiliated with the RSPCA, stress the importance of real world training for long term effectiveness.
Use Recall During Play
One of the best places to practice your dog’s recall is during play.
Make Recall a Habit
Incorporate recall into all daily routines as opposed to adding it as an outlet for separate practice and as a positive reinforcement of the behavior.
Adding recalls to the routine will give your dog frequent opportunities to practice, reinforce, and develop a dependable and trained response under all types of conditions.
Use Fun Games and Outdoor Activities to Strengthen and Reinforce Recall.
Training can be fun; therefore, using games as a form of recall is a great way to teach your dog something new and exciting, as well as to excite you. Playing will help your dog to improve his or her recall response and create an experience that helps your dog to be less pressured or bored.
Using games will also help create an element of excitement for the dog each time he or she hears the recall command. When the dog creates a positive association between coming to you and having fun and pleasurable experiences, he or she will be much more likely to come to you quickly and willingly.
This is also a common recommendation by many trainers working for professional dog training organizations such as the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.
Play the “Come and Go” Game.
The “come and go” game is an easy way to practice recall with your dog. Call your dog from one spot, reward him or her for coming to you, and then send him or her back to the previous spot.
When playing this game, hide in a different room or behind something and call your dog.
Consistency and Routine
Practising consistently, regardless of the environment or situation, is the key to long term success to your dog’s recall command, as suggested by experts from the American Kennel Club (AKC). Regularly reinforcing your dog’s recall command will prevent regression of that command.
Make your dog’s recall command a part of their normal, everyday routine, as the more you practised the second nature the response will become.
