Experience the “Off Leash Freedom” of a dog that reliably comes when you call.
One of the most urgent questions dog lovers ask us is “how do I train my dog to come when called?” Often this is asked right after a recent episode of the dog not coming.
THE ANSWER IS MAKE DEPOSITS INTO A PERFECT RECALL ACCOUNT
Increase the likelihood your dog will come each and every time you do call. A solid recall is based on your dog practicing getting it right and you get that by setting your dog up for success. This requires you diligently, ensure the number of times your dog does comes when you call, far outlays the number of times your dog disregards your cue. And if we live in an ideal world, they never get it wrong.
But alas, we don’t live in an ideal world, so read on dear dog lover.
To achieve this, make a list of all the events (people, places, novel objects, stinky smells, food, dogs, wildlife that would distract your dog, making it so it does not immediately come the first time you call.
Next, rate the distractions from easiest to hardest. Give the easiest distractions a rating of 1 and the most distracting situations a rating of 10. So if you have a list of 50 items, you will have 5 listed in each difficulty level. In addition, list 5 environments that have zero distractions.
Example, my living room, my kitchen if the floor and counters are clean (Ha!), my back yard when the neighbors are not out, the hall way, my garage.
For then next week, spend 15 minutes a day, playing any combination of recall games you know and rewarding your dog each time it does in your distraction free environment. When you are in any distracting environment, make sure you dog is on leash and avoid telling your dog to come. Don’t let it practice NOT COMING.
Success with recalls, is dependent upon you putting in the groundwork. Most likely you will need to plan out when you will have your training sessions, otherwise, you will get to the end of the day and discover, you are too tired to do it or completely forget.
Top Tips
#1 Rewards Experiment with different rewards to see what motivates your best. What toys, different types of food or anything else your dog goes nuts for.
#2 Reward – Don’t Bribe – Call your dog, cheer and praise your dog as it comes, then present the reward. The rewards doesn’t come out until after your dog does come.
#3 Choose a new recall cue, because most likely your old cue is now poisoned.
#4 If it is not safe to have your dog off leash have it on an extra long leash. Once your dog has mastered its cue, start playing your recall games in your level 1 distraction environments.
#5 Remember to only call your dog once, if your dog doesn’t come, immediately go get your dog and make the training easier for your dog to get it correct. Get 20 correct responses in that easier situation before trying to make it more difficult again.
#6 Over time, grow your dog’s ability to come in your systematically more difficult environments. Your dogs reliability with coming when called is built on a long history of your dog successfully coming when you do call. This means you need to show the self-control necessary to not call when they can’t get it correct. Only move onto more difficult distractions with success.
#7 Enjoy the process! Training is all about fun for you and your dog. Make it fun. Have fun with it. No matter what breed of dog you have. No matter how much your dog has practiced not coming to you Your dog can learn to come when called if you put the deposits into their recall bank account and the balance is high.
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