How To Improve a Dogs Recall
Does your dog know “Come” but pick and choose when to listen to it?
This is arguably the most important command every dog needs to know. Being able to call your dog back to you, in any situation, is essential for the safety of your dog. It could save them from a busy road, a snake, a deathly mushroom or any other thing you can think of that might put your dog in danger.
Here are 3 ways you can improve your dogs recall.
#1 Long Lead Training
When training a dog to do anything, repetition and consistency is key. If your dog has been consistently ignoring your recall, they are repeating that behavior and that is what is being engraved in their brain. To counter this, do not give them the option to ignore you. Go to a wide open area and put you dog on a long leash. I mean a very long leash, you’ll probably want at least 10 feet, 20 is even better. You can even just tie a rope to their collar if that is all you have. Let your dog wander away and do their own thing, then tell them to come in a stern voice. If they do not come right away, pull them back in with the lead. Switch to a happy or high pitch tone of voice when they get wto you and give them a reward. Repeat this process over and over again for as long as it takes them to do it on their own every time. This might take a week or it might take 2 months, be patient with your pup. That leads into my next point, rewards systems.
#2 Reward Your Dog
Make sure it is always a positive experience coming back to you. If you yell at your dog for not coming quick enough or taking the long way, they will form poor associations with coming back to you. This will likely make the problem worse. The important part is that they did come back and should be rewarded for it. Instead of punishing them for not listening, do your best to be more appealing than what ever it is they were ignoring you for. Get to know your dog and what their ideal reward is. Depending on breed and personality, some dogs want treats, some want love and pets, some prefer toys, balls or tug of war and others just want to play and interact with you. Take the time to see what your dog responds best to. Often times people simply use the wrong reward and their dog loses interest in them.
#3 Enforce what you’ve taught
Training your dog is not a one time thing. If you start being lax on the rules they will do the same with their response. Don’t let them off leash and simply have free range. Call them back every so often to make sure they are still paying attention to you. Stay consistent and practice what you taught them to sharpen their skills. Start small and work your way up to calling them off of all sorts of distractions like other dogs, people and animals. Do the training in a controlled environment and once you are confident in their recall be sure to use it often and correctly.
If you do these 3 things, I bet your dogs recall will improve significantly. Remember to always be patient with you dog. Just like people dogs learn at different speeds and some may just take more time and effort.
