April 4, 2023 • 22 mins
Focusing on a dog’s recall training should be at the top of every pup parent’s to-do list!
Not only can it keep your dog safe and give you peace of mind, but it ultimately gives you and your dog greater freedom and adventure in the long run.
Whether training a puppy or an older dog, this article is going to break down everything (seriously) you need to know about recall training. And it’s not gonna be a boring “call your dog back and reward” type article, we’re gonna dive into some pro tips, necessary tools, and even fun recall games to play with your pup!
Here’s what we will cover:
-What is recall?
-Why does recall matter?
-How to teach a dog recall
-7 tips, techniques & games for teaching a strong recall
-Additional FAQs about recall training
Alright… come! Let’s dive into recall. 👇
I want to dive into 7 tips that have helped me secure a solid recall with my dogs. And of course, we will look at some things not to do!
Here are 7 tips, games, and techniques to keep in mind when teaching a dog or puppy recall:
-Use a long lead
-Start inside with no distractions
-Use varying reinforcers
-Don’t ask too much of your dog
-Every recall should be a positive experience
-Play fun recall games
-Find the right “recall word” or cue for your pup
Recall training is one of the most important behaviors you will teach your dog. If you have a puppy, I recommend devoting time to teaching recall every single day.
If you’re looking for a basic introduction to training recall, sign up for the 100% free online class 30 Day Perfect Pup! It covers behaviors like recall, stay, leash walking, and more. Sign up here!
If you're ready to take your dog’s recall to the next level, including transitioning to off-leash behavior then sign up for the Recall Mastery Course. It breaks recall training down into 11 different “levels” and even includes bonus recall games. Get access here!
What was the most effective way you found to teach your dog recall? Tell us in the comments below!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the perfect pup podcast.Helping you build a better
relationship with your pup presented by pop forward.
Hello, pop parents, and welcome to today's episode of the
perfect pup podcast. My name is Devin this episode,
we're covering probably the mostimportant Behavior.
You can teach your dog, and thatis recall or come, when called
(00:22):
this Behavior, not only gives you, peace of mind, but truly
can keep your dog safe. So we're going to dive into What
recall is why it's important andthen seven different tips.
Tricks techniques games that youcan do to make your dog's recall
extremely reliable. And I'm also going to give you a
quick story that will hopefully help.
(00:44):
You take your dog's recall to the next level.
I found a way to take my dog's Scouts recall from about a 5 out
of 10 to basically a nine bordering on 10/10 with this one
simple trick. So be sure you stick around for
that. Let's get right into it first
off. Have to talk about what recall
is so we're on the same page, okay?
Recall is you call your dog and they come back to you.
(01:07):
It's that simple right? More complex answer is that they
do that every time, no matter the distance and no matter the
distractions and that's really where recalled goes from.
Yeah, it's something my dog's okay at to my dog is reliable
and consistent and it takes a lot of time.
Why is this Behavior important? First off safety, your dog is,
(01:29):
you're going to Let them off leash, whether it's an unfenced
area or a fenced-in area that there are different things that
can cause harm or danger or things that you're going to need
them to stay away from. You know, if you're walking and
you see some glass, you can callyour dog to you to make sure
they don't walk towards that. If you're out on a hike and you
see potentially a dangerous animal or another dog, that's
(01:50):
off-leash that you're not sure of if you call your dog, you
want them to come back to you. Another reason that it's
important is just generally, it's going to give you Peace of
mind as you are at parks or exploring or playing with other
dogs or whatever the situation knowing that your dog comes back
to you is going to give you the desire to give them more
(02:11):
freedom. And I think we all want that for
our dogs, we have this vision ofbeing able to go on Hikes and go
to beaches and do the fun thingsthat we want to do with our dogs
and knowing that they're going to come back, makes all of those
experiences and Adventures less stressful.
So super, super important. As for the how really it's three
steps. It's right to teach recall,
number one, stand away from yourdog.
(02:34):
Let's say from a couple feet, number to call your dog to you
and number three, reward and praise when they come back to
you really. That is the simplest form of how
to teach recall. And with that, that's the end of
the episode. It's not the end of the episode,
but I want to make that point that, that is recalled a lot.
(02:54):
There's so many things you can read and learn and hear about
and I'm going to talk about a lot of things, but that is
recall at its core. And I want to emphasize that
that third point of rewarding your dog when they come back to,
don't underestimate the value ofthat.
It is so important you know, things that are reinforced are
repeated, that is dog training, kind of boiled down into one
(03:14):
sentence. So if you want your dog to come
back to you, every time they come to you, come back to Do
they need to be rewarded? Especially in the early stages
and we'll talk about phasing outtrades, but in the beginning
with training your dog, you needto reward them every time they
come back. So now I want to go into seven
tips techniques and games and things to avoid to make sure
(03:36):
your dog has an extremely reliable recall.
The first tip use a long lead. I cannot express how important a
long lead is. So think about this, you start
small, you start with the X and you're starting to feel like,
okay, my dog is getting the hangof recall and you go out into an
open field, you know, fewer distractions and you're
(03:57):
thinking, okay, I need to practice a 15-foot recall.
You normally have a 6 foot leashso what do you do?
Do you just let your dog be 15 feet away from you and hope that
they're going to come back? No use a long lead.
You can buy long leads from any length, starting at 10 feet all
the way up to I've seen I think 200 foot long leads.
(04:19):
For most people and for teachingrecall generally, I would say
that a 30-foot lead is a good place to start the beauty of a
long lead. Is it gives you extra safety.
It gives you a kind of a safety net.
Think of it as training wheels for your dog's recall reason.
(04:40):
Being, if you're practicing that15-foot, recall, you call your
dog, and instead they see a birdand they start running the other
direction. You have a lesion hand, you are
still connected. Acted to them and they're not
gonna be able to run away into dangerous situations.
The other advantage of a long lead is control.
And I don't mean, you're controlling your dog or your,
you know, telling them what to do.
(05:01):
Like, it's a matter of if your dog gets distracted or they kind
of lose their attention, as you're working on this recall,
you have a tool in your hand to be able to gently guide them
back to you. It's as simple as just like
putting some tension on Long lead and kind of reminding your
dog. Oh hey I'm here.
Working on recall. I cannot express the importance
(05:23):
enough of a long lead. It is the number one way to make
sure you're going to get a reliable recall because every
time you ask your dog to come and they don't you devalue the
word and we're going to talk about that a little bit more.
The next tip you've got to startinside with no distractions.
It can seem a little counterintuitive to be in your
living room with your dog, on a leash teaching, practicing
(05:46):
recall, right? It seems a little basic, it
seems a little boring. In your mind, you're thinking,
oh, I want my dog to be able to be off leash and come back.
No matter where we are. Yeah, that's the end goal but
just like with teaching someone to play piano, if the end goal
is you want them to play piano. Concerto Number 20 by Mozart, or
(06:06):
something by Beethoven or pick any complex piano piece, you're
not just going to hand them, thesheet music, a brand new piano
student and say, all right, go ahead and play it, you're going
to teach them chord progressions, you're going Work
on their scales. You're going to teach them where
centers middle C is, you're going to do all the basics and
you're going to slowly and incrementally build up, the
(06:29):
students knowledge of piano and of playing piano and you know,
they'll be they'll learn maybe Snippets of that Mozart piece.
But to string it all together, it's going to take a long time,
lots of practice. So, think about that with your
dog, that you don't want to throw too much at them.
And in dog, training, you'll often hear About what's called
(06:50):
the 3D's distance, duration, anddistraction, the duration is
slightly less relevant for recall.
But the first and the last of distance and distraction are
extremely important. As you are, adding on to the 3DS
and you are working. On those incremental increases,
(07:10):
it's important to remember that.You should only do one at a
time. So if your dog really has six
foot Down inside the home with no distractions.
You don't want to just go outside and go straight to
15-foot recalls in a busy part. You would want to take it one
(07:31):
factor at a time. So you'd want to say, okay, I'm
going to go in maybe my backyardand I'm going to keep the
distractions as low as I can andincrementally work up from 6 to
10, to 20 to 30 feet. And then once my dog is
comfortable there and showing reliability, then I'm going to
start to add distractions, then you can go.
Go to a busier parkour, then youcan, you know, have other people
(07:53):
in there try to distract your dog or noises or so, whatever it
is, it's just take it one piece at a time, really?
The goal with recall is to set your dog up for success and that
leads to the next point, which is don't ask too much of your
dog. If you have a brand new puppy
and you're having a puppy play day, and it's time to go and you
(08:14):
want to call your dog to come your scout.
Come your scout. And the odds of Your dog
listening, or likely low becausethe distractions are either
having a lot of fun. And if they're a puppy, they
probably don't really have a strong foundation for a recall.
Every time you ask too much and your dog doesn't come.
When you ask them to, you're devaluing your recall word and
(08:37):
we'll talk more about recall, were agree called Q and A little
bit, but you need to remember that really.
You're just trying to tip the scales of every type of creating
more instances where you All your dog back to you and they do
come to you because every time they don't, there's this
reinforcement of. Hey, I'm playing with my puppy
(08:57):
friend. My human called me, I didn't go
back and nothing happened and sothey make this connection of.
Well, I'm still getting what I want, which is playing and I
didn't have to go back to remember to be careful with the
instances in which you ask for arecall, especially if you don't
believe your dog is going to come back to you now, leads to
(09:18):
the next point of every I recallneeds to be a positive
experience. You see so often again you're
out at a puppy playdate and you call your dog too and they come
and you're so excited and then you leash them up and you leave
and the fun ends. Or you are in your home and you
call your dog to you, and they come like such a good boy or
(09:40):
girl, and then you start clipping their nails.
There are plenty of other examples.
But what you're doing is inadvertently, you are creating
not the association that you want.
You want the association for your dog, coming back to you, to
be only positive things in thoseinstances, like with needing to
trim your dog's nails or puppy. Play date is ending.
(10:02):
It's better to just go. To your dog and get them and go
from there versus calling them to you.
You know, maybe giving them a treat, maybe you don't even have
one with you and then you're going to start doing something.
They don't like those associations are real and you
want to keep the association of coming back to you.
It should be a party. It should be the most exciting
(10:23):
thing that your dog can look forward to really, really so
important to keep each recall, apositive experience and what one
note on this that I had an interesting learning experience.
From Tracy Madsen has been on this podcast before.
I someone asked her the question, you know, what do you
do, if you call your dog and they run off and they go
somewhere else and then they come back, you know, you're
(10:46):
probably mad you're wanting a curse at them.
You're really frustrated but shesaid, even in that moment when
your dog does finally come back to you, you need to reward them.
Because if they come back to youand you scold them, it's
difficult for them to make that connection that it was them
running away. That, that's what there.
Getting in trouble for getting scolded for whereas what's
(11:07):
happening in their brain as theycame back to you and kind of the
next thing that you do is going to dictate the association, it's
going to dictate how they learn in that instance.
And so even when your dog comes back to you, Tracy told a funny
story of if you want to swear and be frustrated, you can do
it. You gotta do it in your
high-pitched, happy fun voice. So that your dog thinks that you
(11:27):
are happy and you still need to reward them when they come back
to you. And I know that there is
definitely Nuance to those situations but Just remember
keep those experiences as positive as possible.
So the last couple tips I want to talk about a couple few
things that will really take your recall from this kind of
boring repetitious type trainingbecause again, it is a little
(11:48):
bit boring. It's like call your dog to do
walk away again. Stay calm, you know it can get a
little bit boring and I think itcan get boring for our dogs.
So try playing some recall games.
There's a, here's a few games that you can play.
The first one is the bounce back.
Each game. I really like this one because
it teaches your dog that the best things are happening when
(12:09):
they come back to you. So start with your dog on like a
six foot leash, take a few stepsaway from them, call them to
you, mark the behavior. So that means, you know, when
your dog comes you say, yes or good or use a clicker and then
instead of just handing them, the treat toss, the treat a few
feet away, they have to go run to get it and then as soon as
(12:30):
they are away, grabbing the treat you then call them again.
They come back to you, mark yourreward, you toss the treat away
again. So what it's going to do is
eventually your dog will start to anticipate, like, oh, I'm
gonna go get this and then the next thing they want to do is
come back to you. It just creates this really
positive Association that. The good things are unlocked
(12:51):
when they come back to you, another game, you can play is
hide-and-seek. I used to love hide and seek as
a kid. Played it so much and it's fun
to play with your dog as well. Again, it makes it something
that's kind of boring and turns it into a fun.
A game, pretty simple to play. Get your dog into a sit-stay.
If you'd, if your dog doesn't have a strong stay, you can
enlist a second person to help you with this.
(13:13):
It's your dog into a stay and then go hide somewhere else.
You can go behind a door, you can go into a closet, you can,
you know, just go somewhere. That's not right in front of
your dog. It's not important that you're
extremely well, hidden. What's important is you walk
away. You go to a different place in
your home, or your yard, and then you call your dog to you
and it fun it, they get excited they want.
(13:34):
To come find where you are. Her dogs, love us.
They want to know where we are. And so they're going to come
running and looking for you, andthen when they find you, you,
Mark and reward that behavior and then you just keep playing
that again. It's simple but it's fun.
The third game is what I call the round-robin game similar to
monkey in the middle. Basically, you can get to
people, you can do with a group of people as well.
(13:55):
Go out into it. Your backyard, or you could play
this in your living room. Even, but have your dog sit next
to you and then have the second person call your dog.
When they come to that person, they're going to Mark and reward
and then you're going to do the same thing.
It's just kind of this back and forth, but the beauty of this
game is that it teaches your dogto listen, not only to you, but
(14:15):
to other people, whether that's other people in your home
friends, even people they might not know super well, it's
important for your dog to not only listen to you for recall,
but be able to listen to other people as well.
Those are three fun games that you can play.
They're truly simple, but they make a big difference.
Making it fun just like Like your third grade teacher, did
you, you know, we're so excited to play this fun game and then
(14:38):
you realize, oh we're actually learning about math right now,
but it's so much more entertaining than just watching
something happen on a whiteboardand you paying attention and
actually getting bored and distracted.
And the same thing happens with our dogs.
And when they become bored or over like completely distracted,
they're not going to learn. So play these games to keep it
fun. And the last tip, this is what
(14:58):
took my dog Scouts recall. From really like a four or five
out of ten. Until like an eight or a nine.
Really in a short period of time, I would say like a month
or two. So we've really struggled with
Scouts recall, she loved to go chase after things, she just
isn't much of a velcro talk. She wants to be on her own.
She wants to be exploring and she didn't love treats as a
(15:22):
puppy. Like she you know we tried a lot
of different treats everything we could think of and she just
wasn't really into it. And we were outside.
She is kind of easily distractedand likes to just explore and
Scout the World around her and we really struggled with recall.
And what change for us was, we started playing Fetch and
incorporating recall training into fetch.
(15:44):
I did a whole episode about thisso be sure to check that out but
basically we would do this, we'dbe out playing fetch in a kind
of enclosed area like in our yard, we do a few throws, just
to get her warmed up, having fun, enjoying it, and then we
would get the ball, have her be a few feet away and we would
call her to us and it was a little bit.
Clunky at first. And she was like, wait, what are
(16:06):
we doing? I thought we're playing Fetch
and it took a little bit to kindof get the mechanics down, but
we would come closer and call her to us and we would call her
and when she would come, we would make sure she was close
enough that we could grab her harness or collar and we
physically practice doing that and then we would Mark and
reward, but the reward instead of a treat was throwing the
ball, she got to go fetch. The ball.
(16:27):
Should bring it back to us sometimes.
You know, we wouldn't do every throw as a recall training but,
you know, we do a couple throws.Yeah, and then maybe on the
third row, we take 10 steps back, call her to us.
She comes, we grab her Mark reward.
Throw the ball that literally insuch a short amount of time.
Took her from really struggling with recall to the point that
(16:51):
even as a, you know, youngish dog.
She was really reliable with coming back to us because we
just figured out what was important to her and use that as
a Warren for recalls. I will say that you need to try
varying reinforcers, you know, find out what your dog loves and
what they love the most. That will be the most powerful
(17:14):
reinforcement for you teaching recall to your dog, so it might
be treats. It might be really high value
treats like freshly cooked chicken.
It might be fetch, it might be tug-of-war, it might be just
praise and affection and you know going crazy and letting
your dog know you love them. It's different for every dog.
So you to find your dogs currency.
The and use that as you teach recall, there's another piece to
(17:38):
very reinforcers that you might see talked about a lot and it's
called Jack. Potting one reinforcer is just
giving a treat or two jackpot inis when your dog is something.
Does something really, really good.
You're going to let them know. That was an awesome job and
you're either going to give theman extra special treat, or
you're going to give them three to five trees, you're going to
really let them know that was something extra special, so if
(17:59):
you're working on really difficult recall around
distractions from long, Census in those in the beginning you're
going to need to use a lot more reinforcements and I know a lot
of people who will have a certain treat that they only use
for recall and I know that that can be a bit difficult and I
think it is valuable to again very the reinforcers and make
sure your dog will respond to all types of reinforcement.
(18:21):
But in the beginning you know ifyou need to use that extra
special reward that they only get you know, maybe it's salmon
jerky or maybe it's pieces of real steak you can do that
because in the beginning, it's all about just Creating that
repetition of calling your dog, they come to you, you reinforce
and you're just building that learning Loop that feedback loop
(18:42):
in your dog's brain of when I come to my human, the best
things happen, whether that's amazing treats or play or
praise. Like they've never received
recall training really, could beboiled down to just giving those
reinforcements as much as you can.
So a couple quick questions thatpeople have, right?
A lot of people wonder well, howlong is it going to take my dog
to learn recall? I would ask You, how long does
(19:04):
it take someone to learn the piano?
If I know how to play Hot, CrossBuns.
Do I technically know how to play the piano?
Yeah, but do I really know and it's the same thing with our
dog? They may know recall inside the
home, but it's going to take a lot of time and practice for
them to have a reliable recall outside around distractions,
(19:28):
from a distance potentially off leash.
So I will say it. Generally takes 6, to 12 months,
to take a, to build a strong recall.
But recall more than most behaviors is a lifelong learning
process. My dogs, I'm not trying to brag
with my dogs. Have a really, really good
recall. I take them off leash in Central
(19:49):
Park in New York City, every single morning and I am
confident in their ability to come when called but it took a
long time to get there and even now I still do maintenance
training with them. I'll still bring some treats out
and just practice having them come back to me.
I'll still do the fetch. SRI called training with Scout
on an almost daily basis. You've got to remember that with
(20:10):
recall. Specifically, you've got to just
keep reinforcing that overtime, find moments every day to train
your dog. And especially when it comes to
recall, another question that you see a lot about recall
training is, do I need to use ane-collar.
I've done a lot of episodes and talked about aversives and Andy
collars and my general opinions and feelings about them.
(20:34):
But no, you don't need to use any Colour to teach a reliable.
Recall. My dogs have an extremely strong
recall even around distractions from distance.
I've never used an e-collar. So if you want a simple answer
of do I need to use any color. No you do not and I'd recommend
you don't and if you're on the fence about it I highly
recommend you go listen to my art, my episode about Lima, dog
(20:57):
training in the Humane hierarchyand why you should not use any
caller and the final question And that you see a lot with
recall training, can you teach an older dog recall?
Well, the simple answer is yes. The longer answer is, it'll take
more time, it'll be more complex, and you'll probably
have to untrain some quote unquote bad bitch.
(21:19):
You can teach any dog recall by applying.
A lot of these techniques that we've talked about.
I hope you learned something. I hope that at least one, little
nugget of information has sparked some thoughts in your
head on like okay, this is how I'm going to really take my
dog's recall. I'm a 7 out of 10 up to an eight
or nine where I can feel confident with having them off
leash. Remember it takes time and takes
(21:41):
repetition and you need to keep every recall as positive as
possible. If you enjoyed this episode,
please share it with a friend. Please leave a review on Apple
podcast if that's where you're listening.
If you're on Spotify, leave a comment follow on YouTube.
Subscribe comment all those goodthings and other than that we
will catch you on the next episode.
This is the perfect pup podcast.Helping you build a better
relationship with your pup presented by pop forward.
Hello, pop parents, and welcome to today's episode of the
perfect pup podcast. My name is Devin this episode,
we're covering probably the mostimportant Behavior.
You can teach your dog, and thatis recall or come, when called
(00:22):
this Behavior, not only gives you, peace of mind, but truly
can keep your dog safe. So we're going to dive into What
recall is why it's important andthen seven different tips.
Tricks techniques games that youcan do to make your dog's recall
extremely reliable. And I'm also going to give you a
quick story that will hopefully help.
(00:44):
You take your dog's recall to the next level.
I found a way to take my dog's Scouts recall from about a 5 out
of 10 to basically a nine bordering on 10/10 with this one
simple trick. So be sure you stick around for
that. Let's get right into it first
off. Have to talk about what recall
is so we're on the same page, okay?
Recall is you call your dog and they come back to you.
(01:07):
It's that simple right? More complex answer is that they
do that every time, no matter the distance and no matter the
distractions and that's really where recalled goes from.
Yeah, it's something my dog's okay at to my dog is reliable
and consistent and it takes a lot of time.
Why is this Behavior important? First off safety, your dog is,
(01:29):
you're going to Let them off leash, whether it's an unfenced
area or a fenced-in area that there are different things that
can cause harm or danger or things that you're going to need
them to stay away from. You know, if you're walking and
you see some glass, you can callyour dog to you to make sure
they don't walk towards that. If you're out on a hike and you
see potentially a dangerous animal or another dog, that's
(01:50):
off-leash that you're not sure of if you call your dog, you
want them to come back to you. Another reason that it's
important is just generally, it's going to give you Peace of
mind as you are at parks or exploring or playing with other
dogs or whatever the situation knowing that your dog comes back
to you is going to give you the desire to give them more
(02:11):
freedom. And I think we all want that for
our dogs, we have this vision ofbeing able to go on Hikes and go
to beaches and do the fun thingsthat we want to do with our dogs
and knowing that they're going to come back, makes all of those
experiences and Adventures less stressful.
So super, super important. As for the how really it's three
steps. It's right to teach recall,
number one, stand away from yourdog.
(02:34):
Let's say from a couple feet, number to call your dog to you
and number three, reward and praise when they come back to
you really. That is the simplest form of how
to teach recall. And with that, that's the end of
the episode. It's not the end of the episode,
but I want to make that point that, that is recalled a lot.
(02:54):
There's so many things you can read and learn and hear about
and I'm going to talk about a lot of things, but that is
recall at its core. And I want to emphasize that
that third point of rewarding your dog when they come back to,
don't underestimate the value ofthat.
It is so important you know, things that are reinforced are
repeated, that is dog training, kind of boiled down into one
(03:14):
sentence. So if you want your dog to come
back to you, every time they come to you, come back to Do
they need to be rewarded? Especially in the early stages
and we'll talk about phasing outtrades, but in the beginning
with training your dog, you needto reward them every time they
come back. So now I want to go into seven
tips techniques and games and things to avoid to make sure
(03:36):
your dog has an extremely reliable recall.
The first tip use a long lead. I cannot express how important a
long lead is. So think about this, you start
small, you start with the X and you're starting to feel like,
okay, my dog is getting the hangof recall and you go out into an
open field, you know, fewer distractions and you're
(03:57):
thinking, okay, I need to practice a 15-foot recall.
You normally have a 6 foot leashso what do you do?
Do you just let your dog be 15 feet away from you and hope that
they're going to come back? No use a long lead.
You can buy long leads from any length, starting at 10 feet all
the way up to I've seen I think 200 foot long leads.
(04:19):
For most people and for teachingrecall generally, I would say
that a 30-foot lead is a good place to start the beauty of a
long lead. Is it gives you extra safety.
It gives you a kind of a safety net.
Think of it as training wheels for your dog's recall reason.
(04:40):
Being, if you're practicing that15-foot, recall, you call your
dog, and instead they see a birdand they start running the other
direction. You have a lesion hand, you are
still connected. Acted to them and they're not
gonna be able to run away into dangerous situations.
The other advantage of a long lead is control.
And I don't mean, you're controlling your dog or your,
you know, telling them what to do.
(05:01):
Like, it's a matter of if your dog gets distracted or they kind
of lose their attention, as you're working on this recall,
you have a tool in your hand to be able to gently guide them
back to you. It's as simple as just like
putting some tension on Long lead and kind of reminding your
dog. Oh hey I'm here.
Working on recall. I cannot express the importance
(05:23):
enough of a long lead. It is the number one way to make
sure you're going to get a reliable recall because every
time you ask your dog to come and they don't you devalue the
word and we're going to talk about that a little bit more.
The next tip you've got to startinside with no distractions.
It can seem a little counterintuitive to be in your
living room with your dog, on a leash teaching, practicing
(05:46):
recall, right? It seems a little basic, it
seems a little boring. In your mind, you're thinking,
oh, I want my dog to be able to be off leash and come back.
No matter where we are. Yeah, that's the end goal but
just like with teaching someone to play piano, if the end goal
is you want them to play piano. Concerto Number 20 by Mozart, or
(06:06):
something by Beethoven or pick any complex piano piece, you're
not just going to hand them, thesheet music, a brand new piano
student and say, all right, go ahead and play it, you're going
to teach them chord progressions, you're going Work
on their scales. You're going to teach them where
centers middle C is, you're going to do all the basics and
you're going to slowly and incrementally build up, the
(06:29):
students knowledge of piano and of playing piano and you know,
they'll be they'll learn maybe Snippets of that Mozart piece.
But to string it all together, it's going to take a long time,
lots of practice. So, think about that with your
dog, that you don't want to throw too much at them.
And in dog, training, you'll often hear About what's called
(06:50):
the 3D's distance, duration, anddistraction, the duration is
slightly less relevant for recall.
But the first and the last of distance and distraction are
extremely important. As you are, adding on to the 3DS
and you are working. On those incremental increases,
(07:10):
it's important to remember that.You should only do one at a
time. So if your dog really has six
foot Down inside the home with no distractions.
You don't want to just go outside and go straight to
15-foot recalls in a busy part. You would want to take it one
(07:31):
factor at a time. So you'd want to say, okay, I'm
going to go in maybe my backyardand I'm going to keep the
distractions as low as I can andincrementally work up from 6 to
10, to 20 to 30 feet. And then once my dog is
comfortable there and showing reliability, then I'm going to
start to add distractions, then you can go.
Go to a busier parkour, then youcan, you know, have other people
(07:53):
in there try to distract your dog or noises or so, whatever it
is, it's just take it one piece at a time, really?
The goal with recall is to set your dog up for success and that
leads to the next point, which is don't ask too much of your
dog. If you have a brand new puppy
and you're having a puppy play day, and it's time to go and you
(08:14):
want to call your dog to come your scout.
Come your scout. And the odds of Your dog
listening, or likely low becausethe distractions are either
having a lot of fun. And if they're a puppy, they
probably don't really have a strong foundation for a recall.
Every time you ask too much and your dog doesn't come.
When you ask them to, you're devaluing your recall word and
(08:37):
we'll talk more about recall, were agree called Q and A little
bit, but you need to remember that really.
You're just trying to tip the scales of every type of creating
more instances where you All your dog back to you and they do
come to you because every time they don't, there's this
reinforcement of. Hey, I'm playing with my puppy
(08:57):
friend. My human called me, I didn't go
back and nothing happened and sothey make this connection of.
Well, I'm still getting what I want, which is playing and I
didn't have to go back to remember to be careful with the
instances in which you ask for arecall, especially if you don't
believe your dog is going to come back to you now, leads to
(09:18):
the next point of every I recallneeds to be a positive
experience. You see so often again you're
out at a puppy playdate and you call your dog too and they come
and you're so excited and then you leash them up and you leave
and the fun ends. Or you are in your home and you
call your dog to you, and they come like such a good boy or
(09:40):
girl, and then you start clipping their nails.
There are plenty of other examples.
But what you're doing is inadvertently, you are creating
not the association that you want.
You want the association for your dog, coming back to you, to
be only positive things in thoseinstances, like with needing to
trim your dog's nails or puppy. Play date is ending.
(10:02):
It's better to just go. To your dog and get them and go
from there versus calling them to you.
You know, maybe giving them a treat, maybe you don't even have
one with you and then you're going to start doing something.
They don't like those associations are real and you
want to keep the association of coming back to you.
It should be a party. It should be the most exciting
(10:23):
thing that your dog can look forward to really, really so
important to keep each recall, apositive experience and what one
note on this that I had an interesting learning experience.
From Tracy Madsen has been on this podcast before.
I someone asked her the question, you know, what do you
do, if you call your dog and they run off and they go
somewhere else and then they come back, you know, you're
(10:46):
probably mad you're wanting a curse at them.
You're really frustrated but shesaid, even in that moment when
your dog does finally come back to you, you need to reward them.
Because if they come back to youand you scold them, it's
difficult for them to make that connection that it was them
running away. That, that's what there.
Getting in trouble for getting scolded for whereas what's
(11:07):
happening in their brain as theycame back to you and kind of the
next thing that you do is going to dictate the association, it's
going to dictate how they learn in that instance.
And so even when your dog comes back to you, Tracy told a funny
story of if you want to swear and be frustrated, you can do
it. You gotta do it in your
high-pitched, happy fun voice. So that your dog thinks that you
(11:27):
are happy and you still need to reward them when they come back
to you. And I know that there is
definitely Nuance to those situations but Just remember
keep those experiences as positive as possible.
So the last couple tips I want to talk about a couple few
things that will really take your recall from this kind of
boring repetitious type trainingbecause again, it is a little
(11:48):
bit boring. It's like call your dog to do
walk away again. Stay calm, you know it can get a
little bit boring and I think itcan get boring for our dogs.
So try playing some recall games.
There's a, here's a few games that you can play.
The first one is the bounce back.
Each game. I really like this one because
it teaches your dog that the best things are happening when
(12:09):
they come back to you. So start with your dog on like a
six foot leash, take a few stepsaway from them, call them to
you, mark the behavior. So that means, you know, when
your dog comes you say, yes or good or use a clicker and then
instead of just handing them, the treat toss, the treat a few
feet away, they have to go run to get it and then as soon as
(12:30):
they are away, grabbing the treat you then call them again.
They come back to you, mark yourreward, you toss the treat away
again. So what it's going to do is
eventually your dog will start to anticipate, like, oh, I'm
gonna go get this and then the next thing they want to do is
come back to you. It just creates this really
positive Association that. The good things are unlocked
(12:51):
when they come back to you, another game, you can play is
hide-and-seek. I used to love hide and seek as
a kid. Played it so much and it's fun
to play with your dog as well. Again, it makes it something
that's kind of boring and turns it into a fun.
A game, pretty simple to play. Get your dog into a sit-stay.
If you'd, if your dog doesn't have a strong stay, you can
enlist a second person to help you with this.
(13:13):
It's your dog into a stay and then go hide somewhere else.
You can go behind a door, you can go into a closet, you can,
you know, just go somewhere. That's not right in front of
your dog. It's not important that you're
extremely well, hidden. What's important is you walk
away. You go to a different place in
your home, or your yard, and then you call your dog to you
and it fun it, they get excited they want.
(13:34):
To come find where you are. Her dogs, love us.
They want to know where we are. And so they're going to come
running and looking for you, andthen when they find you, you,
Mark and reward that behavior and then you just keep playing
that again. It's simple but it's fun.
The third game is what I call the round-robin game similar to
monkey in the middle. Basically, you can get to
people, you can do with a group of people as well.
(13:55):
Go out into it. Your backyard, or you could play
this in your living room. Even, but have your dog sit next
to you and then have the second person call your dog.
When they come to that person, they're going to Mark and reward
and then you're going to do the same thing.
It's just kind of this back and forth, but the beauty of this
game is that it teaches your dogto listen, not only to you, but
(14:15):
to other people, whether that's other people in your home
friends, even people they might not know super well, it's
important for your dog to not only listen to you for recall,
but be able to listen to other people as well.
Those are three fun games that you can play.
They're truly simple, but they make a big difference.
Making it fun just like Like your third grade teacher, did
you, you know, we're so excited to play this fun game and then
(14:38):
you realize, oh we're actually learning about math right now,
but it's so much more entertaining than just watching
something happen on a whiteboardand you paying attention and
actually getting bored and distracted.
And the same thing happens with our dogs.
And when they become bored or over like completely distracted,
they're not going to learn. So play these games to keep it
fun. And the last tip, this is what
(14:58):
took my dog Scouts recall. From really like a four or five
out of ten. Until like an eight or a nine.
Really in a short period of time, I would say like a month
or two. So we've really struggled with
Scouts recall, she loved to go chase after things, she just
isn't much of a velcro talk. She wants to be on her own.
She wants to be exploring and she didn't love treats as a
(15:22):
puppy. Like she you know we tried a lot
of different treats everything we could think of and she just
wasn't really into it. And we were outside.
She is kind of easily distractedand likes to just explore and
Scout the World around her and we really struggled with recall.
And what change for us was, we started playing Fetch and
incorporating recall training into fetch.
(15:44):
I did a whole episode about thisso be sure to check that out but
basically we would do this, we'dbe out playing fetch in a kind
of enclosed area like in our yard, we do a few throws, just
to get her warmed up, having fun, enjoying it, and then we
would get the ball, have her be a few feet away and we would
call her to us and it was a little bit.
Clunky at first. And she was like, wait, what are
(16:06):
we doing? I thought we're playing Fetch
and it took a little bit to kindof get the mechanics down, but
we would come closer and call her to us and we would call her
and when she would come, we would make sure she was close
enough that we could grab her harness or collar and we
physically practice doing that and then we would Mark and
reward, but the reward instead of a treat was throwing the
ball, she got to go fetch. The ball.
(16:27):
Should bring it back to us sometimes.
You know, we wouldn't do every throw as a recall training but,
you know, we do a couple throws.Yeah, and then maybe on the
third row, we take 10 steps back, call her to us.
She comes, we grab her Mark reward.
Throw the ball that literally insuch a short amount of time.
Took her from really struggling with recall to the point that
(16:51):
even as a, you know, youngish dog.
She was really reliable with coming back to us because we
just figured out what was important to her and use that as
a Warren for recalls. I will say that you need to try
varying reinforcers, you know, find out what your dog loves and
what they love the most. That will be the most powerful
(17:14):
reinforcement for you teaching recall to your dog, so it might
be treats. It might be really high value
treats like freshly cooked chicken.
It might be fetch, it might be tug-of-war, it might be just
praise and affection and you know going crazy and letting
your dog know you love them. It's different for every dog.
So you to find your dogs currency.
The and use that as you teach recall, there's another piece to
(17:38):
very reinforcers that you might see talked about a lot and it's
called Jack. Potting one reinforcer is just
giving a treat or two jackpot inis when your dog is something.
Does something really, really good.
You're going to let them know. That was an awesome job and
you're either going to give theman extra special treat, or
you're going to give them three to five trees, you're going to
really let them know that was something extra special, so if
(17:59):
you're working on really difficult recall around
distractions from long, Census in those in the beginning you're
going to need to use a lot more reinforcements and I know a lot
of people who will have a certain treat that they only use
for recall and I know that that can be a bit difficult and I
think it is valuable to again very the reinforcers and make
sure your dog will respond to all types of reinforcement.
(18:21):
But in the beginning you know ifyou need to use that extra
special reward that they only get you know, maybe it's salmon
jerky or maybe it's pieces of real steak you can do that
because in the beginning, it's all about just Creating that
repetition of calling your dog, they come to you, you reinforce
and you're just building that learning Loop that feedback loop
(18:42):
in your dog's brain of when I come to my human, the best
things happen, whether that's amazing treats or play or
praise. Like they've never received
recall training really, could beboiled down to just giving those
reinforcements as much as you can.
So a couple quick questions thatpeople have, right?
A lot of people wonder well, howlong is it going to take my dog
to learn recall? I would ask You, how long does
(19:04):
it take someone to learn the piano?
If I know how to play Hot, CrossBuns.
Do I technically know how to play the piano?
Yeah, but do I really know and it's the same thing with our
dog? They may know recall inside the
home, but it's going to take a lot of time and practice for
them to have a reliable recall outside around distractions,
(19:28):
from a distance potentially off leash.
So I will say it. Generally takes 6, to 12 months,
to take a, to build a strong recall.
But recall more than most behaviors is a lifelong learning
process. My dogs, I'm not trying to brag
with my dogs. Have a really, really good
recall. I take them off leash in Central
(19:49):
Park in New York City, every single morning and I am
confident in their ability to come when called but it took a
long time to get there and even now I still do maintenance
training with them. I'll still bring some treats out
and just practice having them come back to me.
I'll still do the fetch. SRI called training with Scout
on an almost daily basis. You've got to remember that with
(20:10):
recall. Specifically, you've got to just
keep reinforcing that overtime, find moments every day to train
your dog. And especially when it comes to
recall, another question that you see a lot about recall
training is, do I need to use ane-collar.
I've done a lot of episodes and talked about aversives and Andy
collars and my general opinions and feelings about them.
(20:34):
But no, you don't need to use any Colour to teach a reliable.
Recall. My dogs have an extremely strong
recall even around distractions from distance.
I've never used an e-collar. So if you want a simple answer
of do I need to use any color. No you do not and I'd recommend
you don't and if you're on the fence about it I highly
recommend you go listen to my art, my episode about Lima, dog
(20:57):
training in the Humane hierarchyand why you should not use any
caller and the final question And that you see a lot with
recall training, can you teach an older dog recall?
Well, the simple answer is yes. The longer answer is, it'll take
more time, it'll be more complex, and you'll probably
have to untrain some quote unquote bad bitch.
(21:19):
You can teach any dog recall by applying.
A lot of these techniques that we've talked about.
I hope you learned something. I hope that at least one, little
nugget of information has sparked some thoughts in your
head on like okay, this is how I'm going to really take my
dog's recall. I'm a 7 out of 10 up to an eight
or nine where I can feel confident with having them off
leash. Remember it takes time and takes
(21:41):
repetition and you need to keep every recall as positive as
possible. If you enjoyed this episode,
please share it with a friend. Please leave a review on Apple
podcast if that's where you're listening.
If you're on Spotify, leave a comment follow on YouTube.
Subscribe comment all those goodthings and other than that we
will catch you on the next episode.
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