How do I get my dog to come when called?
— Laura ScottTeaching your dog to come quickly when called is a valuable life skill and is also an important agility skill. If you are running an agility course and your dog gets off course you may still be able to successfully complete your run if your dog returns to you quickly. As well, a good recall will allow you to call your dog off of the wrong course and prevent him from taking it.
To teach your dog a reliable recall here are a few tips:
Choose a recall word
If your dog already ignores the word “come”, choose a new word and start re-training your recall. It will be easier to teach a new word, than to fix the old one. You can use any word you want to mean “come to me”. Lots of dogs will ignore the word “come”, but will come racing if you say “cookie” or “car ride”. It doesn’t matter what word you use, pick one and be consistent. Then…Teach them what it means
With your dog on leash, start out by saying the word and immediately following it with a cookie and praise. Your dog doesn’t need to do anything. We’re just making an association between your recall word and food. We want them to have the same emotional response (yippee!) when they hear the recall word as they have when you say “cookie”. Repeat this a LOT. You can use part of your dog’s regular meal, or you can use special cookies. Make sure the treats are small (cheerio-sized) and do 15-20 repetitions in a session, and 3-4 sessions per day. It shouldn’t take very long to do this. After 4 days you can move on to the next step…
Teach them to come
Start out in a low distraction area of your house with your dog on leash, and a bunch of high value treats (think leftover chicken) in your pocket or in a bait bag. Wait until your dog is a bit distracted (not looking at your) and then say their recall word once. If they immediately turn towards you reward with praise, and then take a treat out of your pocket. We are REWARDING the dog for coming, not BRIBING them, so the cookies stay hidden until the dog comes. If your dog doesn’t immediately look at you, go back to step one for another two days since it means they haven’t started to associate the recall word with good things. Only say the recall word once to call them as you want your dog to come right away, not on the third call. Practice on leash recalls in low distraction areas of the house. When your dog is good at these…Take it on the road
Now that your dog is getting the idea of coming when you call, take them outside and practice. You can practice in your backyard, front yard, while out for a walk, etc. Continue to use high value rewards, and don’t use the treat to entice your dog to come. They get the treat as a REWARD (i.e. after they do the behaviour). If your dog is too distracted and doesn’t come when you call, go up to them, gently take them by the collar, repeat the recall word and guide them back to where you were standing when you first called. They don’t get a cookie for this, but you can give them verbal praise. Release them, and then call them again right away. If they come this time, big praise and make sure to give them their treat. We want to reward them for making good choices, and show them that if they don’t respond quickly enough we are willing to go and get them. Keep practicing with your dog on leash, until they will leave even the most tempting distractions (i.e. squirrels, food on the ground) to come to you.Go off leash
Once your dog is very good on leash, it’s time to try this off leash. Start out in an enclosed space like your backyard or a tennis court. With your dog on leash, do a couple of warm up recalls and then let him go. Give him a minute to sniff around, and then call him to you. If he comes, give him big praise and a big reward. If he doesn’t, calmly walk up to him and use his collar to guide him back to the spot you called him from, then release him and call him again right away. Once he will reliably leave distractions in this enclosed space, take him to a few other places (like a friends yard) to practice.Keep practicing
Once your dog is good at their recall, it’s important to continue practicing. Try and do a few random recalls each week where your dog gets a big reward for coming when called. Too often we call our dogs to us and forget to reward, so you’ve got to put some deposits in their training bank to make up for those times.A few reminders
It’s important that you don’t punish your dog for coming to you. If you call your dog and he doesn’t come, but instead runs around the yard, digs through the flower beds and plays keep away for five minutes before you catch him, don’t give in to your urge to yell at him for all the bad stuff he did. From the dog’s perspective, running around the yard was fun, digging was fun, keep away was fun, but getting caught wasn’t any fun, so he’s going to try harder not to get caught next time. Instead, just calmly get your dog and try rewarding him. Now getting caught is fun too.If you’ve been having problems with your dog and their recall, and you’ve started to work on it already, I’d still suggest that you go back and start at step one again. This will make sure your dog has a good foundation for the more challenging steps.
And as always… if you’re having problems please speak with your instructor who will be able to give you additional advice or refer you on to someone who can help you.
