The Importance of a Reliable Recall

Recall is arguably one of the most important skills your dog needs to have (in my opinion), if for no other reason than safety.

As important as this skill is, how many of you can truly say your dog has a reliable recall?

Well, if you said no, here are a few tips:

Make sure you are creating value for yourself - your dog should want to come back to you so make yourself exciting and important - keep lots of structure in your day to day life and make sure your dog is working for you for all of their meals - if they’re not paying attention to you at home under low distraction you can’t expect them to magically start paying attention and being aware of you out in public under high distraction

Don’t give your dog the option to ignore you - if you cannot call your dog back to you when at liberty they should be on a leash - the last thing you want to do is let your dog practice ignoring you - keep your dog on a long line any time you are practicing recall or out and about - be intentional - always have a way to manage and guide your dog when teaching them this skill

Train for real life - 9 times out of 10 your dog is going to be doing something fun or distracting when you are trying to recall them, so train them for that - start with small distractions (ie. sniffing a bush) when practicing your recall and build from there - don’t set your dog up in the prefect training scenario every time or they’re not going to know how to respond under distractions

Guide them every step of the way - most people wait until their dog gets to them to praise them for recall - that’s way too long and you’ve missed the mark - you want to tell your dog they’re doing the right thing the instant they make the decision to come to you - mark the behavior when they turn and start coming your way and keep the praise, energy and motivation up so they feel confident and know they’re doing the right thing

Teach your dog that when asked to come back to you, no is not an option - make it fun for your dog every time and show them they can do the fun things they want as long as they’re still minding you👍🏼