Teaching Your Dog a Reliable Recall

Why is recall training so important?

Recall is probably the most important skill you can teach your dog. If you can recall your dog you will be able to let them play off lead where this is permitted which increases their opportunities for enrichment. More importantly, a recall can prevent injuries, accidents, and could even be a lifesaver.

How Do I Train a Reliable Recall?

Puppies

Teaching recall to puppies is very easy as they naturally want to be with you. As soon as they know their name you can start recall training.

• Have several food treats in your pocket. Throw one to make your puppy move away from you.

• Call their name and ‘come’. Although they don’t understand the word yet they know you have food and like being near you, so they will probably come to you.

• Catch them by their collar, praise them, and give food.

• Repeat!

You can encourage your puppy by crouching lower, opening your arms out, moving away from your puppy, and calling excitedly.

Once your puppy has a good recall indoors practise in your garden, then in safe outdoor spaces. Build up the level of distractions gradually! If you are concerned your puppy might run away use a harness and long line during initial training.

Older dogs

As puppies get more confident recalling is harder, you might also need to ‘up the game’ for older dogs who know just how fun being off lead can be. Like for young puppies start training indoors or in a secure outdoor space where you are the most interesting thing before adding distractions.

• Have several food treats in your hand. Throw one to get your dog away from you.

• Call them and run away!

• Turn towards them and as they catch up put the treat by the side of your foot and run away as they eat.

• Run away! Place treat, repeat.

• After several great recalls catch your dog at the end.

To make recall even more fun you can move to throwing the reward treat through your legs before you run away in the opposite direction.

Once your dog understands a verbal cue (e.g. Oscar come) you might want to teach them to return to a whistle. Whistles can be heard over a greater distance than the human voice, especially if more than one person walks the dog.

• Blow the whistle, call your dog, give a food reward when they come. Repeat in short sessions several times a week.

• Start leaving longer between the whistle and calling your dog. They should start to anticipate the voice call and return before you say anything.

• Soon they will return just to the whistle!

Why Has My Dog’s Recall Gone Wrong?

The most common reason dogs stop responding to the recall cue is that their people stop making it rewarding to come back. Look at it from your dog’s point of view, they are having a nice time running and sniffing and you call them back. That means the end of the walk, the end of the fun. As dogs do things that make them feel happy, they soon stop doing recalls!

The cure is to ensure recalls are well rewarded and practised several times on every walk, not just at the end. Food rewards are easy to use in puppies, but older dogs might enjoy a game with a tug toy or ball, some scattered food, or even a bit of rough and tumble play as a reward for a good recall. Keep your dog guessing with jackpot rewards and by sometimes putting the lead on before letting them run off again.

Recall occasionally fails because a dog has lost their hearing! This is more common in older dogs and often looks selective as the dog might know to recall if they see the body language you use, but not if they are facing away from you or engrossed in sniffing.

Recall also fails when the environment is just too exciting! Your dog needs to build up the skill of recall in different places. Practise calling your dog away from people, other dogs, wildlife and make sure the reward is good enough. Sometimes the reward can be the thing your dog wants. For example, if you call him away from a person with a dog, then realise that it is your friend and their dog it might be appropriate to reward your dog for the recall by letting them go and play.

If your recall goes wrong, NEVER punish the dog when they finally come back. You want them to know coming back is always a good thing even if they didn’t respond quickly.

Instead, pop them on the lead, reward them, and consider why they didn’t come straight back.

How to train an Emergency Recall

Everyday situations need an everyday recall and most dogs will have a very good recall if you train consistently and reward your dog well. However it is a good idea to have a super recall for emergency situations.

• Take three portions of high value food out on your walk , such as OSCAR Chicken Liver Training Treats, OSCAR Venison Soft Sausage or OSCAR Meaty Rolls.

• When your dog is exploring sprinkle a portion on the ground.

• Get very excited about what you have found! Squeal and point and jump around and add your special emergency recall word. This should be easy to remember and like no other words you use in training.

• When your dog comes to look catch their collar but allow them to eat all the food.

• Repeat with the other two portions.

• Repeat once a day for a month on your walks.

• Top up once a week to once a month.

If you need to use this emergency recall for real you may only have boring treats or maybe a toy. Your dog will come back, but they will be a little disappointed by the reward so you will need to recharge this on future walks.

Top Recall Tips

Practise recalls on every walk even when you don’t need your dog to come back. Make sure the rewards are something your dog enjoys. Never punish a dog if their recall is poor, look for reasons why and practise more. Teach an emergency recall for when you really need your dog back right now.

Do you need further advice?

If you need any further advice, please contact the OSCAR Helpline Team on our freephone number 0800 195 8000 or email helpline@oscars.co.uk.