Things to Consider when Training a Recall
Training a good recall can take a long time for some dogs. Some breed mixes (and individuals) tend to want to stick around their humans, while others let their noses guide them into the big bad world unaccompanied. I use simple classical conditioning to teach the dog that their recall word (like “come!”) means they will get something absolutely excellent from me (like chicken). While this works pretty well, there are subtle things we do as dog guardians that can make the recall behavior deteriorate quickly:
Expecting your dog to come when called when you haven’t practiced the behavior very much before. Dogs don’t come knowing that they should come back to us when we call them, it is something that we need to practice repeatedly and make a rewarding experience for our pets.
Calling your dog only at the end of a walk or playtime, when you need to leave, when you want to leash them or grab hold of them. Thanks to the power of classical conditioning, dogs can quickly learn that your calling is associated with something not fun, and this can sometimes trump any amount of chicken. I’ve known dogs to come when called, eat the chicken and stay just out of reach so you can’t grab their collars.
Calling your dog when YOU see things in the environment that might trigger them before they do. The more effective strategy for reactive dogs is to teach them to come to you after THEY see the trigger. However, as human beings, we also have made associations in our heads of our dogs looking at the trigger and then losing their minds and becoming out of control. So when we see the trigger before our dogs do, and we call them back to us, the dog can start to associate the recall cue with the scary thing.
This is less likely to happen if you are at a far enough distance from the trigger that the dog doesn’t consider it very scary.
Calling them every time they have found a good smell, or are looking at something they find interesting. I see people do this often on walks. The human instinct is to want to walk in a straight line, like ants, but dogs do not share this inclination. I recommend waiting for your dog to finish smelling, at least 9 times out of 10, instead of prompting them to come to you.
Yelling at your pup when they finally do come back. In that moment dogs don’t really think, “oh, I was gone for 10 minutes, that’s why my human is upset.” They’re probably thinking, “Wow, I got yelled at when I came back to my human. I don’t really like coming back to them then…”
Repeating yourself over and over again. When we call our dogs repeatedly, our voices can sometimes become akin to background noise. If you call your dog once and they don’t come right away, try and evaluate the situation quickly - are they looking for a spot to pee or poop? Did they see a human or an animal in the distance? Have they found a very tasty turd to eat? Maybe they heard you and wish they could have yelled back “just a minute!”. I always pause a few seconds to see if they heard me and are just about to respond. If nothing happens, I would try calling them again. Still no response? Better to walk over and get them. Maybe this will help you understand what situations you need to continue training in.
Using the same recall cue all the time - I like to teach many different recall behaviors, like a hand touch or a “middle” (a fun trick where your dog learns to station between your legs when you stand-at-ease with your legs spread apart) to make recall more than just “come!”.
Not reinforcing the recall enough. I know so many pet parents are very eager to transition off treats as soon as they start seeing their dog respond to training. While I support transitioning to a variable rate of reinforcement for a lot of behaviors, recall is not one I recommend doing this with. Even after many years, my dogs get their recall treat 100% of the time if they come when I call them. As a result, they come back nearly 100% of the time because they can rely on that reward. Also, a variable rate of reinforcement is not what it might immediately seem. What it literally means is that you shouldn’t reward the animal for every repetition of the behavior, but that isn’t entirely effective. What works better is to vary the reward - so your dog is getting reinforced 100% of the time, just with different reinforcers.
Letting them off leash when they’re not ready for it. We’ve all done this. We’ve all done this and regretted it, and some of us do it again and again. Hopefully there comes a time soon when you think “no more!” and put your dog back on a leash. Look, I get it. I want dogs to run and have freedom just as much as the next dog lover, if not more. I support dogs expressing nearly their full spectrum of natural behaviors (I draw a line at them mating willy-nilly among other things) including running, chasing, digging and rolling around. Unfortunately many parts of the world don’t look as they did 50 years ago, let alone 10 years ago (how many dog walkers do you see now with their phones out?). The pressures threatening your dog’s safety are on the rise.
Recalling in a new environment before they’ve had the chance to sniff and absorb information about where they are. I like to give my dogs space and time to explore, sniff, pee, stand and look around, especially if we are in a new place, before I start trying to get their attention and call them back to me.
Ignoring your dog when they choose to look at you. Especially while practicing recall, I’ve noticed how people want to wait until their dog is distracted before calling them, before the dog is ready for this. I find it easier to practice once your dog is focused on you, because we then have a much greater chance of our dogs performing the behavior when we use our recall word.
Using the same old treats, day in and day out. One of my pups, Kousa, completely stopped eating the primary recall treat I was using a few years ago. Then I ended up trying everything I could lay my hands on, only to discover that although the boring old treat was part of our recall issues, there were some important skills training that we hadn’t worked on. So I started from scratch while building in new treats into our training protocols. I have to say, however, that the opposite is true for my other dog, Pia. Pia HATES novelty. She needs the reliability and predictability of the exact same treat on every single walk. When she runs back to me, she often opens her mouth quickly for me to drop in the treat. Early on in our relationship, I dropped a new treat into her mouth. She chewed it, realized it was new, spat it out, and avoided me completely for the rest of the walk. Lesson learned.
Not recognizing their limitations based on genetics, as well as anxiety & fear, and if their needs are being met. I do think it’s harder for some dogs to not go where their nose leads them than it is for others. Beagles, Huskies, and Great Pyrenees dogs are all very different breeds, with different genetics motivating their instinctual tendencies to wander off, while Lhasa Apsos tend to be motivated to stay close to their human families. Dogs that are more nervous and scared in their surroundings are also more likely to have poor recall, as are dogs who have been cooped up indoors for a long time and are totally psyched about finally being off-leash outside.
Thinking that an invisible fence or e-collar will solve all recall problems. They don’t. One story I have heard from a client is of their experience with an invisible fence for their collie. When the dog got to the fence line and felt the stimulation (now you can tell me this won’t be a shock, it’ll just be vibration, or a little beep, but the principle it works on is the same), she associated it with the grass, and since then refused to step off the deck onto the grass. Hearing that story made me really sad. I’m sure there are dogs out there that do just fine on them, but personally I am not willing to risk it with my dogs. I will be diving in-depth into e-collar use to train dogs in future blog posts, so keep an eye out for those.
So tell me, are there any situations I’ve described here that you can connect with? Any other situations that have come up for you?