HOW TO TRAIN A DOG TO COME WHEN CALLED | 10 DEFINITE WAYS THAT WORK

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More than 80% of pet dog accidents on the streets could have been avoided if the dogs had a reliable recall! That’s how life-saving Recall Training can be. Once you get home a new puppy, teaching recall must be the 1st and foremost thing your dog must be taught as learning how to train your dog to come when called is the No 1 way to keep your dog away from all kinds of trouble!

10 ways to building a solid recall with your dog

1. Rome will not be built in a day

If you’re reading this trying to find a quick fix to recall, I’m sorry to disappoint you. It’s going to take days, weeks, possibly months to train your dog to come when called EVERYTIME. Recall is not something you would want to “take time out and practice.” Make it a part of your daily routine and you’ll see how effortless it becomes to train your dog to come when called on command.

Recall is not something you would want to “take time out and practice.” Make it a part of your daily routine and you’ll see how effortless recall training becomes.

2. Call for the good stuff, walk up for the bad

Majority of the time pet parents fail at recall as they call the dog and end up giving an undesirable experience to the dog, like, grooming, trimming nails, cleaning ears, scolding for making a mess, putting the dog back into the crate, etc. If you provide your dog with a positive experience 8 out of 10 times, he is still going to be apprehensive of coming to you when called if he had a negative experience twice.

ALWAYS call only and only for good stuff like meals, playtime, attention, walks, etc. If you have to do something the dog doesn’t particularly enjoy like giving him a time out in a different room or trimming his nails, avoid calling him to you. You walk up to him instead.

3. Always have something exciting to offer

Unless you have something which the dog really really enjoys and could sell you for, like treats, meals, walks, belly rubs and massages, his favourite bone, chew toy etc, don’t bother calling your dog to you. A simple way to look at it would be to see what your puppy is busy with and reward with something much more exciting than that!

If he’s busy playing with a ball teach him to come to you by calling him with another ball in your hand. Or maybe 2 balls in your hand. But if he’s busy chasing a squirrel in the backyard and you try calling him with a ball, it probably might not work. At such times, up the ante.

4. Use freedom as a reward

It’s a well-established fact that our puppies look at us as fun blockers. If your lab is rolling in the mud in the backyard, dirtying every fur on his body, he’s clearly having the time of his life. If at that point in time you call him to you and take him back inside, you’ve clearly set up your dog for failure in backyard recall!

Maybe a trick worth trying would be to call him, giving a treat for coming to you and letting him go back again. Train your dog to come to you when called by letting him go back again.

5. Beat stubborn with stubborn

A very common problem that all of us face with our puppies is that “he looks at me when I call him and totally ignores me!” It’s mainly coz your puppy’s like, “Yea, I heard you.. But I’m chewing something important here. So I can’t come right now” and sadly, most of the time we’re okay with that.

Until your dog doesn’t understand that coming to you is not an option but his only choice, ignorance is going to be his bliss! Every time you call your dog and your dog chooses not to come to you, walk up to him and lead him in your direction and then reward. It may take several repetitions for your dog to grasp the concept.

Until your dog doesn’t understand that coming to you is not an option but his only choice, ignorance is going to be his bliss!

6. Involve the family

An observation that I’ve made vastly in this field is that training usually fails as the dog doesn’t receive consistent guidelines and behaviours from all members of the family; let’s say a family of A, B, C and Dog. If A is very diligent about practicing recalls with Dog in every situation with positive reinforcement, B tries, but gives up when Dog ignores her and C couldn’t care less about Dog, we’re eventually left with a very confused Dog and an extremely fed up A.

7. Perfection begins at home

Any kind of obedience training has to first begin at home, including recall. If you train your dog to come to you 6 out of 10 times at home, he’s probably going to be coming to you 2 out of 10 times outside the house.

Home being a more controlled environment, it’s easier to achieve a high-quality recall indoors. Once you’re happy and confident about the results, start practicing outdoors.

It’s like, how do you expect your dog to leave a squirrel in the park and come to you when called if he wasn’t trained at home to even leave a toy and come back to you?

8. Make it fun for both of you

Games are one of the best ways to bond with your dog. It also makes your dog look up to you as someone who’s really fun to hang out with.

Instead of playing the same old games of tug and roughhousing, take it up a notch by playing recall games with your dog. This will not only give you positive results, but also keep the spark alive in training.

9. Practice on leash and off-leash

Practicing on a long lead not only helps in adding a much-needed distance to the recall exercise, but also enables you to keep the control in your hand. Start with a normal 6 feet leash. Once you achieve a good recall on that in various scenarios, gradually start increasing distance with the help of a 20-30ft long lead.

You know you have managed to train your dog to come to you fabulously well when your puppy comes to you on a long lead without you having to pull on it even once.

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10. Don’t repeat the command

When you keep repeating, “Brunoooooo… come… come.. here… come… come here… come…,” you’re in a way telling Bruno, “Hey Bruno, it’s okay if you don’t come to me in the first go. I’ll just say it again… n again… n again… and when you do come here, I’ll still give you the treat!!”

The recall command needs to be said once, loud and clear. If the dog is waiting to respond to it, use the leash to gently guide your dog towards you.

Apart from teaching dogs the basic recall command, it’s also important that they know the emergency recall.  It is to be used only in cases of emergency and is especially useful with dogs that are stubborn or not consistent with their usual recall word. Pethelpful.com has elaborated wonderfully on it here.

Recall can be a challenging, yet fun command to master with your dog. At times, it can be comparatively easier with Retriever breeds as they were bred to retrieve and come back to their humans. Terrier breeds and dogs who were bred to be gun dogs may take longer to achieve a decent recall. However, starting at a young age always helps.