How to train a recall
2 min read
They come back in the garden and not in the park. They come back without other dogs around and not with them. This is not selective disobedience, it is a calculation, and you can act on both sides of it.
What your dog is weighing up
At every recall two things are balanced: what they gain by coming back, and what they lose by leaving what they were doing. A dog following a scent trail who hears their name is comparing an ordinary treat with fifteen minutes of olfactory information. The treat loses, and they are right.
Which means a recall is not trained by repeating the word. It is trained by changing what coming back is worth, and by picking the moments where the calculation favours you.
Measure before you start
Out of ten recalls in your garden, how many come back without you having to repeat? Then the same ten in a quiet park. Then thirty metres from another dog. You get three numbers, and those three numbers are your starting point.
Most owners work straight away in the hardest situation, the one that bothers them. It is also the one with the lowest success rate, so the one where the word is most often said with no effect.
The three mistakes that break a recall
Repeating. Every time the name is said with nothing following it, it loses a little value. A recall repeated five hundred times with no consequence is no longer information, it is background noise.
Recalling to end things. If the recall means the end of the walk, the lead and the way home nine times out of ten, your dog learns exactly what you are teaching. Recall often for nothing, and release them again.
Telling off the one who comes back. A dog who takes two minutes to return and gets a cold reception has learned that coming back late is expensive. Next time they will not come back faster, they will come back less.
Why the same exercise does not work on every dog
Two dogs who do not come back are not doing it for the same reason. One has a chase drive that takes over the moment a target moves, and with them you work on distance to the target before you work on the word. The other has low cooperation and comfortable independence: they hear you perfectly well, they simply do not find the offer interesting.
The first needs distance work on graded targets. The second needs coming back to be made worthwhile and predictable. Applying one dog method to the other produces nothing, and it is the most common cause of a recall that stalls after months of work.
The dimension involved: Cooperation
Cooperation and chase drive are two of the eight dimensions of the profile. Their two scores say which of the two recalls you have to work on, and in which order to take it.
Take the testThe test places your dog on the eight dimensions in four minutes. Archetype and profile free.