Six tips to get your dog to come back to you when you call 

Also known as recall, having the confidence your dog will come back to you when you call is a vital dog training tool. It also offers the all important opportunity for you to keep your dog safe. 

So how do we teach recall? 

Build value in yourself.- Hand feed your dog all of their meals.  Whilst this may sound odd at first, doing this for a few weeks, will teach your dog to start associating that good things come from you rather then their food bowl. Recall is based on you’re engagement with your dog.

Build your reward systems – In order for your dog to come back at distance under high distractions they need to know you have cool stuff (food and toys), find out what your dog likes, experiment with high value and high quality treats, such as prime 100. If your dog prefers toys to food, accomodate this by finding and using your dogs favourite toy.

Start devaluing other stimuli – If you’re dog is crazy about other dogs, but not so crazy about spending time with you, then you might have to start depriving your dog of time playing with other dogs. Until you’re dog has a crazy desire to spend time with you over other stimuli you will have to do this.

Set your dog up to succeed – Don’t go from training your dog to recall in your garden then straight to a busy dog park. Instead think of recall like a level system (level 1 is garden no distractions, level 2 being garden high distractions, level 3 outside front of house no distractions). Gradually make it more difficult for your dog. Always have your dog on a long line, this will be your safety net until your dog will come back.

Patience is key – Rome wasn’t built in a day, having a high level of engagement with your dog and a lightening recall will take time, don’t rush the steps with your dog, have lots of fun!

Remember Repetition –  rinse and repeat, practice makes perfect, in order for a dog to generalise a command it takes a few thousand repetitions.

If you feel you need a little more assistance in recalling your dog, many of our In-home training sessions offer crate training.  Head over to our packages page for more info or to book.