DON’T MAKE “COME” A FOUR LETTER WORD.
Perhaps the most important behavior we can teach our dogs – and the most difficult one, teaching a reliable recall requires a lot of patience and hard work. We tend to only practice and use it in real life, in situations when we really need the dog to respond, and then we get upset if they don’t right away or if they blow us off entirely.
Now ask yourself: “when does the average dog owner usually call their dog?” When the dog is doing something they’re not supposed to do – something that is far more infinitely fun and rewarding than returning to their human.
Briefly put yourself in your pups shoes. Making an active choice to return to your human, who likely sounds upset at you, or continue to roll in this smelly dead animal? Keep playing with this dog or return to my person waving their arms at me? To make matters worse, the longer you put off returning the more frustrated and upset your human continues to sound and seem.
✰ REMEMBER: each time we ask our dog to come to us, we’re asking them to stop what they’re doing.
This cycle of lack of practice and building frustration is ultimately what often leads to “COME” becoming a four letter word to our pups! Instead of enthusiastically returning to us, our dogs begin to anticipate the coming to an end of the fun activity they have involved themselves in and may even take off in the opposite direction of us.
If we find this happening we may have a “poisoned cue.” This generally happens unintentionally and occurs when the cue either has an unclear meaning or takes on a negative association for the dog, so they ignore it. The quickest way to poison a cue is to overuse it by repeating the word over and over without your dog responding to its meaning.
There is of course another way to build this very important cue. By choosing instead to use positive reinforcement and conditioning our dogs to know that hearing the word “COME” actually translates to: “wonderful and amazing things are happening over here!”, we build excitement around the behavior of returning quickly to us to reap those wonderful things. Even if that “wonderful amazing thing” isn’t in actuality nearly as awesome as playing with that dog or perfuming oneself with dead critters.
By making sure that the consequences of coming are ALWAYS positive we can start to build this reliability. The second and most important step is to practice – a lot. Start with short-distance recalls in a low-distraction environment, such as a quiet room in your house, where you are by far the most exciting thing happening. Arm yourself with tasty, high value treats and enough energy to take on training before getting to work! By starting in an environment where our dogs have a high chance of success we can begin rewarding them right away for closing the gap between us and likewise begin to form that positive association with doing so, we can always get harder as we go!
BUT WHY DOES ANY OF THIS MATTER?
It’s simple really: safety. Having the ability to call your dog back to you can prevent a number of dangerous and life-threatening situations from being your next vet visit. Being hit by a car, running away, roaming off-trail, approaching an aggressive dog, rolling in decaying things, and interacting with wildlife, are just a few situations solid recall can help you avoid overall.
Not to mention all the smaller practical uses like calling your pup away from playing with another dog, a really interesting smell or even just to give them some good ol’ fashioned pets behind the ear.
NEED HELP GETTING STARTED?
To make sure all dogs have this important skill, we’ve designed a recall class especially for owners who want the benefit and hands-on understanding of teaching recall to their pooches. Our “ROCK THE RECALL” class uses simple and interactive games to teach your pup how to come back to you with enthusiasm built in. So not only does your dog learn how to come when called, but they also have plenty of fun while doing so, and you will too!
We also designed this class to be a short and manageable intensive class, focused on everything recall related for three 1 hour long sessions for three consecutive weeks. If you feel like you need help getting a grasp on this life saving cue, get in touch with us and join our class. We’re here to help!
