Teaching your dog to come back reliably is probably the most important thing you can teach your dog.

The more control you have over your dog the more freedom he can have!

Abcdogs offers a structured recall course made up of four lessons;
1. Assessment of your dog’s recall.
2. The theory of recall, how to teach it, motivating your dog. 
3. Long line work.
4. Recall training “in the field” .

please contact us to book your recall course

TEACHING THE “ELASTIC-BAND” RECALL.

Recall is a complex chain of behaviours and it requires a structured teaching programme that needs to be practiced and practiced and practiced.

It requires the dog to do 3 things;
1, STOP
2, FOCUS ON OWNER
3, RETURN TO OWNER.

Recall is a long term training exercise that takes months to achieve reliability.
Your dog should feel good about coming back when called – it should mean something nice is going to happen.

Never call your dog to you and then do something unpleasant like clip his nails or bath him.
Never scold your dog for poor recall – it’s your fault if he isn’t recalling well because you have failed to teach it properly.
Never call your dog repeatedly – you will teach him to ignore you.
Never call your dog and then do something unpleasant like clip nails or hose him down.

RECALL SHOULD BE A REWARDING EXPERIENCE.

What does good Recall depend on?
You – how much effort you are prepared to put in
Your dog – how attached he is already to you
The environment – some situations present huge challenges!

Recall is made up of four parts,
Signal

1. Response
2. Reinforcement
3. Distractions 

When to start?     

Start young; there is no time to waste!  Be brave have faith!!

Encourage puppy to follow you.  When he catches up with you reward him with soothing words and tasty treats.
Use mealtimes to play "follow me" around the house and in and out of the garden.

Begin to call your puppy to you at frequent times throughout the day, when he is busy, playing, sleeping, call him into the garden, call him in from the garden... keep practising.
Always reward him, be very generous , tasty morsels and games with a toy that has novelty value make yourself irresistible!!!

Once you have a puppy rushing to you in delighted expectation in your home you need to practice in the outside world.

Start young - VERY YOUNG! This is the optimum time to "set" a good recall. 
Take your dog out hungry; take very delicious treats and lots of them.

Go to a quiet place with no other dogs or people.
When puppy begins to wander play "follow me" by turning and walking away when puppy is distracted.
At some point puppy will look for you see you're not there and turn to find you. When he has spotted you and only when he is hurrying to you, open your arms and in a very happy voice start to call "puppy come" as he approaches.

Encourage him in with lots of "goooood puppy, goood puppy", he should
speed up to get to you.
When he gets to you be very very delighted, cuddle him and give him a large tasty treat.

THIS IS YOUR FIRST SUCCESSFUL RECALL!!!

Play with him as well. Try and remember you are creating happy connections in his puppy brain that coming when called is an exciting thing with something good at the end of it.

The idea is not just that the dog gets a reward for coming back but that the dog experiences real excitement when he hears his recall cue... being called back actually feels good!!!

Practice this in areas with no to low distractions.  Be erratic in your movements so that puppy has to keep an eye on you and hide sometimes. Keep your dog in sight but duck behind a tree or bush and let him experience a little anxiety when he looks up and finds himself all alone.

When he looks a bit worried call him and indicate where you are if he cannot place you by voice alone...he should hurtle towards you!!!!!

You can even take a small meal out in a bowl with you; get him to chase you so that he ends up "winning" his bowl of food. Think how focused dogs are when they see you pick up the food bowl and start to prepare your dogs meal.

When you go out practise all your obedience commands, make a walk an extension of what you do indoors, i.e. sometimes go for a proper walk.

Sometimes go out and have a training session, sometimes a grooming session, practice lead work on and off throughout a walk,,, try not teach puppy that the appearance of a lead means the end of fun....we all seen what I call the "six foot duck and divers", i.e. those dogs who dance about at arms reach from their owners when they are at the end of the walk.

Gradually build up the distractions until you can recall in busy woods etc. Set your dog up for success not failure.  Every time your dog ignores your recall he is learning to avoid coming back!

Recall rules

Never call your dog unless you are sure he will come, if you are not sure - go get him. Remember the “rule of two” ( call twice but no more).

Be prepared to practice recall throughout a dog's life to keep it "sharp".

NEVER scold or punish him for not coming back...this will ruin the good associations you have built up.
Reward fast responses from distractions with the highest value rewards. Reward slow or reluctant recalls with lower value treats but still reward even if it is just verbal praise and a stroke.

Get your dog to develop an attachment to a toy and game with you. Make sure this toy has real novelty value and the dog gets very excited in the presence of this toy (it must not be an every day toy… it won't have any value).

Be prepared to be versatile with rewards.  What a puppy finds high value at 13 weeks may not be what "rocks his world" at 6 months so be prepared to review rewards regularly.