Almost top of the wish list for every client who comes to CLEAR Dog Training is the same thing: “I want my dog to come when called.” It’s probably the single most important behaviour your dog will ever learn. And when your dog doesn’t come when called, it can be extremely frustrating — not to mention embarrassing.
Worse still, if your dog heads towards a road or another danger, frustration can quickly turn to fear. So how do you build a recall you can actually rely on?
Engagement comes first
Engagement is the number-one rule of early training. Before expecting a puppy to come away from something exciting, we want it to learn that Mum or Dad can be every bit as interesting as the world around them.
Part of that is managing or blocking behaviours you don’t want instead of becoming a nag. Don’t want your puppy peeing on the rug? If practicable, roll up the rugs until toilet training is established. Don’t give your puppy endless opportunities to practise the wrong thing and then spend your day saying no.
Instead, put your energy into building engagement. We start with simple games such as Freebie inside, then play them in the backyard, outside on lead and eventually on walks. Your puppy gradually learns that checking in with you pays.
That’s why engagement has such a high priority in our Foundation sessions. Trying to build a great recall without engagement is like trying to drive a car with no petrol. You can steer all you like, but you’re not going very far.
Stack the odds in your favour
When you first start recall training, aim for around a 95 per cent success rate. Call your puppy when you’re pretty certain it will come, reward generously and start building a long history of successful recalls. Don’t rely on the magic method: “Come, come, come, COME!” repeated 200 times in the hope that eventually your dog will respond. Your dog doesn’t automatically know it should come simply because it’s your dog and you’ve called it. Recall is a behaviour that has to be taught, practised and rewarded.
Begin inside with very few distractions. Then move into the backyard. Then perhaps the front yard on lead, a quiet street or a peaceful park. Only when the recall is working reliably at one level should you make things harder.
Don’t expect your puppy to leave a group of dogs at the park if it barely comes when called in the kitchen. Learn to walk before you try to run. Before calling, get into the habit of asking yourself: “Am I on a winner?” If your puppy is completely absorbed in something and you’re fairly sure it won’t respond, don’t call repeatedly and teach it that “Come” is optional. Go and collect it instead.
Make recall Party Central
When your dog hears its recall cue, you want an emotional response as well as a trained one: “Fantastic! I’m coming!” Food is often the easiest reward, particularly with puppies, but use whatever your dog genuinely values — praise, a toy, a quick game, a chance to sniff or permission to return to play. When your puppy turns its head towards you after hearing its name or recall cue, mark that first good decision with a happy “Yes!” before it even reaches you.
Reward voluntary check-ins too. If your dog is exploring on a walk and chooses to turn and look at you without being called, that’s gold. Pay it. You’re building a dog that wants to stay connected rather than one that remembers you exist only when you issue an instruction.
Most importantly, don’t always make recall mean the end of fun. Call your dog, reward it and often send it straight back to sniffing or playing. Coming back to you should be part of the fun, not the thing that ends it.
Put recall into your walks
You don’t need a special training session to practise recall. Some of the best opportunities happen during an ordinary walk.
Here’s one exercise we use regularly. Walk along with your puppy on lead and say its name. The moment it looks at you, give your recall cue and carefully reverse four or five steps, encouraging it towards you. As it reaches you, reward generously, then carry on with your walk.
It’s simple, it’s fun and it builds lots of successful repetitions without putting your puppy in a situation it isn’t ready to handle. Just make sure you’re somewhere flat and safe before marching backwards. As your dog improves, gradually practise around more interesting environments. We do a lot of this with our own competition dogs near dog parks and other distracting places. The dogs learn to notice all the exciting things happening around them while still engaging and responding to us — and because they’re on lead, we can safely reinforce or manage them when necessary.
Protect your recall with a Plan B
Recall should mean Party Central, so be careful not to poison it. If your puppy is doing something naughty, don’t call “Come!”, wait until it arrives and then tell it off. You also don’t want “Come!” to become the cue that always means something enjoyable is about to be taken away. You need another way of calmly getting hold of your dog without sacrificing your recall.
That’s why we teach a happy collar grab. Several times during the day, approach your puppy when nothing is wrong. “G’day, mate, what are you doing?” Gently take hold of the collar, give a treat and let go. Make being approached and held by the collar completely normal — and often rewarding.
Then, if your puppy is in the middle of trying to eat a toad, you have a Plan B. You can go and calmly take control rather than standing several metres away repeatedly calling “Come!” while your puppy practises ignoring you. Your recall is too valuable to waste on situations where you’re unlikely to get the response you want.
Test before you trust
Eventually you’ll want to know whether all that training will hold up when your dog thinks it’s free. Try the two-lead trick. Attach a lightweight long line as well as your ordinary lead and let the long line trail. In a suitable safe area, make a bit of a performance of unclipping the ordinary lead. Then watch.
Does your dog stay connected with you, or does it immediately think, “Woo-hoo!” and head towards the most exciting thing it can find?
Have another person ready to safely secure the trailing line if necessary. If your dog takes off, no drama. You’ve learnt something valuable without gambling with its safety. Back to the drawing board: it needs more practice around that level of distraction before it’s ready for off-lead freedom.
The aim isn’t to hope your dog is ready. It’s to find out before you bet its safety on it.
Think Snakes and Ladders
Think of recall training as Snakes and Ladders. Every successful recall takes you another step up the board. Your dog hears the cue, turns, comes back, gets rewarded and becomes more likely to do it again.
An unsuccessful recall sends you sliding back down a snake. That’s why good trainers protect their recall rather than constantly putting it to the test. Great recalls are built through hundreds of little wins over weeks, months and years. Stack enough of those wins together and eventually you have a dog that spins around and races back when called — because experience has taught it that coming back to you is almost always a very good deal.
CLEAR cheat sheet and top tips for success
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Engagement comes first. Be worth coming back to, reward check-ins and avoid becoming a nag.
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Stack the odds in your favour. Aim for successful recalls and gradually add distance, excitement and distractions.
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Make recall Party Central. Reward generously and sometimes send your dog straight back
