How to improve your dog’s recall?

There’s a few rules to always keep in mind when you’re doing your recall.

First, is that the recall is always highly rewarding. So use your dog’s best reward. That could be something really valuable like a meaty treat, a toy, a ball, a Frisbee, or something like that. Something the dog really, really loves. Another thing you can do is release the dog back to having fun as a reward. Don’t accidentally punish your dog by only calling them when you’re ready to put the lead on and go home if they’re having a ball running around somewhere.

The next rule with the recall is to set yourself up for success. To do this we always want to work using a long line until the dog is 100% reliable in that environment, and then we can start doing off lead recalls. So let’s have a look at how we would use the long line to improve our recall. We want to not worry about our excess line, just let it drag on the ground, whatever you’re not using. Let the dog go free, exploring, and practice calling them when they’re actually distracted. Don’t always get them to stay and then call them; Because when we need to call our dogs the most, it’s usually when they’re distracted and doing other things. Let the line sort of flow between your hands.

Wait ’til the dog’s not looking at you.

If your dog’s coming in really quick, you might not get the line all the way in, but try and reel it in as a habit, because the whole reason that we have this on is because it’s like your training wheels, it’s your step between on lead and off lead work. It’s there as a backup to make sure that you can make sure that the dog comes to you when they’re the called, the first time every time.

Don’t repeat your command over and over. One command and then make it happen.