Training Recall in Dogs

Recall is one of the most basic and important things for any owner to teach their dog. Put simply, it is ensuring that your dog will always come back to you when it is called. Recall is an essential part of safe and responsible dog ownership, and must be mastered before allowing your dog off-leash in public. Fortunately, it is relatively simple to train using a dog’s natural psychology, and has been mastered by dogs and their owners around the world.

Recall is best viewed as an obedience command: when your dog hears you say its name, it understands that it must return to you at once. Having a strong foundational relationship critical to recall training, and will set you up for success here and in all other areas of obedience. Recall starts with your dog viewing you as its highest value resource. Unless your dog always wants to be spending time with you and is happy in your presence, then you will struggle to train its recall.

Training begins with you forming very strong positive associations between you and your dog. Start by initially ignoring your dog, then rewarding it with food or affection once it looks to you. When your dog knows to do this consistently, you can begin rewarding it when it comes to you on calling its name. By repeating this over and over, owners are building a positive association between the stimulus of calling their dog’s name, and the action of them returning on demand.

Recall training starts at home, and difficulty can be built by starting in one enclosed space before advancing across the house so a dog must pass through multiple rooms when returning to you on demand. Once a dog reliably returns when its name is called at home, it is time to move outside in more distracting and interesting environments. Long leads are most useful here, and allow you to build distance while ensuring that your dog does not run away. Once your dog has a reliable outdoor recall on a long lead, then you can progress to leash free recall, ideally initially in quiet areas with minimal distractions to proof the desired behaviour.

Always reward your dog when it returns to you, and never punish it when it does come. Punishing after successful recall effectively disincentivises this behaviour, as your dog is likely to form a negative association between you calling its name and it returning to you. You should never allow your dog to learn that there is an alternative to coming to you when called, and if you think your dog will ignore its name we recommend waiting until you have its attention, then recalling it.

As well as placing protection dogs with families around the UK, we offer a range of training packages for non-working pets. These include advanced residential obedience, as well as more basic training for new dog owners. To find out more, please email info@protectiondogs.co.uk.