Druidale German Shepherds and Spanish Water Dogs

Show dogs that work, working dogs that show

 

 Recall Training

The Lure Method

When the dog looks at you, give him a treat.  Take another treat and offer it to the dog, as he moves towards it draw the treat nearer to you so the dog has to move closer and, as he does so, say ‘Come’ (or whatever cue you want to use) and give him the treat.  Repeat, but move backwards while offering the dog the treat so he has to move further and treat.  When he has associated the cue ‘Come’ with moving to you to receive his treat, start to separate yourself further from your dog, then call him to ‘Come’ and reward him accordingly.

Four-Treats Method

With your dog standing in front of you and facing you (and you can lure him into this position), say ‘Come’ and give him a treat.  Repeat that twice more.  On the fourth time, when he’s eaten his treat, just step back one pace, say ‘Come’ and treat him for moving towards you.  Repeat this by stepping further away, so he has to walk further to come to you. 

With both these methods, you will start teaching this in a place where your dog is comfortable and there should ideally be few distractions.  Once your dog is responding to the offered treat as a lure (or bribe) it is important to fade the treat as the lure, and just offer the empty hand, but quickly give a treat from your other hand or pocket as soon as the dog makes any effort to move towards you.  Now the treat is no longer being used as a lure, but just as a reward, you can start to move the training of this behaviour to a different place, e.g. another room in the house or the garden, before moving on to a public place.  But remember when you move to a different location, especially when there may be stronger distractions, to go back to the beginning and use a treat as a lure again.

Round Robin Method

Two or three people in a small circle take it in turns to call the dog to them and to give him a treat.  Vary the order in which he goes to each person and begin to increase the size of the circle.  Once the dog understands this rewarding game, it can be moved to different locations.

New Cue Method

If your dog is already unreliable about coming back to a particular cue, it is advisable to start again with a brand new recall cue.  It could be a novel sound such as a couple of blasts on a whistle, which the dog hasn’t heard before.  This new sound is paired with a high value reward, such as blowing the whistle just before you put his dinner bowl on the floor.  Once the dog associates this unique sound with a highly desirable reinforcer, you can begin to vary the reward you give him for responding.  With this behaviour, always give your dog some valued reward, such as special treats which you carry with you, or play with his favourite toy, or enthusiastic verbal praise and physical fussing (NB it is only a reward if the dog wants it).

Clicker Method

The recall can be shaped using the clicker. When your dog looks at you, click and treat. The dog will come to you to receive its reward. If you wish to throw the treat rather than delivering it by hand, then stand with your legs apart and as the dog gets near to you, throw the treat through your legs. The next step in the shaping process is to click the dog for turning to look at you and taking one step towards you. As soon as the dog does so, click and treat. Gradually build on this until the dog is further away from you and there are more and more distractions present (work on distance and distractions separately). When you can predict that your dog is going to start running towards you, attach the cue. Click and treat correct responses.

Consistency

Personally, I always reward my dogs for coming when called. However, the value of the reward will depend on how good that recall was, what the distractions were and so on. Some days, they will get a ‘Good dog’, other days they may get roast chicken (particularly if they have just recalled off a running prey item like a rabbit or a deer). To me, the recall is the one exercise I can’t afford for the dog to turn round and say ‘No, not today’. I don’t tend to use my recall cue for ‘nasty’ things such as calling the dog for a bath or a name trim; generally I go and fetch the dog in those instances.

A word on multiple dogs 

As I have multiple dogs, I have a general recall cue that means I want the whole group to come to me when I call, not just a specific dog. This may be ‘Girls’ or ‘Boys’ depending on who I am walking. Sometimes we have recall races, where I will give the general recall cue and the first one back to me gets the best treat, the rest just get a good dog. This certainly helps to speed up the slower dogs or those whose recalls have got a little sloppy. 

Other tips

Its also a very good idea to call your dog several times on a walk NOT just when you want to put the lead on. Its very easy to teach the dog that a recall means ‘come to me and allow me to hold your collar’ and this avoids the dog to learning to come back and stop just outside of arm’s reach. Practise this several times on each walk. 

In the early stages try to avoid calling your dog when you know its not going to respond, such as when it has its head down a rabbit hole (if it’s a terrier!) or when its playing with another dog. These are distractions that can be worked with as the dog understands of the recall cue.  We need to set the dog up for success so that it doesn’t learn to ignore the recall cue. We want the dog to be so conditioned to the recall cue that it will come first call every single time! If the dog fails to come when called, go and fetch it! Don’t get angry or annoyed, just stroll over and take the dog by the collar and pop it back on the lead for a short while. Do a little bit of heelwork or some sits and downs, and once the dog is paying attention to you again, pop the lead off and give the dog a cue to go and play. Recall the dog fairly soon afterwards, reward and release to play. Basically what we are teaching the dog is that if it wants to be able to spend time playing, then it must come when called, first time. This is incorporating the Premack Principle into training. By making your walks interesting, with lots of recalls, games and training, your dog will find you much more interesting than the environment and you’ll find you have a dog that doesn’t really want to go away from you.

 

 

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