Recall: Why Every Dog Needs to Know It and How to Teach It
Recall or come when called is easily one of the most important cues a dog can learn. Unfortunately, it is also a skill that is widely undervalued by dog owners until their dog has an issue or an incident occurs. Teaching our dogs to return to us consistently when asked is a potentially life saving skill that is pretty easy to teach if you follow some simple rules. Are you ready? Let’s do this.
Cue words: choose wisely.
Choosing a word to use to call our dogs is really important but it can be a bit tricky! As humans, we tend to overuse words and this can be extremely confusing for our canine friends. When we choose a cue word for such a critical skill I tend to recommend picking a word or phrase that we don’t tend to say in our every day life. If the dog hears it’s cue word when we aren’t calling them, this can decrease the reliability of the cue later which can prove disastrous in a dangerous situation.
We also want to pick something that we can remember to say! Dogs don’t speak human language innately so we are responsible for teaching them what specific words and phrases mean. This gives a lot of options but can muddy the waters if we aren’t consistent in using the words. For example, “come” and “come here” are not the same cue for a dog. If we teach a dog that “come here” means stop what you are doing and run to me, they may or may not be able to understand that “come” means the same thing, especially in a distracting environment or a situation that we haven’t practiced in before.
May I have your attention please?
We need to make sure we get the dog’s attention before we call them so that we can retain the integrity of the recall cue. Since dogs do not speak English (or any other human language), when we repeat the cue it is very confusing for them. We want to avoid something that trainers call cue nagging. Cue nagging occurs when we repeat the verbal cue over and over in hopes and attempts to get the dog to perform the desired behavior. The problem with this occurs when we repeat the cue consistently, which is honestly really easy to do unintentionally. For example, if I ask our dog Tule to sit and she doesn’t, my next step might be to ask her again. “Sit Tule. Sit. Sit. Sit.” Tule eventually sits. However she does not understand that “sit” is a 3 letter word that means “butt on the ground”. If I repeat the cue consistently she can actually learn that “sit sit sit sit” means “butt on the ground”. This isn’t dangerous for all cues, but could mean the difference between life and death when we are calling a dog. Instead of repeating the cue, say your dog’s name to make sure you have their attention. You can say their name over and over if you need to. You can clap, you can stamp your feet, slap your thighs, baby talk to them, anything to seem more exciting and fun!
Never punish a dog for coming back to you.
No, really. This is extremely important. I cannot tell you how many people come to me with a harrowing tale of their dog getting loose and when the dog finally comes back to them, they yell at or spank the dog. I do not recommend these practices in general, but they are especially damaging in this context. The dog doesn’t understand that they were potentially in danger and that they are being fussed at for running away in the first place. Dogs understand punishers as a response to their last action. In this case, the last thing the dog did was run to its owner. She will think twice before coming back to her family in the future, and this could be very dangerous. In the early stages of learning especially, we need recall to be a happy, fun, wonderful game that our dog wins every single time we call her to us. If we occasionally punish our dog after she comes to us, she can and will learn to weigh their options before running to us. When we use our dog’s recall cue I want her to think, “Heck yes! We are doing this again!” as she races back to us as fast as she can.
The dog decides what is punishing, not us.
It is easy for us to understand that hitting a dog or scolding them are aversive, but punishers don’t have to be obvious to us. If the dog does not like the action then it is by definition, an aversive. I recommend that we don’t call a dog and do something that she doesn’t like. For example; if your dog doesn’t like having her nails trimmed, we don’t call her and trim her nails. In fact, a lot of animal husbandry acts are not very fun for dogs and can be scary or the dog can associate them with pain. These include: brushing, cleaning the ears, wiping the eyes, bathing, giving medications, etc. We sometimes have to do these things to our dogs, and we should try to associate them with something positive, but we NEVER want to do them after calling our dog. Especially in early stages of learning calling a dog and then performing an action that they do not enjoy can be devastating to our cue. At this point, recall is a wonderful, fun, happy game!
Hope these pro tips will help make teaching your dog the important skill of recall easier and more fun! Take your time and increase difficulty slowly and steadily for best results. Let me know how it goes. Happy training!